Canterbury’s slipped into the National 2 South relegation zone after a 20-12 defeat at home to Worthing at Merton Lane on Saturday.

It was a fourth straight defeat for Andy Pratt’s men and the city club have now won just two of their last 10 games, leaving them two points from safety.

More worryingly, Canterbury are pointless in their past four games and have lost two on the spin at their traditional stronghold off Nackington Road.

A late try robbed Canterbury of a losing consolation point despite a battling second-half showing in atrocious weather against in-form opponents who had beaten the top-two in their previous two games.

The visitors claimed a 13-0 lead shortly before the break courtesy of two penalties. both for offside, kicked by Matt McLean, who also converted after the hosts conceded a free kick at a lineout, which led to a neat pass which freed centre Ben Loosmore to touch down.

A Sam Rogers interception denied the hosts another score while the home side could not capitalise on a yellow card for wing Harry Forrest.

It was only late in the first-half that the tide began to turn and the city club hauled them back into the match, with a fine cover tackle needed to deny Mason Rosvall a try.

The city club did however reduce the arrears before the turnaround with a fine drive from a scrum with Grant Kay’s inside pass sending Rogers over to score with Tom Best adding the extras.

After the interval Best saw a penalty come back off the woodwork but the returning Charlie Harding marked his first city club appearance for a year with a clinical break and pass for Rosvall to score.

The conversion, which would have given Canterbury a 14-13 advantage, missed, and there was no further scoring until deep into eight minutes of added time at the end when lock Charlie McGowan went over after an overthrown lineout, with McLean’s conversion denying the club a losing bonus point.