Ashton still mystified by Southend's heavy defeat at Wimbledon

The Southend full-back bagged his first try of the season in the National Three London & SE clash.

But he was disappointed to suffer a convincing setback which he felt was not a fair reflection of the game.

“Saturday’s game is still a mystery as to how the score line ended up the way it did,” said Ashton.

“We started very well and put pressure on what is a good Wimbledon side at the moment.

“But every mistake we made seemed to cost us seven points .

“For spells in the game we were a match for them and we put together some good rugby.

“But we seem to lack a focus and concentration to be able to do what is asked of us for a full 80 minutes and it’s something we need to address quickly.”

With Chichester beating Dorking, 11th placed Southend are now just one place and four points clear of the relegation zone.

And Ashton is now keen to string together a run of good results during a key period of the campaign which sees Saxons play a trio of the bottom six teams in their next three outings.

“We can’t keep waiting for next week, we have to bounce back and find a way out of our current situation,” said Ashton.

“We have a run of fixtures against teams around us now.

“I feel we can get good results and we need to build some momentum.”

Despite the final scoreline on Saturday, it was Southend who opened the scoring with a penalty from fly-half Brad Burr.

Second placed Wimbledon hit back with a try before the experienced Ashton touched down to put Southend back in front with Burr adding the conversion.

However, Wimbledon replied strongly with a trio of tries to lead 26-10 at half-time.

The hosts scored another try at the start of the second period to move 21 points clear and then continued to pile on the pressure.

A sixth try soon followed to make sure of Wimbledon’s 14th win in 16 games and kept them just a point behind table-topping Tonbridge Juddian.

But Southend continued to fight and scored their second try of the afternoon when replacement Dan Donnelly and Chris Vaughan linked up well to enable Potu Leavasa to touch down for the fifth time this season.

The try - which was again converted by Burr - took him to the top of Southend’s try scoring charts but he will now be eager to impress this weekend as Danny Cleare’s team take on ninth placed Guildford in another important encounter at Warners Bridge.

Southend Saxons: Ashton, Wiltshire, Ngaluafe, Vaughan, Griffiths, Burr, Gould, Day-White, Bloomberg, Shiels, Smith, Court-Rhind, Shields, Kellard, Leavasa

Replacements: O’Kill, Donnelly & Forster-Knight