EAST Thurrock United are now being targeted as one of the potential title contenders in the Ryman Premier League.

That is the view of Rocks’ manager John Coventry, who says Saturday’s 4-1 win at Kingstonian has catapulted his side from relative mid-table obscurity to the forefront of many team’s minds.

East Thurrock’s cup commitments in the early months of the campaign have meant they have been playing catch-up in recent weeks, but three straight 4-1 wins has lifted Coventry’s team to 10th in the division.

Rocks are now just nine points off top spot, although with games in hand on all those above them. They will end 2015 against Enfield Town on Boxing Day before a trip to fierce rivals Grays Athletic on January 2.

Rocks will go into the games as favourites in terms of recent form, but Coventry says there are always some funny results around Christmas time, and has urged his team to stay focused, while praising their recent run.

“If we win all of our games in hand there are only a few teams that will be ahead of us as we have gone under the radar a little bit,” he said. “People are recognising that we may be one of the teams to watch and I don’t mind that.

“We have a lot of players that can hurt the opposition and our goals are coming from a number of players. We are scoring plenty and the defensive side of things is also improving. If we can tighten that up a bit more we will be a really tough team to beat.

“This time of year always throws up some funny results. Enfield haven’t got a great away record but we are not underestimating them at all and the same goes for Grays. Form goes out the window in local derbies so whoever plays better on the day will take the points.”

Sam Higgins took his tally to 20 goals in 18 games on Saturday, with Lewis Smith scoring 18 and Tom Wraight hitting his ninth of the season against Kingstonian.

And Coventry said his team could have scored seven against Kingstonian – who are many people’s tip for promotion this year.

“We played really well,” he said. “The score line didn’t flatter us at all and we could have scored seven goals in all honesty.

“We opened them up time and time again and we had that clinical edge in front of goal. The first-half was quite even but we ran away with it in the second-half. Their manager said he knew we would be ones to watch, and he thought that before the game on Saturday.

“I have to praise Tom Wraight. He was really excellent but there were some good individual performances from a lot of players and that in turn meant it was a good team performance.

“It has been a good first half of the season,” he added. “I would give the team a B for effort but I am hoping for an A for performance.”