SOUTHEND Rugby Club’s hopes of National League Two survival suffered a massive blow on Saturday as they lost at Waterloo — the only side below them in the table.

The Seasiders were narrowly beaten 27-26 by the Liverpool side and have now suffered nine successive league defeats.

But their skipper Andrew McClintock refuses to admit that relegation is a foregone conclusion.

“We are certainly not throwing the towel in,” he confirmed.

“We still have plenty of games to go, but we’ve certainly made it difficult for ourselves with a result like this.

“It was the same old story really in that we had periods of pressure but in the end we let them back in.

“We had a chance to win it right at the end but a kick from Sid Hoult just went the wrong side of the post.”

Despite the eventual outcome, Southend took an early lead from the boot of Jake Sharp but lost it 15 minutes later to a try from Waterloo’s flying winger Matt Williams.

He scored the first of his tries when allowed plenty of free space and a missed tackle saw him touch down in the corner.

But a good forwards try from Isaac Cook followed as he battered over the line to restore Southend’s lead.

The advantage was only temporary though as Williams again sped down the field before touching down to make it 10-8 to Waterloo at the break.

The restart saw an early penalty from Southend’s Hoult and another forwards try, this time from Sam Cook.

The conversion from Hoult took Southend into a 18-10 lead.

Substitutions, some forced, some not, changed the shape of the team and a period of uncertainty allowed Waterloo back into the game.

Another converted try from Williams saw him with his hat-trick and when the fullback James O’Brien added another, converted by fly half Liam Reave, it put Waterloo in front 24-18.

A simple penalty, conceded in front of the posts, was again converted by Reave and took the score to 27-18 with five minutes to go.

Southend looked dead and buried, but a late rally and not a little panic from Waterloo saw a successful penalty from Hoult.

He followed it up with a try deep into injury time but a Roy of The Rovers moment failed to materialise as his attempted conversion from wide out just failed, leaving Southend losing by one point for the second week in a row.

>SOUTHEND’S Tim Kasten, who has been a revelation since his inclusion in the starting line-up, has been called up by Germany for the B Six Nations Tournament.

He will be missing for the Seasiders for the next three weeks.