INJURY-HIT Westcliff suffered their third successive defeat at the start of the National League Three London & SE season, losing 27-5 at Hertford.

The reverse left Westcliff second from bottom in the early standings with just two points to their name.

And the club's first team manager Rick Compton knows improvements have to be made.

“It was a frustrating and difficult afternoon from which we can’t take too much,” said Compton.

“We have to acknowledge that injuries have hurt us in the opening weeks but they are an inescapable consequence of playing at national league level and we have to deal with them better.

“Hertford were worthy winners but we were poor and while we offered effort and commitment we are capable of playing much better something we will need to do again starting next week.”

Hertford went in to this game having also lost their first two games of the season.

But they were in no mood to give the visitors a break.

The wet weather made good flowing rugby difficult and both sides had problems holding onto the ball in greasy conditions created by intermittent drizzle.

As a result the game became error strewn with both sides looking very ordinary and nervous in a poor quality game.

The hosts though, with the advantage of the slope, kept Westcliff contained in their own half from where they found it difficult to break out for any great period.

Nevertheless they did not appear to seriously threaten the Westcliff line.

However, Hertford did go in front with a penalty after 11 minutes and another followed just six minutes later.

As the half drew to a close Westcliff were then guilty of poor decision making and execution from their own line-out.

As a result, Hertford were soon presented with an attacking scrum which they managed to push over and a sweetly struck conversion extended the home side’s advantage to 13-0 at half time.

The poor handling and positional kicking from Westcliff continued after the break and they were unable to impose themselves against the physically bigger home side.

Full-back Greg Bannister received a yellow card after 48 minutes and Hertford took advantage of the extra man to force position and exploit another opportunity to drive a scrum on the line over.

The conversion made it 20-0 but Westcliff responded quickly and Conor O’brien did well to finish off a move in the corner.

But Westcliff's discipline began to slip and, having gained good attacking position and won a penalty, it was soon reversed after an unnecessary retaliation.

Hertford were able to escape their own territory and establish position from which they were able to score and convert the game's last try.

Westcliff: Bannister, O’Brien, Manea, Parmenter, Merrick, J Jones, Roskams, Skidmore, Hopkins, Binneman, Barnett, Roberts, Webster, Marsh, Meakin

Replacements: Whiting, Sweeting & B Jones.