SOUTHEND 18

COLCHESTER 16

National League Three London and South East

COLCHESTER suffered a narrow defeat at their Essex neighbours Southend.

The Blacks have now lost all six of their games this season and remain second from bottom.

But they can take many positive aspects from a match, marred by the behaviour of sections of the Southend home crowd.

Southend's larger pack caused problems, with number eight Potu Leavesa proving a handful as a ball carrier and flankers Chris Shields and Ian Morrison winning turnover ball.

But some over-eager play earned several warnings from referee Sam Brown and penalties that almost cost the hosts the game.

Colchester fielded another changed side, with an impressive debut from Brandon Fanolua at centre.

Colchester number eight Danny Whiteman tackled and carried throughout and sacked the Southend scrum-half at several rucks.

Flanker Ollie Pickett challenged the Southend defence, while flanker Rob Pickard impressed and scored a try.

Colchester defended well for most of the game and built attacks to take the game to their hosts.

The game started with an early exchange of penalties with Colchester’s conversion hitting the crossbar but falling the right way, to kicker David Higgins’ relief.

The restart kick led to an unlucky incident that ultimately influenced the result.

Wing Damien Brambley tried to trap the bouncing ball with his foot but it rebounded forward to Ollie Pickett who instinctively caught it.

Southend were awarded an offside penalty and their fly-half Chris Vaughn kicked for three points.

The hosts mounted a series of forward attacks after that, with Colchester wing James Crozier yellow-carded for an unsafe tackle.

Using their extra man advantage, Southend wing Jaid Wiltshire scored an overlap try for an 11-3 lead.

Restored to full strength Colchester rallied, pressurising Southend who conceded penalties.

Higgins kicked one to narrow the deficit and further pressure led to more penalties against the home side, as the referee warned both skippers before a sin-binning for Southend flanker Shields.

Colchester took control after that; Higgins kicked another penalty to the corner where the Colchester forwards won the resulting lineout and drove over the line, with Rob Pickard grounding for the try.

Higgins added the difficult conversion to give Colchester a 13-11 lead and although Southend crossed the line, they were brought back for a foot in touch.

Trying to build on their half-time lead, Colchester pressed at the start of the second half, stamping earning another Southend yellow card.

The referee then had to warn the Southend coaches about barracking from the touchline and Colchester appeared to lose concentration following the off-the-field antics.

Higgins narrowly missed a penalty conversion before Southend kicked to clear, after a Colchester knock-on conceded possession.

The scrum win enabled Southend to spread the ball wide where left wing Danny Cleare ran in a try, with Vaughan adding the conversion.

The restart kick taker was bundled over by the chasing Crozier, after Leavesa was tackled by Ollie Pickett and penalised for not releasing.

Higgins converted to narrow the lead to two points but Southend held on to win.

Their up-the-jumper forward rumbles denied Colchester possession and skipper Liam Pickett was yellow-carded for a potentially dangerous tackle, as the home side ground out a lucky narrow win.