SOUTHEND Saxons’ director of rugby Josh Ward was left ‘incredibly disappointed’ following his side’s 35-32 defeat at Fullerians.

Southend had been hoping to secure their third successive victory in London One North.

But Saxons produced a below par performance against their struggling hosts, much to the frustration of Ward.

“I’m incredibly disappointed with Saturday’s performance,” said Ward.

“I think it’s important to credit Fullerians who fully deserved their victory but I also apologise to our support as our performance was nowhere near acceptable.

“We started well with good field position and played some patient phases but our ill discipline and lack of execution was costly.

“We got into threatening areas and unfortunately made some poor decisions.

“I felt we were on the receiving end of some interesting decisions but ultimately we weren’t good enough.

“We’re an honest group and we need to be better next week.”

Jac Sexton, Matt Wagstaff, Danny Forster-Knight, Tom Day and Blue Newton all scored tries for Southend but it was not enough to prevent defeat.

The Saxons trailed 17-10 at half-time and were unable to claw back the deficit in the second half.

The defeat kept Southend ninth in the standings and frustrated scrum half Harry Branch.

“Saturday’s game was very frustrating for us,” said Branch, who returned to Warners Bridge from Westcliff in the summer.

“I felt we let the game slip away from us in the first half and it was disappointing.

“It was frustrating to lose the game because in my mind we should have won.

“But unfortunately we didn’t perform to our potential and ultimately that’s why we lost.

“I’m expecting everyone to be training hard this week now and reviewing our opponents this weekend on the video to give us the best opportunity of winning at the weekend.”

Southend will also be confident of getting back on track on Saturday as they host a struggling Diss side who are currently bottom of the table with just one win to their name.

Southend Saxons: Banks, Joe Sexton, Crossan, Vaughan, Day, Ramsey, Branch, Campbell-Webster, Grier, Armitage, Newton, O’Kill, Morrison, Cann, Wagstaff.

Replacements; Bailey, Forster-Knight & Jac Sexton.