After last week's stirring comeback at home to Tonbridge Invita III, Prime faced perenial bogey team Rusthall IV at Cadogan - eager to reverse their previous 2 defeats to The Rustics earlier this season.

Prime's chances were not helped by the absence of top-scorer Joe Walker and midfielder Pavel Polinski. They joined an ever-lengthening list of absentees including Matt Walker, Mazurkiewicz and Gilbert.

Matt Brabon was signed on to fill in for Walker up front and Tim Flamank made a welcome return from University for the weekend, but Barnham and Sander were preferred in the starting XI down the right flank.

Prime started in sleepy fashion and Rusthall were penning them in their half. That was until the 5 minute mark when a massive goal-kick by Kerton sailed over the Rusthall backline and Brabon's electric pace got him to the ball before the keeper and he calmly slotted home from an acute angle. Not a bad start to his Prime career!

The goal did not really change the flow of the game though and Rusthall continued to dominate with copious space given to their left winger with Sander and Barnham at sixes and sevens.

They got a deserved equaliser on 10 minutes when an outswinging corner was met by their midfielder on the edge of the box and his downward header was diverted into the net by their striker, with Kerton wrong-footed.

Soon after it was 2-1 as a cross was half-cleared and some poor Prime marking left the Rusthall striker with a tap-in.

This goal did at least seem to shake Prime into life. Walters and Abu started to get a grip on the midfield and Henshall was proving to be a dangerous outlet on the left. The Excell and Brabon partnership up front was looking promising, with Excell coming short and pulling the strings with Brabon's pace a constant threat on the shoulder of the last man.

Prime's leveller came after 25 minutes when Parsons' long free-kick was nodded down by Excell and Henshall lashed home an unstoppable 20-yard volley with his left foot that left the keeper rooted to the spot.

Prime's defence was now looking much more solid with Ellis finding his feet in an unfamiliar centre-back slot and Barnham making his presence felt with some strong tackles. Davis' experience at left-back was proving too much for Rusthall's young winger who barely got a kick all half and certainly never got past his man.

At the break Prime considered themselves lucky to be level, but the last 20 minutes had been a vast improvement.

The second half started with Rusthall still in the ascendancy - making a mockery of their lowly league position. Barnham was replaced 10 minutes into the half to give Flamank a run out at right back.

Soon after though, Rusthall got their noses back in front in contraversial circumstances. A long ball from the back was flicked on by the Rustics striker for his strike partner who was a yard offside when the flick-on came. Goldsmith's flag went up but the ref played on. Prime's defence smuggled the ball behind for a corner but typically from the corner, Walters went to clear but only succeeded in slicing the ball into his own net.

Goldsmith threw himself on with 20 minutes to go for the stricken Sander who was the victim of a strong tackle early in the half.

The Numbers also sent Parsons and the increasingly impressive Ellis forward to push for a leveller, but despite a flurry of long throws from Goldsmith, Rusthall kept them out.

Their only real chance of the closing stages came when Goldsmith found himself in space in the box, but his angled volley was well blocked by Rusthall's young centre-back - who himself excelled during the game.

The final whistle sounded soon after and Rusthall's hoodoo over Prime went on.