SLEMEN: DON'T BLOW IT

By MARK BENGOECHEA
SKIPPER Dave Slemen has told his cock-a-hoop Esher side: Don’t blow the title now.
The Molesey Road outfit are buzzing after their stunning five-try 38-15 victory in the top-of-the-table clash at London Scottish.
It was Exiles’ first home defeat in nearly two years as Esher blew away the cobwebs from a five-week lay-off to go five points clear at the top of National One with a game in hand.
Fly-half Slemen gave his side a nine-out-of-ten rating for the win but insists the job is only half done with 15 games still to go.
Esher face Stourbridge at home on Saturday and Slemen insisted: “We don’t want to take our foot off the gas now.
“It would be crazy to let the title slip from the position we are in but I’m sure our coach Mike Schmid won’t let complacency creep in.
“The season is only at the halfway stage and it’s important we keep our heads down and concentrate on every game.
“If we slip up then all the work from that win at London Scottish will have been wasted and we will be straight back in the mix.
“But we are exactly where we want to be at this stage and the great thing is that we don’t have to worry about other people’s results if we keep on winning.
“That win has taken a little bit of the pressure off but now we have to make sure we keep that consistency and push on to the title. There’s no magic formula, just the right attitude and hard work.
“We believe we are one of the top 24 teams in England and the Championship is where we want to be.”
Slemen was on the scoresheet in the win at Scottish while there was a try double for prop Joe Marler and others for Chris York and Ross Chisholm. Sam Ulph converted all five and added a penalty.
Slemen said: “The important thing was that we started really well and went 17-0 up, which helped us relax.
“We had talked about not letting the occasion get to us and our experiences from last season helped because the team have a good understanding.
“If wasn’t a perfect performance and if you had to be critical, we didn’t defend particularly well on a couple of occasions.
“We tired towards the end and a lot of players from both sides suffered from cramp, but I think that was the fact that it was such a heavy pitch rather than the fact we hadn’t played for five weeks.”
Slemen also paid tribute to the travelling support at The Athletic ground as a bumper 2,485 crowd watched the big clash.
He added: “It was great to have such fantastic support there and a great feeling to come off at the end. It was also a relief because we have had five weeks to think about the game.”