CHRIS Vaughan bagged a hat-trick of tries to help Southend Saxons secure their National Three London & SE status with a 36-14 win against Westcombe Park on Saturday.

Southend seemed certain to be relegated after being deducted 10 points by the RFU for failing to control their crowd in a heated clash with Colchester.

But, despite being 10 points from safety in early February, Southend have been able to turn things around, winning seven of their last eight games to stay up and Vaughan remains delighted to have stopped Saxons going down.

“It was a great feeling getting the win but when we also found out Chichester had lost to make us safe everyone was ecstatic,” said the centre.

“I’ve been here for a while now and this is definitely up there with everything else we’ve achieved because when we got the 10 points deducted I thought that was us finished if I’m really honest. But the attitude of the boys has been unbelievable and winning seven out of the last eight games is quite impressive.”

Prior to the upturn in form, Southend were beaten eight times in nine games.

However, the appointment of Danny Cleare as first team coach sparked Saxons into life and Vaughan was quick to heap praise on the club’s coaching set-up.

“It’s really hard to put your finger on what inspired it but Danny Cleare and Daniel Legge have done a really good job along with Martin Jones,” said Vaughan.

“They have created a good environment and everyone has just brought into what they have asked of us.”

That has resulted in Southend working their way out of danger and Vaughan was also pleased to score a hat-trick on Saturday having previously failed to score this season.

“I was happy but I just got rewarded for other people’s hard work really,” said Vaughan.

“Saying that though I’m just pleased I will finish the season with some tries because I was starting to get a bit of stick off the boys!”

Captain Marcus Bloomberg also touched down along with scrum half Ricki Gould and in-form winger Norbertas Radzevicius and coach Cleare was also pleased with the performance.

“From a coaching point of view I was delighted with the way we played,” said Cleare.

“It was a really mature performance and you could tell we had more to play. We were more desperate in everything we did but that pressure can go one of two ways. You either crumble under it or embrace it and we did the latter.”

Southend: Ashton, Radzevicius, Griffiths, Vaughan, Cleare, Burr, Gould, Strachan, Bloomberg, Bailey, Court-Rhind, Fombo, Shields, Kellard, Legge. Replacements: Morgan, Smith & O’Brien