ULTIMATELY Raiders’ power got them out of jail, but ill discipline got them into a pile of problems at Tunbridge Wells’ stand-in pitch and with it threatened to end their title hopes.

Winger Mike Agyei-King’s late try completed a remarkable turnaround after the London and SE Premier game had been switched to the dry 3G surface at Bennett Memorial School in Culverden Down and seen the home side sweep into a very early 15-0 lead.

Tunbridge Wells then had a four-try bonus point in the bag by half-time when they led 25-12.

They say winning ugly is a sign of a good team, but to be honest Raiders pushed the boundaries to stretching point at times and if the home side had a reliable kicker the result would have been very different.

Tunbridge Wells stunned the Raiders with a try within five minutes.

With the Raiders on the attack the Wells stole the ball and charged down the pitch, slicing through some poor tackling for Streache to open the score.

Throughout the first half the Raiders’ poor ball retention and petulance played into the home side’s hands.

Soon Wells added to the score when after continued offsides from the Raiders, a catch and drive sent the Wells forwards over the line with a try for Doherty .

It soon got worse.

More poor ball retention from the Raiders set up a scrum from which the Wells backs attacked through the Raiders centres to set up another score via Horne.

Eventually the green and whites fought back with their own catch and drive producing a try for veteran Cameron Crane, Owen Thomas missing the conversion.

From the following restart the Raiders drove their way into the opposition half, but poor ball retention allowed the home side to set up another attack which resulted in a try for Croft and a 20-5 lead.

Raiders were not playing well but they regrouped impressively and another catch and drive move produced a second try for Cameron Crane.

This time Owen Thomas converted to narrow the gap to eight, but no sooner had they got themselves back into the picture prop Jacob Pinkney picked up a yellow for a churlish shoulder charge.

With that, both captains were summoned by the referee for a chat and reprimand, but very quickly he had the yellows out again, this time shown to Raiders’ Dom Rice and Wells hooker Nicholls for yet another pointless tussle.

During this period of 14 v 13 a poor lineout throw let the home side of the hook and from a fine attack Wells forced another penalty.

The home team kicked to the corner and from a successful catch and drive Tau Tauaika scored for a 25-12 interval lead.

The margin then stretched out to 18 early after the re-start.

Although Raiders started the second half as they finished the first half, on the front foot, Owen Thomas’ petulance resulted in a reversal of a penalty given to the visitors.

Wells again went for the catch and drive lineout ploy and it worked for a 30-12 lead.

The home support must have felt very confident at that stage, but Raiders’ physicality took control of the game.

Time and time again they powered their way into try scoring positions and the lively Doug Horrocks came up with the ball having gone over the line to kick-start the recovery.

Thomas converted and he did so again when Layton Batiste was driven over by his pack to score under the posts. Thomas converted and it was now 30-26.

Not to be left out the Raiders backs joined in the scoring.

After another powerhouse drive into the opposition half, the ball eventually found its way to Luke Sayer who slip-streamed past his opponent and fed the ball to Mike Agyei-King, on a late run.

The pass was made and Agyei-King scored the winning try in the corner. To add salt to the wound for the home side, Thomas slotted over the kick from the edge of the pitch and Raiders had won it despite conceding six tries. A lucky escape.