MARCUS Bloomberg felt Southend only had themselves to blame after suffering a narrow 17-14 defeat at Ampthill in National Two South on Saturday.

The Seasiders led 11-5 with 20 minutes of the match remaining.

And hooker Bloomberg, who scored Southend’s try in the reverse, believes they should have been able to stay in front.

“I thought we were very unlucky at the weekend, but I also feel that once again we only have ourselves to blame to be honest,” said Bloomberg.

“We made too many mistakes and poor discipline also let Ampthill back in the game. But I can’t fault everyone’s effort and the work rate in defence keeps getting better each week.

“But in the end we’ve lost to a team I thought we should have beaten but that's rugby.”

The defeat meant Southend suffered three reverses in a row for the first time this season and sent them down to eighth in the standings.

However, the trio of setbacks have all come against the league’s top three times.

And Bloomberg is keen to remain upbeat.

“We may have lost three in a row now – but we have lost to the top three teams and two of them were very close,” said Bloomberg.

“There were a lot of good things that came out of them but I’m sure everyone will be more than ready to put the shirt back and give it their all to get back to winning ways this weekend.”

Firth placed Bishop’s Stortford are the visitors to Warners Bridge on Saturday and Bloomberg feels it is imperative the Seasiders come out on top.

“Saturday is a must win game for us,” he stressed.

“We are at home and we have dropped a few places in the league so we will be looking to get right back up there and give the fans a good one.

“We another home game the week after and a good run of games after that we will be looking to get back to winning ways.”

Southend’s scoring at the weekend was completed by a trio of Brad Burr penalties.