SOUTHEND Saxons skipper Marcus Bloomberg was saddened by his side’s narrow defeat to Westcliff.

Southend were beaten 10-7 at the Gables as they sunk to a sixth successive setback.

And Bloomberg, who scored Saxons’ try in the second half, was a frustrated figure at the final whistle.

“It was always going be a tough, physical, close game but it was too little too late for us at the end,” said Bloomberg.

“It was a game where I think we played OK in spells but that’s just not good enough.

“We found it hard, especially in the first half to get into our structures and got dragged into a bit of a dog fight.

“In the second half I felt we played a little better and got our hands on the ball a little more.

“We managed to get some phases together but I feel we made too many errors.

“Full credit to Westcliff, they tactically kicked well and managed to keep us pinned back for large spells of the game.

“It’s never nice losing but it hurts even more when you lose your local derby and the dressing room wasn’t a nice place to be at the end of the game.”

Southend, who were relegated from National Two South last season, are now just four points above the drop zone.

And Bloomberg is desperate to see an improvement when Saxons return to action after Christmas.

“It’s so important to recover during the Christmas break and start the new year much better than we have finished this year,” said Bloomberg.

“It’s been a difficult season so far. We have had so many injuries and not really been able to field a set team each week.

“It’s been a forever changing team and I think this has made it harder to gain some stability.

“But the injury list is now getting smaller and hopefully now we can gain some stability and add one or two more players to help us out as we are lacking a bit of depth.”