East Peckham 24
Maidstone IV 0
The prospect of travelling to East Peckham was causing some concern before we left the club house. EP are a well drilled team with some dynamic backs and the memories of the early season rout was at the front of many’s minds.
Things were not helped as we lost three key players within 24 hours of KO to higher teams. I hope the Mustangs received a big boost from the players.
Great spirit was shown by a number of 5th team regulars who stepped into the breach, none of whom looked out of place in the 4th team and I look forward to integrating these committed players as the season progresses.
Maidstone started the game on the offensive competing well at the breakdown and putting pressure on EP players causing many mistakes. EPs fitter, larger players were no match for the committed Maidstone performance as we held EP for the first 20 minutes at zero all and a number of times drove the near table toppers way back into their own half. Staples missed the chance to put Maidstone ahead with a poor penalty kick.
As the first half progressed ill discipline lead to a number of EP penalties around the Maidstone 22, the over exuberance made the score 12 nil at half time as Staples missed his second shot at the posts.
The second half saw a great display from the scratch Maidstone team, with fantastic displays at the breakdown from DJ, and some strong running from Andy West and Ollie Coomber. It was EP who began showing ill discipline however all the penalties were in Maidstone 22. As the game approached the end, Maidstone kept competing better than I have seen the 4th team do all season, and it was a shame to see EP score a couple of break away tries. Credit is due to EP however, as they did put together a number of great plays and you cannot be too upset when the sort of tries they scored today means you are on the losing team.
Thanks go to Scott Andrews, Ben Foskett and Mike Gammon, and it was good to see Andy Staples come off the bench to play his first game for over a year on his road back from injury. Talking of injuries Andrew Brown suffered a KO after one of his trademark kamikaze tackles stopped both EPs progression but also his own, we all wish him a speedy recovery.
I must say I was impressed with Ollie Coomber’s contribution today, more than holding his own against a prop 3 times his size and it was equally good to see his improvements this season in the loose – therefore he gets my Man of the Match today.
Gillingham next week, if we demonstrate the same spirit as we showed today we will definitely reverse the tight lose earlier in the season….
