Despite a historic win at Southend easing their National 2 South relegation fears, head coach Andy Pratt insists Canterbury Rugby Club are not safe yet.

Playing fellow strugglers at a ground where they had never previously won, the city club rallied from 18-5 down to win 26-21 and move nine points clear of Lydney, occupying the final relegation place, with just three games to go.

However, despite his delight at the five-point win, which lifted the city club above their rivals and up two places to 11th, Pratt warned: “We haven’t finished the job yet.”

He added: “Lydney can still get to 61 points in their last three games, so we need 62 to be mathematically safe and that is our target.

“One more win might do it, or we might do it anyway if Lydney lose games but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

He added: “I am pleased. Southend’s a hard place to go and get a result at the best of times, let alone with the amount of motivation they had. We have never won there before, so we can be satisfied. We can’t sit here and think all is right with the world, just because we won. There is still work to do. We are not safe yet.

“Ensuring safety is our No.1 priority, only once we have achieved that can we start to look at other things.

“I want to finish as high up the table as we can though.”

Canterbury face a third blank weekend in six weeks as they don’t play again until 10th-placed Launceston head up from Cornwall on April 11.

Pratt said: “Launceston are one of the form sides in the division and it will not an easy ask.

“I have no doubts that we will stay up but Launceston will not be easy to overcome."