WARLINGHAM skipper Zack King was left a frustrated figure for the second week running as his side crashed to a defeat away at Deal & Betteshanger on Saturday.
King had labelled the opposition as Warlingham's 'bogey team', and that proved the case again as his team failed to come storming out of the traps from kick-off.
"We just didn't turn up in the first half and we were terrible," he said. "We got to Deal in plenty of time and we warmed up well, but we found ourselves 15 points down at half-time.
"And with the wind against you, you're asking a lot to come back from that sadly. But we actually played really well in the second half and much better, but you can't give teams a head start.
"Our tackling was terrible, we were off the ball and off the pace – we just didn't look like we wanted it."
And the hosts are not a side to take lightly either, according to King, who had two players drop out in the 24 hours prior to the match.
"Deal is a tough place to go, make no mistake about it," he added. "They may be below us in the table but they're no bad outfit. It's small pitch, it's cold and wet at this time of year, and they play to those conditions – it surprises me every year that they do not do better.
"I don't want to use excuses but we had some players missing. We lost our second row on the Friday to illness, and we went down there with just 16 men in the end, so it wasn't ideal. And I had someone pull out on Saturday morning just hours before the game."
King believes that one win could spark a run of form for Warlingham, however, and believes his players up their performance levels against the better sides.
"The thing I find particularly frustrating is when the momentum is with us, we're a great side," he said. "Momentum in any sport is huge, but we seem to be a victim of it at the moment. When things are going our way, we look like world-beaters, but when things go against us, we're not good enough of turning it around. We seem to have the ability to play much, much better against the top teams. Every time we've played a top side, we've pretty much come out on top, or if we haven't, we've been really close.
"It's frustrating because we haven't put in a solid 80-minute performance for quite a while now." And the captain admitted he doesn't think this weekend's trip to third-placed Lewes will go ahead due to the weather.
"We've got an exceptionally tough trip to Lewes, weather permitting, which I doubt it will," he said. "I've checked the forecast and it's expected to be minus-three degrees. It will be a tough game, but we battered them at our place. That sums our team up really."
