Hendon Rugby Club already know what it will take if they are to be the ones celebrating promotion next season – consistency.

The 78-14 loss at home to Old Streetonians confirmed the Hackney-based side’s return to London North West Three.

Results elsewhere also confirmed that Hendon would remain in Herts Middlesex One for next year.

However, captain Cian Hynes believes there is only one thing stopping Hendon from following Old Street’s lead.

He said: “The nature of us this year is that we have been inconsistent.

“It’s very obvious when you see the likes of Old Streetonians, Royston and Verulamians that they’re not a million miles away. It’s just you can see they have that commitment and they train more regularly and have that better cohesion as a unit than us at the minute.

“Our main goal at the end of the last season was to get promoted and our main goal at the start of this season was to stay up, which we’ve done.

“We have shown in flashes what we’re capable of, that when we get a full team out and when we have the right spirit, we play well and more often than not we tend to win.

“It’s just getting that consistency going and so we’ll have a look in the off-season and come back next year with a better unit.”

There was plenty for Hendon to be happy with, despite the heavy defeat on Saturday.

They had just as much possession as their high-flying opponents and in good areas too, and scored two well-worked tries through Toby Ikwueke.

They weren’t helped though by coughing up the ball too often, turnovers which more often than not led to an Old Street break and score.

And having started the game with only the bare minimum players, injuries took their toll, with Hynes one of those forced to come off.

He added: “Losing players early and the nature of availability this week meant we only had 15 to start with. And I only got 40 minutes in before hurting my shoulder so it didn’t help.”

They will look to patch as many up as possible ahead of their final league game at UCSOB on Saturday, a game with big consequences at the other end of the table.

UCSOB go into the match bottom, in the one and only relegation spot, and may have to win to stand any chance of staying up.