There were distinctly mixed emotions for Gosport & Fareham, who claimed an excellent away-day point at Lewes but were disappointed not to have taken both in their battle against relegation from London Division Two South.

Having finally been able to select a full strength squad, the real Gosport side showed their colours and were ahead after just three minutes when winger Neil Evans crossed.

It was short-lived, however. A fortunate bounce allowed Evans's opposite number to go over.

The home side were having much the better for the first half, adding a second try, but Dane Smallbone cut the arrears just before half-time before the visitors went into overdrive ahead of the interval whistle.

With Lewes down to 14 men, prop Jon Ward rumbled over from close range in injury time and hooker Mark Osborne followed it up after James Barnes's excellent break from his 22 to score, giving Gosport a surprise 20-13 lead.

A controversial reply from Lewes immediately on the restart sliced the lead back to two points but Smallbone made amends for his earlier miss with a penalty. However, the scores were levelled when Lewes scored in the final quarter.

Although Gosport dominated the late stages, the draw seemed the fair result although coach Sean Fanning was dejected at leaving a point behind.

"I thought it was more a game we threw away when we might have won, although Lewes would probably say the same thing because they missed a few easy kicks," he said.

"We feel we have lost a point but in the end we have come away with a valuable away point against fifth in the table."

Portsmouth stay top but they were given a scare by Old Mid-Whitgiftian before clinching the 13-11 victory that staves off the challenge of Barnes in second.

It was a miserable restart for Havant, who hold onto sixth place in National Three South but are firmly back in the uncomfortable mix of clubs all fighting against the drop.

They were woeful in their 30-10 defeat at Hertford, piling on mistake after mistake and gifting the home side, who started the day second from bottom, five tries. Only an off-day with the boot save them from further embarrassment.

South African Nick Cooper scored Havant's only try, keeping the game close early in the second half, but it was a shocking performance and director of rugby Adam King pulled no punches in his criticism.

"This is a setback to our ambition, not just because we lost but in the way it happened," he said. "We must seriously look at ourselves to understand why we are unable to replicate home performances on our travels."