MICHAEL Guess felt a below par first half performance was to blame for Southend Saxons’ disappointing 51-28 defeat at Old Elthamians on Saturday.

Southend had been hoping to boost their National Two South survival hopes by securing a third successive victory.

But a shocking start meant they trailed 24-6 at half-time which Guess admitted made coming out on top an impossible task.

“We were like the kid who fell out the tree, we just weren’t in,” said the prop forward.

“The first half just wasn’t good enough and at half-time it was mentioned it was the worst we had probably played all season.

“We came out with a better attitude for the second half and at least got the tries we needed to get a losing bonus point.

“But it was still a very disappointing afternoon, especially after doing so well in the two previous games.”

Guess’ last gasp try, which was his second in two games, helped 12th placed Southend move six points clear of the drop zone with four games to go.

But the Saxons are without a fixture this weekend before they host Canterbury, the team immediately below them in the standings, in a huge encounter the following Saturday.

“We know it’s a big game and we know we need to go and win it,” said Guess.

“But we’re not going to put pressure on ourselves by building it up even more than we need to do.

“We will concentrate on getting our own performance right and we will certainly need to play much better than we did in the first half on Saturday.”

Southend found themselves 14-0 down within nine minutes of the match at the weekend with winger Jonny Williams and prop Mark Nicolas both touching down and Tom White kicking the conversions.

Saxons replied with a penalty from Tom Ashton before Old Elthamians hit back with centre Kristian Cook scoring a try.

Ashton kicked another penalty for Southend just before the break but the home-side were back on top at the start of the second half with two White penalties and another try from Williams making it 37-6 with 20 minutes to go.

The Saxons immediately rang the changes and narrowed their hosts’ lead with Daniel Legge finishing off a strong forward move for his first try of the season.

In reply, White kicked two more penalties before Southend bagged their second try of the game with centre Sonny Gay diving over.

The home-side were then reduced to 14 men when prop Nick Porter was yellow carded but another White penalty extended their lead to 46-16.

Southend fought back with Brad Burr scoring a fine individual effort before Old Elthamians registered another try of their own with Teaghan Price scoring.

But Saxons replied right at the death with Guess charging through to score his side’s fourth try of the afternoon which secured what could prove to be a very valuable bonus point.

Southend Saxons: Burr, Cleare, Nash, Gay, Driver, Ashton, Branch, Guess, Bloomberg, Bevans-Royston, Chesney, Fombo, Ferrier, Kellard, Legge Replacements: Meads, Hudson, Fardell, Jackson & Pollard