SOUTHEND Saxons made sure of their National Two South status with a losing bonus point in Saturday’s 18-16 defeat at Redruth.

But their director of rugby Chris Green was in no mood to celebrate.

Southend’s narrow reverse ensured they finished ahead of relegation rivals Lydney on points difference.

However, Green feels his side should never have been in such a precarious decision.

“It’s more of a relief than anything else, but we won’t be celebrating staying up because it was embarrassing being down there in the first place,” said Green.

“Obviously losing the five points (for fielding an ineligible player) had something to do with that, but now we need to make sure we’re not down there again next season.

“We have the core of a good squad here and have some very good players but we will be looking to bring in a few more before we kick things off again.”

And Green will also be hoping the team can take more of their chances next season after a number of opportunities went begging in the first half at Redruth.

“We started as well as we could’ve hoped and should really have been about 20 points up but we wasted so many chances,” said Green.

“We could’ve scored four tries in the first half alone to get the bonus point we needed to stay up another way but we got there in the end.

“We probably could even have won the game with a penalty we got right at the end, but we opted to make sure of getting the point we needed by kicking the ball to touch to end the game.”

Southend started strongly in Cornwall and went ahead early on with a try from number eight Daniel Legge.

But Redruth hit back eight minutes before the break with a try from Todd Prisk which Ashley Hosking converted to put the hosts 7-5 in front at half-time.

However, the hosts were reduced to 14 men just after the interval when Greg Goodfellow was dismissed for foul play and Southend soon took advantage with Legge touching down for a second time to put the visitors 10-7 in front.

But the lead lasted just 12 minutes as Redruth’s Richard Brown finished off a powerful maul.

Hosking and Brad Burr then swapped a couple of penalties each and the narrow margin of the final score-line ensured Southend had done just enough to stay up.

Southend Saxons: Billings, Nash, Gay, Vaughan, Cleare, Burr, Hoadley, Strachan, Bloomberg, Bevans-Royston, Chesney, Jackson, Fombo, Hudson, Legge

Replacements: Fardell, Guess, Smith, Ashton & Branch.