Blues beaten but can hold their heads high

Player-coach Mal Graves hailed his team's resolve after they were beaten at home in Kent 1 by southwark Lancers on Saturday.

The visitors looked odds on for a comfortable win after opening up a commanding half-time lead but the Blues stormed back scoring four tries to secure a losing bonus point.

Graves described Lancers as the best side Whitstable have faced so far and he said the fact that his players went toe-to-toe with them for long periods bodes well for the rest of the season.

He Said: "They were a decent outfit, with a good offloading game and some big ball carries.

They looked to keep the ball alive which meant we had to defend for multiple phases which in the the i've been here (as coach) we have not had to do too often.

Some of the tackling was fantastic, which was pleasing because it's been an area which has not been brilliant so far this season.

other side would definitely have shipped more points than we did.

I was proud of the boys. it may have been a defeat but there were lots of positive to take."

Southwark had won two of their previous three matches and dominated possession in the first 40 minutes.

Whitstable stuck to their funds to limit the damage but still found themselves 19-0 down at the break.

The Blues opted to take the game to their opponents in the second half and were rewarded when skipper Ben Cliff wit over for their first try.

A second followed 10 minutes later from Andy Newman and in a rousing finale, Marck Oliv and Cameron Fry both went over in the dying moments.

Andrew Huey added a conversion to complete the scoring.

Luke Bowers, at 12 had an outstanding game and Graves was also please with the performance of 20 year old No.8 George Lowe, who he said 'Punched above his weight.'

He said:" We said at half-time let's have a go in the second half and we hit them straight away. The pleasing thing was how ruthless we were, which was not always the case in the past.

We must have only had five or six chances and we took four of them"

Whitstable travel to unbeaten leaders Ashford on Saturday and Graves is hopeful forward due Rob Hudson and Marc Harris can return after picking up injuries in the opening game if the season.

Match report credit to KM group.