A VERY HEALTHY points-difference advantage and a two-point lead at the top has all but guaranteed Maidenhead Rugby Club of automatic promotion and the division title.
Unfortunately, the one team standing in their way are local foes and arch rivals Marlow, who they face tomorrow (Saturday) at Riverwoods, kick-off 3pm.
The Bucks club have had a poor season by their own high standards and are stranded in mid table.
However, Maids coach Simon Edwards is not taking victory for granted.
He said: “Marlow are always a hard side to beat.
“This time last year they were in South West 1, and on their day they are capable of beating anyone in South
West 2.
“They’re a big club, but they've had a poor season and they'll want to put that right.
“And they only have one more opportunity to do that.
“So we've trained as hard for this one as we did for Swanage or Oakmeadians.
“We don't intend to slip up.
“Marlow may have nothing to play for but pride, but pride goes a long way. They ran us close at our ground, so they have to be in with a shot.”
Edwards also rejected the favourite’s tag, claiming he was not anticipating a Maidenhead try-fest.
He said: “The form book is out of the window. I'm just looking for one more win. It's as simple as that. We've scored enough points. I only need one more point than Marlow on Saturday. One more point than Marlow puts us back in South West 1.”
In fact a win or a draw would see Maids safely through, while a Maids defeat would only give second-placed Swanage & Wareham a slim chance of nicking the title, due to their far inferior points-difference.
However, Edwards paid homage to the Swans, who have pushed Maids hard, all the way.
He said: “Credit to Swanage. They have hung in there, but we've ended up on top at the right end of the season.
“But I think Saturday will be even harder for them.
“They have to try their best against Reading Abbey in case we slip up, but if we don't they still have to play Penryn next week in the play-offs.
“They have to decide which game to put everything into.”

MARLOW head coach Mark Weedon admitted his team had a battle on their hands if they hoped to halt Maids' relentless progress to the division title. However, he also believed it was a battle they could win.
Summing up his team's chances he said: “Pretty good. I'm sure it will be a good, close contest.
“If we can keep our discipline, which we have struggled with a bit this year, we'll run them close.
“My aims for the season were to do well and get in the top three. We haven't quite achieved that, but a good win over Maidenhead would put a lot of pride back in place and give myself and the players a lot of confidence for next season.”
The last time the teams met Maids eased to a 20-6 win at Braywick, although Marlow did cause a few panics when they ran the ball.
Both sides will have learned from that encounter, a fact which was underlined by a subsequent run of good results for the Riverwoods side, a run which Weedon attributed to that performance against Maids.
He said: “We didn't have a good track record in the fixture but we played quite well and we'll be looking for more of the same on Saturday. Okay we lost, but we took a lot of confidence from that game.”
But Maidenhead have also improved since then, while their confidence will be sky high on the back of 19 straight league wins.
In contrast, with nothing but pride to play for, Weedon admitted that some of his players had been struggling with motivation in recent weeks and that numbers turning up for training had been ‘disappointing’.
However, he also claimed his side was fired up for tomorrow's clash, adding: “There's nothing required from me. It's our last game of the season, it's at home and it's a local derby.
“The guys want to beat the team at the top of the table and they will give it their all."