We should take nothing away from what was a well deserved victory for Streatham-Croydon, their trademark hard strong running saw Old Caterhamians on the back foot for most of the Match and after a tricky first 10 minutes they never really looked in danger of losing. What will frustrate the Frant Road faithful was another match riddled with errors and penalties.

The Streatham coaches will be pleased that their side turned up from the first whistle, the Old Cats backs certainly seemed to fancy their chances against the Streatham defence and from the start were looking to run through them. Unfortunately for the visitors they were to learn a tough lesson, Streats back line features many players who have served time as loose forwards and their tackling is not something to test lightly. In fact only once in the 80 minutes did the Old Cats backs manage to stretch the Streatham defence and find an overlap to trouble the score board, It was one of the few visits to the Streatham half they enjoyed. Maybe it was due to this dominance that Streats made so many mistakes, the desire to try and keep the ball alive saw knock ons and passes going awry again and again. Fortunately the home side pack were again completely dominant and if they were not taking the ball against the head, Cats were under huge pressure the moment the ball came out, this dominance maybe covering a few problems with the home side's ball retention.

With such a dominant pack and a rampant back line looking to run from everywhere, it proved a long afternoon for the visitors. Richard Peregrine opening the scoring on the wing with 12 minutes gone a feat he would repeat early in the second half to give the new man a brace. Streatham's second try (and possibly the cause of the biggest cheer of the day) was scored by front row club favourite Max Thor Thomason who enjoyed a man of the match performance crashing over from 7m out. Further trys for Geary, Gallagher, Smith, Korcz and Captain Cassemis and some nice kicking from Dan Soper ensured a welcome win. There were however 2 Yellow cards for Streatham which meant they played a quarter of the game with 14 men, coupled with the high penalty count and the loose handling there is still much to work on. You really do get the impression that when it finally all falls into place for this talented team, they will be almost unstoppable in the Surrey leagues.

Currently 4th in Surrey League 2 the Thornton Heath side will need to work hard to get into the top 2 and secure promotion at the first time of asking. Streatham-Croydon will look to build on this victory next week (29th Oct) when they travel to 3rd place Cranleigh. KO 3pm