Mobbs-Smith hopes Maids' good form will make talk of relegation look foolish

Maidenhead head coach David Mobbs-Smith believes the side remain in a relegation fight this season, despite Saturday’s thrilling win over Bracknell at Braywick Park.

However, he's hoping those fears are made to look foolish by the club's results in the coming weeks.

Maids were able to move up to seventh - and within a point of sixth placed Bracknell - after overcoming their closest rivals 25-23 on Saturday.

Mobbs-Smith's side had looked to be heading for another agonising home defeat when the visitors slotted a penalty in second half stoppage time to make it 22-23.

However, Maids were handed one more opportunity when Ed Atkins managed to turn the ball over and the referee awarded the home side a penalty.

Full-back Greg Smith - who'd missed a very similar conversion attempt only minutes earlier - showed his strength of character to put the ball through the posts to earn Maidenhead a chaotic, but hugely rewarding, victory.

Mobbs-Smith is now hoping they can back up the victory with another win over Old Alleynians at home on Saturday - but he's warning his players it will be far from straightforward.

Maids thrashed Old Alleynians 50-21 when the sides met in Dulwich back in October.

“We need something similar this weekend against Old Alleynians,” he said.

“It’s going to be tough to beat them.

“The scoreline in the previous win against them did flatter us a bit. They’ve also had some very good results since then.

“They managed to beat Wimbledon for a start so they’re in good form and it will be tough for us to beat them.”

Having played most of the top five sides both home and away this season, Maids should be confident of picking up the results they need to ward off relegation - and perhaps even push to get back in touch with the top five. Of their remaining eight games, five of them are against teams below them in the table.

“We’re getting players back from the short to medium term injuries,” added Mobbs-Smith.

“But the experience these younger players have picked up in recent matches is fantastic for the club and fantastic for them.

“The form we’ve shown to get those bonus points against Wimbledon away in tricky conditions. London Welsh who are just flying.

“Only ourselves and Jersey have got a bonus point against Welsh so that tells you something.

“If we can keep this form, me talking about relegation is silly because we’re playing fantastically well against the league’s heavyweights.

“We’re competing, and that game against Bracknell we managed to close it out. We took our chance.

“They did it to us at their place to make it 29-29. We’ve played 180 minutes of rugby against them this season and only one kick separates us. That draw at theirs felt like a defeat to us and they walked off like they’d won.”

There's also a real opportunity this weekend to put some more ground between themselves and the bottom two or three teams.

“This weekend, we play a mid-table rival and virtually everyone else beneath us is playing someone superior to them,” said Mobbs-Smith.

“We’re playing a midtable clash, and the five top teams are playing five other teams.

“There might be some surprises there, but if we can win – and the other teams lose – it will look fantastic mathematically on Monday morning. Points on the board are always better than points you could get.”