There was no let up in the succession of losses for Old Mid-Whitgiftians as they lost 33-0 at Aylesford Bulls.

Despite a performance in which they did well for long periods they made too many costly errors to enable a dominant home team to come away as comfortable winners.

The opening score came after seven minutes when Mids seemed to be well organised in defence to soak up pressure but when Bulls moved the ball a straightforward tackle was missed and centre Neil Brown was in for the try. Fly half Dan Harvey converted.

Mids now exerted steady pressure on the home line and an accurate penalty kick to the corner by fly-half Rowan Newman set up a line out in an excellent position. The line was lost however and Aylesford cleared.

Mark Handley, enjoying himself in the back row, had another storming game though he had to go back to his old lock position when Cameron Kok an essential ball carrier for Mids was injured.

A promising run by Handley set up another good field position but the visitors lacked patience and surrendered possession too easily, allowing Bulls to run clear on the counter-attack.

A blatant forward pass was missed by the referee but full back Temi Okenla made one of his trademark try-saving tackles and Mids had a scrum near their own line. The stronger Bulls drove them off, however, forcing the visitors to touch down and concede a 5 metre scrum.

In what seemed an inevitable consequence the powerful home pack gained the push over and No.8 Matt O’Connor got the touch down. Harvey’s conversion brought the tally to 14-0 after 18 minutes.

Aylesford now put more pressure on but Mids resisted stoutly, rucking the powerful home pack off the ball in one heroic phase and clearing their lines well, though prop Russell Jones’ attempted punt on 23 minutes caused consternation in the ranks. His defence was that the referee had already indicated an advantage.

There was now some lively interplay from the visitors including a classic reverse pass from scrum half David Stanton. They retained possession well for a long period but eventually the ball was lost forward and a speculative kick forward from Aylesford bounced kindly for Harvey to collect and score under the posts for another 7 pointer and a 21-0 lead at half time.

Mids opened brightly in the second period but a powerful run from winger James Hedger came to nothing as Mids lost control of the ball again. Bulls, who were much more jealous of their possession, relentlessly worked the ball up the field and, after they set up a good maul in the left corner, they scored again after 48 minutes.

Back came the Old Boys with a sustained period of play in the home half but when Bulls turned over the ball again they quickly gained 60 yards of hard won Mids’ ground to put the visitors on the rack again. It seemed that they had to score when their winger was put clear but Okenla put in another outstanding tackle to save his line.

From now on it was damage limitation for Mids but the score passed 30 four minutes from the end when Aylesford’s George Oram picked up at the back of the scrum and crossed for the try. Harvey added the extras. Midwives will take some positives from this defeat and as well as Okenla and Stanton who did excellently behind the scrum Kieran Burnett and Iain Munro really put themselves about in dogged fashion in the back row.

Despite all the losses the team has fought well, in the last two fixtures in particular, and one felt that even one kind break could make a huge psychological difference.

On Saturday, Mids will host Deal and Betteshanger and will be optimistic that they can kickstart a revival against the doughty men from the Kent coast.