Mal Graves urged his players to enjoy the moment after Saturday’s rout of struggling Shooters Hill took the Blues top of Shepherd Neame Kent 2 for the first time this season.

Long-time leaders and title favourites Old Gravesendians have not played since January 7 and the Blues have taken full advantage, stretching their impressive winning sequence to 10 matches.

They now have a one-point lead over Old Gs and while Graves fully expects their rivals to regain the leadership once they play their games in hand, he says his players should enjoy the feeling of being top for as long as it lasts. He added: “It’s the first time we’ve been top this season and we’ve not been there for heaven knows how many years before that. I’ve said to the boys days like this don’t come around often so enjoy it. When you get your days in the sun, you have to make the most of them. It was not that long ago that we were bottom of Kent 2 and struggling, so it shows the work the boys have put in to turn things round.”

Shooters Hill had lost 100-7 to Foots Cray in their previous home game – and the clash with Whitstable proved similarly one-sided.

The Blues opened the scoring from their first attack and went onto grab 15 tries.
Ben Cliff and Marck Olive both claimed four, with James Garland, Brandon Springett and second-half replacement Josh Booty scoring two each.

Luke Pepper added the other, with Booty and Andrew Huey kicking the rest of the points.

Graves admitted his side were not always as ruthless as they could have been but in truth he had few complaints.
He added: “There were still things we weren’t doing right particularly in the first half, when we were only 35 or 40 points up but the boys took on board what we said to them at half-time and it’s another tick in the box.”

While Old Gs host Bexley in one of their games in hand this weekend, Whitstable are without a fixture. They resume their campaign on Saturday, February 11 when they host Lordswood, the last team to beat them – 8-7 on October 22.

Match Report credit to KM Group