A try in the final minutes left Canterbury pointless and still searching for the victory that has now eluded them in the last five games.

It was tough on a city side whose battling second half revival deserved something better in a pulsating game which rose above the filthy weather conditions.

In their last two outings Worthing took the scalps of the league’s leading clubs and that confidence was reflected in the thirteen point lead they built lead in a dominant first half hour.

Monopolising possession and territory and handling confidently they looked every inch potential winners. Few would have predicted then that the game would enter the closing stages with only one point between the sides.

It took a supreme and organised defensive effort to keep the visitors in check and Canterbury can be proud of the way they coped.

Worthing scores came via two penalty goals, both for offside, kicked by Matt McLean and when the city club put themselves under pressure by conceding a free kick at a lineout it cost them more points. A neat wrap round pass created a try for centre Ben Loosmore which Mclean converted.

There were other close calls, notably when hooker Sam Rogers pulled off an interception to thwart a dangerous situation, and not even a yellow card for visiting wing Harry Forrest brought immediate relief.

Until the closing ten minutes of the half Worthing’s 22 metre area had been foreign territory to the city players but the tide began to turn. They established their first real attacking position and, despite that earlier battering, hauled themselves back into the match.

They were made to work hard for openings but a fine cover tackle which stopped wing Mason Rosvall from crossing the line only delayed a score.

Canterbury drove hard off the back of a scrum, Grant Kay’s inside pass saw Rogers make the touchdown and Tom Best convert.

It brought a self belief that carried into the second half and it was now the city club’s turn to dictate. When they won a penalty Best’s kick bounced off a post but a sliced clearance kept them in the right area and centre Charlie Harding marked his first appearance for twelve months with a clinical break and pass that gave Rosvall the try.

The conversion, from wide out, was unsuccessful but now there was only a single point in it and that is the way things stayed until those fateful final minutes. The game, punctuated by injury stoppages which reflected the physical commitment of both sides, went into eight minutes of added time and Worthing, sensing their chance, regained the initiative.

They fed off too many small Canterbury mistakes and when an overthrown lineout handed them possession they punished it with the decisive score, a close quarter try from lock Charlie McGowan.

McLean’s simple conversion denied the city club a losing bonus point, leaving them only with justifiable pride in the way they had picked themselves up.

Canterbury: M.Beaumont, R.Mackintosh, C.Horey, A.Veale (repl C.Harding), M.Rosvall, T.Best, G.Kay (repl A.Moss), R.McLeod, S.Rogers (repl N.Wakefield), A,.Wake-Smith (repl S.Kenny), R.Cadman, C.Hinkins (repl R.Ward), A.Cathcart, T.Sherson, G.Micans