Southend Saxons' Tom Ashton: We beat ourselves against Shelford

The reverse made it two defeats in succession at the start of the new season for the Saxons. And that frustrated Ashton, who landed a penalty for his side in the second half.

“Unfortunately I think we beat ourselves with some loose play and basic errors,” said the 31-year-old who rejoined Southend from Rochford Hundred in the summer.

“It’s very frustrating because we feel we have enough about us to have won both of the games so far but they've ended in defeats.”

Southend were narrowly edged out 36-31 to Redruth on the opening day of the season.

But Ashton remains convinced the Saxons will soon get their campaign back on track.

“I am confident the team can turn things around as we haven't been opened up by either of opponents,” said Ashton.

“They have lived off our mistakes so when we clear those up the performances and results will start to come I'm sure.”

The opening of Saturday's game were evenly contested before Shelford took the lead through Steve Smith's penalty.

He then added another successful kick and, straight from the restart, the hosts put together a move which led to Chris Lord scoring an unconverted try which handed Shelford an 11-0 lead at half-time.

At the start of the second period, Brad Burr kicked a penalty for Southend and a further three points from Ashton then brought the Saxons to within five points of their hosts.

However, the home-side soon hit back to secure their win with Charlie Baker stealing the ball on the half-way line and racing clear down to the wing to touch down.

Smith added the conversion to seal Southend's fate.

And they will now be hoping it can be a case of third time lucky when they host Dings Crusaders at Warners Bridge this weekend.

Southend: Meads, Nash, Vaughan, Ashton, Billings, Burr, Pollard, Fardell, Bloomberg, Bevans-Royston, Chesney, Douglas, Ferrier, Kellard, Hudson.

Replacements: Strachan, Shields, Needham, Driver & Branch.