A combination of injuries and involvement in national competitions saw Victoria Park and Tower Hamlets seven-match winning streak come to an end

A combination of injuries and involvement in national competitions saw Victoria Park and Tower Hamlets' seven-match winning streak come to an end at Ashford, Kent on Saturday.

The East London club entered the Southern League meeting top of the Division One table and in search of an eighth straight win after opening the current season with four successive triumphs.

But Victoria Park, who closed the previous campaign with three wins in a row to earn promotion to Division One, were condemned to a first reversal of the season after finishing four points behind host club Ashford's total of 129 points.

The outcome has also knocked Victoria Park off the summit in the overall standings after Portsmouth AC climbed to top spot on 645 points, five ahead of the East London outfit.

An outstanding sprint double by Nigerian sprinter Pato Bangura was the highlight of the Victoria Park and Tower Hamlets' display.

Bangura prevailed in the 100m in 10.8secs and claimed victory in the 200m in 22.3secs, before running the final leg for the victorious 4x100m relay team, which also included Abdul Buhari, Tunde Balogun and Victor Ade-Davis and stormed home in 43.1secs.

Sam Sillah underlined his value to the club with another outstanding display of versatility, collecting points in six different events, including a quartet of wins in the high jump (1.95m), 110m hurdles (16.1secs) and B-string triple jump (12.72m) and javelin (43.98m).

Baddar Echakhch also impressed by taking part in five events, winning the javelin (51.32m) and coming second in the pole vault (3.60m), while Dave Alcock was an impressive winner of the 5,000m in 15mins 42.3secs ahead of team-mate Paul Martelletti (16mins 1.4secs).