Maidstone's Craig Whitehead is likely to miss the rest of the season,after suffering knee ligament damage in the 33-21 defeat to improving Thanet Wanderers in London 2 at Broadstairs on Saturday.

Whitehead was injured in a tackle deep into stoppage time, and then another player fell on him. The game was immedaitely stopped, and he was taken to hospital for a scan, but the news is blow for the club as he has been one their major plusses in the second half of the season. Ben Court was another casualty with a badly cut eye, forcing him to leave the field early in the second half.

They had already lost Martin Arnold in the warm-up with a recurrence of a back injury, so Matt Iles moved into the centre, with Steve Moss switching to blind-side and Chris Wallis coming in on the second row.

Maidstone trailed 25-5 at half-time, and already looked a beaten team against a Wanderers side who had won three of their previous four matches.

Having gifted the home side an early 10-point lead, but Tommy King's try put Maidstone's first points on the half-hour. Thanet scored seven points to increase their lead, and Maidstone trailed 25-5 at half-time, and already looked a beaten team, against a Wanderers side who had won three of their previous four matches.

However with the wind behind them in the second half, they chipped away at the deficit. Whitehead landed three penalties, before Thanet increased their advantage.

Maidstone kept battling away,Neil Graves forced his way over with Whitehead adding the conversion, to cut the lead to nine, but another Thanet penalty widened the gap again just before the end.