Life is grand as milestone man Dan headlines Huntingdon triumph

Head coach Damien Whales hailed Huntingdon ‘points machine’ Dan Malem after he reached a major milestone last Saturday.

Malem brought up 1,000 points in Stags colours during their 42-19 triumph over Paviors in Midlands Division One East – and club officials believe he is the first man to achieve the feat.

He crossed for a try, kicked four conversions and also sent over three penalties in the Racecourse triumph.

Whales said: “Dan just scores points constantly. He regularly contributes tries from full-back and is a phenomenally good goal-kicker.

“He makes kicks he has no right to get and he is only going to pile up more points if we can continue scoring tries in the way we have done so far this season.”

Malem’s boot eased Huntingdon into an early lead before Tom Morgan touched down for the opening try with Malem doing the conversion honours.

The visitors hit back with a converted try before Malem responded with a try and conversion of his own to leave Huntingdon 13 points to the good at the break.

They allowed Paviors to eat into those arrears early in the second half, but Stags soon regained control.

A third Malem penalty and a converted Morgan try followed before Duncan Low and Reggie Reid combined beautifully for the latter to touch down.

And Nick Vallance also got in on the act in the final minute following a five-metre scrum to ensure their winning run was extended to three games ahead of a visit to highly-fancied Bedford Athletic this Saturday.

Whales added: “It was our best performance of the season and that was just as pleasing as the result.

“The games are increasingly in difficult as we go along. We beat two newly-promoted sides before overcoming a solid Division One outfit in Paviors.

“Now we are looking forward to what will be our toughest test yet against a Bedford side who are certain to be strong contenders.”