Beckenham travelled to Maidstone on the back of two promising home performances and came away with their second away win of the season with a less than convincing 13 to 21 victory. Beckenham have lost two at home over the last fortnight but the performances have been encouraging against the top teams. However, this error ridden display was one to forget as the home side could easily have stolen this at the death.

Maidstone started brightly and put Beckenham under pressure from the off, but all they had to show for it was a penalty after 15 minutes. It took Beckenham a little while to get into the game and following a scrum in the middle of the park, Paul Currie broke up the blindside and fed Julian Rogers who linked beautifully with James Perry. Perry spotted Gareth Howell who cut a beautiful line to split open the defence and score a blistering unconverted try.

The lead was short lived as the home side charged down an attempted Rogers clearance and scored out on the right, the fine conversion giving them the lead by 10 to 5. Jack Forrest started to find his range and two penalties gave Beckenham the lead before another indiscretion gave the home side the chance to take the half time lead by 13 to 11.

The visitors dominated the second half but were unable to put the possession into points and whenever they built momentum they would immediately give it back through a series of penalties, knock-ons and needless turnovers. One such period of pressure did bring success after the forwards took the ball on and skipper Andy Glason finished off a fine move when he spotted a gap and cantered in near the posts, the Forrest conversion giving Beckenham a five point lead.

The home side knew this was not enough and went on the attack but were frustrated by a fine Beckenham defence in particular Pete Isaacs, Alex Jones and the ever busy Pete Thorne who prominent in both attack and defence. Beckenham, through Paul Roumph and Paul Godding, were also dominating the home side’s lineout and this gave this made it extremely difficult for Maidstone to gain any real momentum.

Beckenham had the last say when Perry effectively made the game safe when he slotted over a penalty from close in to leave the final score at 13 to 21 to the visitors. Beckenham fans were delighted to see another of our youth team graduates, Patrick Hooton, made his league debut, one of many more we hope to see this season.

The two points away from home were very welcome for Beckenham, but they will have realised that they will have to up their game if they are going to move up in this league.