Westcliff blew a 17-0 lead to suffer defeat at Thurrock on Saturday.

The Aviation Way side raced in to an early lead and were 17 points up after just 13 minutes.

At this stage, Westcliff’s supporters could be forgiven for thinking that their team was on the road to victory.

But Thurrock had other ideas and slowly caught and overtook the visitors.

That old bugbear of Westcliff in recent years, injuries to key players, also struck again with prop Euan Binneman being sidelined with ankle ligament damage. He is now unlikely to play for a few weeks.

None of this was known as Westcliff clocked up the points in the opening minutes.

First Olly Jones zipped through the defence to get a try, converted by Ben McKeith.

On eight minutes, he repeated the dose and again McKeith converted. The game was only four minutes older when McKeith slotted a penalty goal and Westcliff were 17-0 up.

The Thurrock players may have been shell-shocked but their supporters were not and they roared and chanted in support of their team but it was not until the 30th minute that they got on the scoreboard with an Aaron Burns penalty, following that with a try from Ian Rudgely and a conversion and penalty from Burns to make it 17-13 at half-time.

Westcliff camped on the Thurrock line for a long time but could not get any reward for their labours.

Thurrock on the other hand worked their way upfield and almost on the hour Earl Gorman scored a try that sent their supporters in to noisy ecstasy. The conversion only added to the noise but it also fuelled Westcliff's determination. However, it was not be and although Sam Reynolds in in the back row, McKeith at full back and Nick Bard at out-half turned in excellent displays, the hard working home defence kept them out, to leave Westcliff frustrated at the final whistle.

“The boys haven’t tasted defeat for a while and it was a bitter pill to swallow after being 17 points up,” admitted the club’s press officer Geoff Sawyer.