Gordonians were beaten on their own ground by a Hamilton Bulls side who coped better with the appalling, wet conditions.
The Countesswells men paid the price after failing to take chances when playing with a strong wind at their backs in the first half.
Home coach James Greenwood had no complaints about the 20-8 defeat.
He said: “Hamilton took their scoring opportunities while we had a long spell of domination in which we could have put the game to bed but failed to make our territorial advantage count.
“Considering the dreadful weather it was not a bad game of rugby.”
Gordonians stormed into an early two minute lead when stand-off Alex Fraser kicked a straightforward penalty and with the wind at their backs looked set to dominate.
This they did but faced with some stern brave Hamilton defending were unable to breach the visitors line until a minute before half time when No 8 Finlay Lennox surged over in the corner for a fine try.
Fraser was unable to add the extras, giving the home side the most slender of 8-0 leads to defend in the second half.
Hamilton did not disappoint and in the space of two minutes of the restart had reduced the deficit to one point after winger Ryan Burrell burst over near the posts, giving stand-off Owen McLeish the easiest of kicks.
Hamilton continued to press, gaining their reward through two penalties from McLeish to make it 13-8 going into the final 10 minutes during which the home side took the play to the Lanarkshire side’s line, only to be denied by some stout defending.
In the closing minute Hamilton ended the game as a contest when winger Ross Inglis dived over, leaving the excellent McLeish to finish the job, even if the margin of the victory flattered the visitors.
Up in Inverness, Highland were less than convincing in their narrow 19-15 win over Dundee High, but had enough in the tank to claim a third win in a row.
Head coach Dave Carson said: “We were not at our best but a win is a win, even if it was an ugly one but we are making progress up National League 1.
“With two more games at home in the next two weeks can improve our situation even more.
“Dundee came back at us in the second half and I was pleased at the way in which we held them off.
“I was particularly pleased with the performances of Erem Demeril and Stuart McDonald in the forwards and Andriu Murikoti in the backs, but thought we left tries out there in the first half.”
Highland led 14-6 at the break through tries from Roko Rokoduguni and Murikoti, both converted by Scott Fraser.
In the second half the Canal Park side could only add an unconverted try, touched down by Fraser, but were not helped by having two players binned in the latter stages of the game.
The Dundee points came from five penalties.
