Promotion assault the target now for Havant

Head coach Will Knight is eyeing up a Havant London & SE Premier promotion push in the second half of the season.

Havant reached the halfway point of their campaign with a convincing 41-17 home triumph over Tunbridge Wells on Saturday.

It leaves them well placed in sixth after 13 league matches, although Knight recognised his troops must climb the table in the second half of the season if they are to put themselves in promotion contention - with current uncertainty over how many teams could go up a level this term.

The Havant head coach said: ‘If we were looking at the beginning of the season, coming up into the league and being promoted, we’d probably would have said sixth at halfway - we’d have taken it.

‘I think in reality, having played those games, we’re probably disappointed we’re not a bit further up the league because we’ve known we’ve lost games by very narrow margins and had a couple of games where we haven’t performed as well as we’d like to.

‘I think we’re looking at the second half of the season with a great deal of ambition and hope that we can move ourselves up the table.

‘For sure, if there’s an opportunity to grab one of those places (for promotion), that’s what we’ll want to do.

‘But first of all we’ve got to start moving up the league, there’s definitely not going to be six teams promoted, that’s for sure.’

Havant had six different try scorers as they dispatched second-bottom Tunbridge in their latest outing with Rory Penfold, Armandus Morgan, Gavin Hughan, pictured, Ben Holt, Elliott Bellman and Jarod Leat all getting in on the act.

And Knight was mightily impressed with the way his side performed in their penultimate fixture before the Christmas break.

He added: ‘Unfortunately they pulled one back at the end (try) but a very solid performance, five league points and a good statement again.’

Havant host 10th-placed Brighton in their final game of 2021 on Saturday.