SOUTHEND Saxons’ director of rugby Chris Green offered no excuses for his side’s poor display in a 40-11 defeat at Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday.

Saxons crashed to a second National Two South defeat in three games after failing to reach the standards they set when beating high-flying Taunton the week before.

And that disappointed Green.

“We weren’t good enough and it was a poor performance, it’s as simple as that,” said Green.

“We never got anywhere near the type of display we produced against Taunton and it wasn’t good enough.

“I could go through the players we had injured, those who had knocks and had to come off but I’m not willing to make excuses.

“We just didn’t play well enough and we will need to do much better when we take on Shelford on Saturday.”

Stortford started strongly at the weekend and had two tries disallowed before they took the lead in the 15th minute when Jono Child touched down out wide.

Within seven minutes, Southend were back in the game when Brad Burr kicked a penalty but the home-side continued to attack and soon scored another try with Mike Gallager touching down.

Tom Coleman added the conversion before Burr hit back with another penalty for the Saxons.

But fourth placed Stortford were in fine form and raced further ahead just before the break when Arran Mahoney bagged a try.

After the break, the home-side continued to attack with Gallagher scoring his second try of the afternoon.

Coleman added the conversion before Southend bagged their first try of the game with top try scorer Harry Hudson touching down for the seventh time this season.

However, Stortford had the final say when Tom Banks went through and Coleman converted to complete a miserable afternoon for Saxons.

The defeat kept Saxons 13th in the table and they will be desperate to bounce back in Saturday’s crunch clash against Shelford, who are two places below them, at Warners Bridge.

Southend Saxons: Burr, Cleare, Vaughan, Ashton, Billings, Coleman, Powell, Strachan, Ferrier, Bevans-Royston, Chesney, Legge, Hudson, Kellard, Jackson

Replacements: Bloomberg, Shields, Fombo, Pollard & Nash