The current North Walsham Vikings squad comprises a bunch of guys who now have a tangible self belief and incredible team spirit, and no longer are they the pushovers of three months ago.

The current North Walsham Vikings squad comprises a bunch of guys who now have a tangible self belief and incredible team spirit, and no longer are they the pushovers of three months ago.

No wonder then that they and their supporters were shattered when the visitors London Scottish made their second and winning touchdown with just two minutes left to win 17-12.

So, after 80 minutes hard graft and two of the best tries seen this season from Andy Thorpe, they had just a single losing bonus point to show. But it could all have been different if they had won more of their own line-out ball.

Once again Walsham were slow to get going and were subjected to a serious examination in the art of defending. But just when it seemed that they would pass the test, Scottish skipper Alex Alesbrook rolled through a tackle to score and Chris Micklewood converted.

When the ball was shipped wide the tackling by both back row and centres was uncompromising and the line remained unthreatened.

Walsham were winning their share of turnover ball and with just a couple of minutes of the half remaining they did so to good effect. Adam Gowen swept the ball out to Rob Clymer and with Thorpe outside him the centre sprinted goalwards, the ball was swapped in textbook fashion a couple of times before Thorpe scorched round behind the goal to touch down. Dermody levelled the scores.

Two minutes into the second half Walsham took the lead. This time a line-out worked. Jason Applin broke the line, Adam Gowen shrugged off a couple of tackles before throwing a wide pass to Thorpe. Despite a couple of despairing attempts to bring him down the Vikings skipper was home and dry, but the try went unconverted.

By the end of the third quarter, Micklewood slotted a drop goal. By the final 15 minutes an increasingly tired Walsham were playing on reserves of energy under serious pressure.

Micklewood narrowly failed with a penalty attempt but then, in the final couple of minutes, came the killer blow. Winger Charles Broughton put a neat little grubber kick past Gowen and followed up to touch down. Micklewood made it safe with the conversion.

North Walsham Raiders lost to Diss 30-7.

This Woodeforde's Norfolk Cup match was dominated by the Diss pack, which included three former Vikings players with National League experience. However the young Raiders team, with a few older heads lending their experience, never stopped tackling and attempted to run the ball whenever possible.

Shortly before half-time Raiders winger Cross broke clear, followed his kick ahead and won the race to score behind the posts for 7-10 at half-time.

The young Raiders side will take comfort from this keenly contested match in which they showed a strong defence.