Sutton & Epsom’s disastrous start to the season continued with a third straight defeat in London One but, on Saturday, they came close to upsetting the formbook with only a late breakaway try winning it for third-placed Beckenham.

With James Bennett back in the side at Hooker they had formidable go forward power despite his coming close to a record yellow card, being sent to the sin bin after only 30 seconds.

Simon Green at fly half also had a rock solid game and with Lyndon Burrell and Andy Nicholls on the wings the defence around the outside was much better balanced.

New boy centre Sam Hurley also proved to be a great find strong in defence and hard running he scored Sutton’s opening try.

Sutton’s pack with huge props Jamie Pearson and Gary Nash to the fore dominated set piece and Felix Symonds in particular had a superb game in open play moving from lock to flanker in the second half.

Beckenham dominated exchanges in the first half with Sutton winning very little possession and having a tendency to either lose the ball or kick it away when they did gain it.

However Sutton’s defence was heroic and despite all their possession the visitors did not cross Sutton’s line until the 22nd minute when they, having shown great patience and ball handling skills, created an overlap on the left and a perfectly timed pass put left wing Ted Mahutaraki over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Eventually a series of close passes and good handling saw the Kent sides right wing Laurence Headlam cross wide on the right for another unconverted try.

Sutton then lost wing Lyndon Burrell for 10 minutes to the sin bin and Beckenham mounted an attack down the right.

They appeared to have knocked on but no whistle came so scrum half Luke Harding scooped up the loose ball and scored midway to the posts. Again the try went unconverted.

Bennett’s huge break out of defence saw Sutton cross halfway and some deft handling was finished off when new centre Sam Hurley dived over wide on the left for an unconverted try. At half time the visitors led 5-15.

Beckenham took the game back to Sutton after the break and a try for them looked inevitable especially when a huge knock on by one of their players was missed by an unsighted referee but just as they seemed to be about to score Sutton’s full back Louis Parker intercepted the scoring pass and sprinted the 90 metres to score next to the posts.

Fly half Simon Green converted and Sutton were just three points behind. A few minutes later they levelled the score when Green kicked a penalty.

Sutton smelt a victory and pinned Beckenham back but when they lost possession on halfway the visitor’s centre Vai Mahutaraki broke through two tackles and put his brother winger Ted Mahutaraki over under the posts.

Sutton came back with great determination but could not conjure up a score but at least they gained their first losing bonus point.

Sutton visit Chichester this Saturday (2.45pm).