Clifton fall away in second half

Our disappointing form on the road continued as we slipped to our third successive away defeat.

Darren travelled to the East Coast with a match day squad of who 5 had passed their twenty third birthdays and was pleased with the way they stuck to their guns.

He thought they were on occasions of trying to play their rugby in the wrong areas of the field but you cannot fault the side for their ambition.

He felt they played well in patches and the final shoreline did not reflect the game and considered they were in the game at the interval when they were only 4 points behind,

He considered his youthful backs were more than capable of holding their own but their inexperienced pack struggled against a big and physical eight struggling throughout to win quality ball,

Southend pack showed their power in the early minutes when they pushed Clifton off their own ball and winger Mark Billings went over with standoff Brad Burr converted.

Fly Half Charlie Foley had the chance to open account after 10 minutes but his kick went wide however he made amends 2 minutes when Southend were penalised for playing the ball on the ground.

We went if front after 20 minutes when we attacked from distance with a speedy attack and winger Augy Slowik crossed under the posts with Foley converting.

`The power of the home pack was rewarded when they took a scrum close to line and as our pack disintegrated the referee awarded a penalty try which full back Alex Harrison converted.

Foley was off target with a penalty just before the break.

Southend were more in control after the break though the visitors tried valiantly to breach the Southend defence which was solid.

We were unable to harness the attacking potential of Slowik and his fellow winger Sam Smith and were prone to too many turnovers.

Harrison extended the lead and as we tired in the final quarter No 8 James Kellard and prop Todd Bailey went over before Billings grabbed his second with minutes remaining.

Harrison was successful with one conversion

After a quarter of the league programme there is a definite log jam with only 8 points separating 3rd place Southend from 13th place Bishops Stortford.