The old adage of ‘it never rains but it pours’ would have had Verulamians supporters nodding sagely as they suffered a 66-12 loss away to Old Merchant Taylors’.

Vees may be struggling in the league but the battling side had taken the lead inside the opening 10 minutes of the game thanks to a forward effort that saw Joe Baker go over for the score and Jim McCormack add the extras.

But with their tails up Vees were brought crashing down to earth when they were reduced to 14 men when one of their players went off with dislocated fingers.

The 14 battled gainfully on with some heroic, last-ditch tackling by Louis Grimer, Tim Fretter and Darren Westhead, but they headed into the break trailing 33-7.

And things went from bad to worse with a red card for dissent reducing them to 13.

They did score a second try, Baker again, but despite a monumental display of grit there was to be no miracle.

They host Cheshunt on Saturday.