Maidstone left it awfully late to complete this narrow, 18-14, win over local rivals, Sevenoaks, when, once again, the game should have been sewed up in the first half.

The home side shunned multiple chances as passes were dropped and wrong options were taken. As Sevenoaks drew heart from their good fortune, so Maidstone became increasingly frantic and with the game well into added time, the visitors looked the likely winners. Only a last minute rally and a superb team try, rounded off by Neil Graves, provided the winning touch and the victory points to maintain Maidstone’s chances of reaching the promotion play-off position.

After last week’s convincing victory at Heathfield, both Luke Debnam and Matt Vickers retained their positions in the front and back rows of the scrum, leaving ever-present, Ollie Smith kicking his heals this week and Matt Iles on the bench. And with Sam McPherson picking up a ham string strain in training, Lucian Morosan slotted into the scrum half spot with Jason Smith taking the right wing berth.

The early exchanges were measured, rather than dynamic, with Maidstone seemingly conscious of their loss, by one point, to the visitors, earlier in the season, lending a degree of extra respect. But with the wind at their backs and the slope in their favour, Maidstone generated all the early pressure and, after a penalty attempt by Van de Westerlo had drifted wide, with three minutes on the clock, and a second kickable opportunity had been punted to touch, the home side took the lead just past the ten minute mark.

Having won a line out in their own half, the ball was fed to second row, Gareth Ellis, who made a spectacular break before feeding Morosan, whose timely pass to Van de Westerlo saw the fly half glide to the right corner to score. While the conversion was missed, Van de Westerlo increased the lead just past the quarter hour with a 30-metre penalty. And Maidstone seemed fully in charge.

But with scoring opportunities seemingly available with every move, Maidstone lost their focus and tried to do too much. With Sevenoaks defending strongly and Maidstone failing to retain possession on too many occasions, the visitors, slowly, but surely, came back into the game.

In this period, at least two Maidstone try scoring chances went begging: the first when a final pass was intercepted on the left wing and the second when the last pass was dropped ten metres from the line, on the right. In contrast, Sevenoaks showed a much more ruthless streak with their one clear opportunity of the half. A lucky bounce from a chip through by Maidstone, saw Sevenoaks right wing, Barry, gather the ball and sprint from inside his own half to touch down under the posts. With fly half, Bright, adding the simple conversion, the half time score of 8-7 poorly reflected the disparity of opportunity between the sides.

With the elements now favouring the visitors, it was clear that Maidstone needed to up their game. On this measure they certainly delivered in the early minutes of the half, but as they strained for a score so the mistakes crept in. A crucial Maidstone passing error, on ten minutes, saw Barry intercept the ball on the half way line and run, unopposed to the line. With the conversion by Bright a formality, Sevenoaks took the lead, 14-8, and with this cushion, demonstrated a growing confidence that the game was theirs to win.

But as their all round game improved, so Sevenoaks developed a profligate side of their own. Three missed penalties and a drop gaol attempt all came to nothing and with the game in added time, Maidstone finally began to play more through their forwards and this set up a platform for a try in the right hand corner. The scorer was Jason Smith but it was the hard work of the forwards that generated the opportunity.

The touchline conversion fell just under the bar to leave the visitors one point in front, with 45 minutes on the clock. But with added time still playing, Maidstone repeated the lesson they had just learned and ran the ball back from a scrum after the restart, making hard yards and finding willing runners on their shoulders to brush aside the Sevenoaks defence.  As the three quarters took over the attack, it was Neil Graves that burst through the massed visitor’s defence to run to the line and win back the lead.

Even now, there was time for a further restart and visitors gave it one last shot. But with a Sevenoaks line out in the Maidstone 22 not going to hand, the chance came to naught, with the final whistle bringing much relief to the home side.

New coach, Paul Hathaway, has chosen not to try to change Maidstone’s playing style this year. But his clear instructions, to keep cool heads, in the final period of this game was sage advice and something the team might have benefited from implementing earlier.

Maidstone

Ben Williams; Sam Bailey; Luke Debnam: James Iles; Gareth Ellis: Jack Davidson; Matt Vickers; Ben Brill:  Lucian Morosan; Caleb Van de Westerlo: Sam Brill; Willie Brown; Neil Graves; Jason Smith: Josh Jensen

Replacements: Nick Bunyan; Jamie Sims: Matt Iles