SOUTHEND’S scrum half Sam Arnott felt his side’s 27-0 defeat at table-topping Ealing on Saturday was not a fair reflection of the game.

The Seasiders trailed the league leaders just 5-0 at the break.

And Arnott insists his team could have fought back if they had taken their chances.

“I think both teams will admit that the final score didn’t really tell the story of the game,” said Arnott.

“We were playing up the hill and against the wind in the first half so to be just 5-0 down wasn’t too bad.

“But we didn’t take our chances and that’s what cost us in the end as Ealing scored a couple of late tries.”

As a result, fourth placed Seasiders are now 15 points behind the West Londoners.

However, Arnott still believes Southend can figure in the push for promotion.

“We still have all the top teams apart from Ealing left to play and it’s a very tight league too,” he stressed.

“Anyone can beat anyone but January will be a key month for us because we play some very important matches and I think we will know an awful lot more about our season come the end of the month.”

Arnott was yellow carded along with Ealing’s hooker Jonathan Moyce after just five minutes at the weekend.

The remainder of the first half was tight and tentative before Ealing broke the dealock when outside centre Phil Chesters broke through on the outside and touched down.

Southend were unlucky not to get a try of their own before half-time after a good run from Sid Hoult.

His short outside pass to Danny Cleare, who broke through a couple of tackles and touched down, was called back after one of the touch judges deemed it forward.

The second half commenced with Southend enjoying their best quarter of play.

But their dominance went unrewarded as they failed to keep the ball.

Against the run of play Ealing’s prolific winger Owen Bruynseels then ran through the Southend defence and scored his side’s second try to make it 10-0.

A couple of minutes later Southend winger Mark Billings broke through only to be thwarted by a last ditch tap tackle by Phil Chesters and that was that for Southend.

Ealing continued to press and a successful Neil Hallet penalty soon made it 13-0.

Southend played the final seven minutes with 14 men after a yellow card to Todd Bailey and their fate was finally sealed when, having forced a 22 drop out instead of kicking long, they went for a smart little grubber kick through the mud.

It was gleefully picked up by Ealing and moved across the pitch to replacement Ronald McLean-Dents who touched down.

Hallet converted and the home-side had won the day.

With only a minute remaining, Ealing looked as though they would have to settle for a four point win but Southend gifted them their fourth bonus point try.

This time the Seasiders decided to pass the ball some 30 yards across their own try line and it resulted in a fumble.

Hallet took advantage, grabbed the ball and touched down before also converting to make it 27-0.