Southgate's stay at the top of Division One South proved to be short lived as they were beaten 4-1 at a more clinical Sevenoaks side on Saturday.

The visitors' second defeat of the season saw them slip to third place in the table, two points behind new leaders Oxted.

Southgate started brightly and opened the scoring in the seventh minute after Richard Potton had made an initial save from a Jonny Maunder penalty corner, but Giulio Ferrini was on had to put the rebound away on his second attempt.

The away side proceeded to dominate the first quarter, however Sevenoaks earned a disputed penalty corner at the end of the period, which was subsequently converted by Andrew Ross to level the scores.

The second quarter saw the home side on top as Southgate were guilty of turning the ball over cheaply, but there were few chances for either side with the half ending all-square at 1-1.

Sevenoaks went ahead two minutes into the second half when Southgate keeper Chris Rae had made the initial save from Ross, deflecting the ball into the air, only to see the Sevenoaks player fire the rebound into the goal.

Thereafter Southgate again dominated the match, putting Sevenoaks under considerable pressure, but they were unable to capitalise. Alex Williams went the closest when his upright reverse shot cannoned back off the post to safety.

Jason Bigara extended the home side's lead to 3-1 with a well-worked goal in the fourth quarter, before both sides lost players to the sin-bin.

While Sevenoaks were down to nine, Southgate were forced to roll the dice in search of a goal and substitute off Rae in goal to give a three-man outfield advantage.

However, by this stage nothing was going their way and an aerial ball caught the Southgate defence out, allowing Warrington to fire the ball into the empty goal in the last minute to make it 4-1.

Southgate now face a tricky match at home against Bath Buccaneers on Sunday.