The Wanderers confirmed their promotion and lost their final league game of the season to a fired up Mersea who were good value for their win.For their part Ilford will see this game as possibly their worst performance of the season. The first half especially saw a catalogue of missed tackles and penalties and an inability to gain some sort of parity at the breakdown.
Ilford were able to take the lead after a poor Mersea clearance kick was collected by Clancy who ran back at pace. Quick recycling saw Fly Half
Alfie Waddems crash over.
Then followed a period of Mersea dominance which saw them score a penalty and two tries with strong running and a solid set piece although they were lucky to keep 15 players on the pitch after an horrific dump tackle that the official apparently didn't see.
At 15-7, the second half saw a determined Ilford fight back starting with a big scrum put down on Merseas 5 metre, Mersea collapsed the scrum but couldn't stop Ilford skipper Jason Taylor crashing over from the following breakdown.

Ilford were now In the game although still making uncharacteristic errors and constantly on the wrong side of poor refereeing, they gained another
pressure situation on Merseas line opting for a line out which again faltered, but Mersea decided to run from their own line, threw an ambitious pass
which hit the floor and was pounced on by Clancy to claim the score.
Now was the time for cool Ilford heads but the ball was coughed up and Mersea marched towards Ilfords line, with the away team coming offside
giving Mersea the chance to tap and go. Ilford were ragged in defence and Mersea scored. It took a nerveless conversion to claim the lead and Mersea got their just rewards.

Taylor commented "We are disappointed but really with our performance and inability to impose ourselves. We still got a bonus point which gave us promotion and were in with a chance right up to the last minute.Playing that badly and only losing by a point says this isn't a disaster""

Director of Rugby Chris Smith added" We expected a tough game and we got one. Mersea will challenge for promotion next year. But now we have a chance to put the icing on our season with The Presidents shield final in two weeks"