STUART Whatling feels Southend Saxons have shown they should be towards the top of the London One North table this season.

Sixth placed Southend, who host Leighton Buzzard at Warners Bridge tomorrow, are unbeaten in their last four games.

And Whatling has been encouraged by the performances.

“I think we've proved so far that we belong at the top end of this league,” said Whatling.

“We will continue to get better each week as we are working hard and hopefully we can begin to be a bit more ruthless in our performances.

“We've got a tight group and we're heading in the right direction.”

And Whatling feels it has been a good start to the season.

“It’s been positive so far,” said Whatling.

“After a shaky start and rustiness after the long break we have started to find our feet and put together four games unbeaten, despite letting a victory slip last week.

“The league seems very open in that anyone can beat anyone so we know going forward we will need to be on it every week.”

Last time out, Southend drew 27-27 with table-topping Eton Manor.

But Whatling was disappointed not to win as the Saxons let their slip in the final play of the game.

“On paper, securing three points away from home against the league leaders is a decent result but in all honesty it felt like a defeat having controlled the majority of the game,” said Whatling.

“The first half was probably the best rugby we've played so far this season, we were physically dominant and played some smart rugby but we let ourselves down in the second half and the late try was hard to take.”

Southend will now be looking to get back to winning ways this weekend.

But Whatling will be entering the unknown against Leighton Buzzard tomorrow.

“It's difficult to know what to expect from Leighton Buzzard as they've historically played in the Midlands leagues so we haven't faced them previously,” said Whatling.

“We'll focus on our own performance and we're looking forward to running back out at Warners Bridge with the intention of bringing what we did last week, but for 80 minutes this time.”

In London Two North East, bottom of the table South Woodham Ferrers host six placed Woodford while, in London Three Essex, Canvey Island, who are bottom, entertain second placed Harlow.