A freak try saw Whitchurch slump to a 16-11 defeat at home to Wilmslow as their strong North 2 West run came to a juddering halt.
The Reds had gone 10 games without defeat before they were beaten in the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup last weekend.
But they made it back-to-back losses against a Wilmslow side struggling at the wrong end of the table.
The decisive moment came with less than 10 minutes of normal time remaining, when a Wilmslow penalty kick came back off the posts and straight into the arms of a surprised Adam Wagster, who was able to dive over.
That left a simple conversion opportunity to complete the scoring and deny Whitchurch a victory that would have kept them in third place.
Wilmslow had earlier gone ahead with two early penalties, but the north Shropshire side had responded with a try off a lineout from openside wing forward Ed Carter and a penalty of their own from Mike Swetman.
Centre Swetman then kicked another penalty after the break before the late try drama turned the game on its head.
“It was a very unfortunate day,” said club president John Gregory. “We were missing a few regulars like Tom Pemberton, Russell Lear, Phil Mullock and Tom Hares.
“The lads who came in are only youngsters. They did extremely well but we were probably a little below what we have been.”
Luctonians slipped back in to the Midlands 1 relegation zone when they went down to Longton.
They had beaten Longton at Mortimer Park a month ago but the Staffordshire club took revenge with a 14- 11 victory on their own ground.
Longton’s victory lifted them above Luctonians who are now third from bottom - level on points with Walsall and Market Bosworth, who are both below them in the division.
Charlie Meredith scored Luctonians’ try in the corner with Jeremy Wheadon converting two first half penalties.
But with 10 minutes remaining winger Guy Davenport looked to have scored a second try for the Lucs, only for it to be disallowed.
“The decision cost us dearly because we had all thought we had scored which would have won the game for us,” said spokesman Robin East.
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