They battled hard to the very end against an undefeated 1 st division side bar one loss to Brentwood winning most of there games by 60 points.. As we only completed the semi final on Monday night, which saw the withdrawal through injury for the final of Ted Blakesley, and with a few of the boys carrying knocks we then had the upset of Dan Dormon having his foot run over on the morning of the game making him unavailable to play but still turned up to support.

Southend started brightly but managed to allow them to turnover our ball on the 22 and sped the ball along there backs to bust thru our defence and open the scoring. captain Ed Spink rallied the boys into some great play but with there outstanding backs and the full back continually hitting the line we always seemed to give them too much space to operate to there strengths . After a couple more scores we finally broke them down with some hard running from James Mumford which allowing the forwards to produce quick ball for Joe Green to dance thru and score making the half time score 17 - 7 . After a couple lapses of concentration we allowed them a couple of easy scores despite some excellent cover tackling from Harrison Smith they still scored due mostly to there excellent support play.

In the last 5 minutes south ends never say die attitude came to the fore and Loyd Page made another powerful bust up the middle and crashed over for the final score.

Hopefully we can not only take the fact that we are the only Southend team to ever reach an Essex cup final but to see a team execute what we always work on at training by, forward support play and the backs attacking in the wide channels and speed of the defensive line.

Finally it's been a pleasure working with the boys this year and I think they have done their parents and coaches proud Not only with the results but the excellent turnout we have had from all squad members at training.

Now for a peaceful summer.

Martin , Steve, Roy , Chris