ROCHFORD Hundred head coach Danny Cleare felt his side ‘shot themselves in the foot’ during Saturday’s 31-21 defeat to Sudbury at Magnolia Road.

The setback was Rochford’s fourth in succession.

But Cleare felt it was one that could have been avoided.

“It was definitely a game that got away from us,” said Cleare.

“In the first half we shot ourselves in the foot with too many penalties and had back to back yellows, so playing with 13 men was a tough challenge.

“But we actually did alright during that time and managed to stay in the game.”

Rochford then rallied at the start of the second half.

But their momentum was again halted by injuries in key areas.

“In the second half we started much better and started to get a foot hold in the match,” said Cleare.

“We got in front and really started to dominate.

“But then what seems to be the story of our season happened again as we lost Mark Ikhifa to a bad knee injury.

“Shortly after we lost (Jake) Spivey to a knee injury and then before you know it we are having players out of position.

“Forwards were playing in the backline and we just lost a lot of our momentum and control that we had at that time.

“We then conceded two really poor tries and couldn’t recover.”

Rochford are now 10th in Regional One South East and head to table-topping Colchester on Saturday.