East London 38 - 20 Braintree

BRAINTREE’s hopes of clinching promotion from Essex One suffered a major body blow as East London exacted revenge for their defeat at Robbs Wood last month.
Saturday’s defeat came just a fortnight after the black and ambers lost their first game in the second, promotional phase of the league away to Millwall.
It means they will have to win all their remaining games this season and hope other results go for them to stand any chance of progressing to the next level.
The day started badly for Tree when their players were caught up in traffic problems on the M11 and arrived late for their pre-match warm-up.
As a result they got off to a sluggish start which saw them concede the first try of the game after just two minutes.
An infringement at the breakdown straight from the kick-off gave East London a penalty which they kicked into the corner before setting up a catch and drive line-out move.
The ball was worked out wide to their blind-side winger who crashed over to score in the corner for a converted try. 7-0.
This spurred the visitors into action and they went straight on the offensive, pinning East London inside their own 22 for the next quarter of an hour.
The hosts withstood Tree’s pressure and finally managed to clear their lines, only for their kick upfield to be gathered by Glenn Whyatt, who ran the ball straight back at them, skipping past three or four challenges to score a superb try in the corner. 7-5.
East London went on the attack straight from the re-start but found the visitors in resolute mood as they repelled move after move.
Second row Dan Johnson was yellow-carded for a mystery infringement but such was Tree’s determination that they kept their hosts at bay until he had served his time in the bin.
With the first half drawing to a close the home side eventually broke through to score a well-worked try which was converted to give them a 14-5 lead.
But Tree went back on the front foot again and were awarded a penalty which was converted by Kingsley Joslin to reduce the arrears to 14-8 at the interval.

Tree started the second half strongly with almost all of the play taking place in East London’s 22 but were unable to convert their possession into points.
Their cause was boosted when the hosts had a man sin-binned for continually infringing at the breakdown but they were unable to capitalise on the numerical advantage.
And their profligacy cost them dearly when East Lodnon managed to score an uncoverted breakaway try in the corner to stretch their lead to 19-8.
To their credit Tree hit straight back, regaining the ball from the re-start and working the ball out wide to wing George Crane.
He had a lot to do but stepped inside his opposite number to score another unconverted try in the corner to reduce the arrears to 19-13.
Tree’s forwards seemed to tire as the game went on and in their efforts to get back in the game they conceded a killer interception try which was converted to put the hosts 26-13.
That score seemed to knock the stuffing out of the visitors, who conceded two further tries, one of which was converted, to trail 38-13.
With the clock ticking down Tree had the final word with a well-worked score under posts from Whyatt which was converted by Joslin. 38-20.

After the game disappointed black and ambers head coach Brian Joslin said: “East London probably deserved the win but I feel the score flattered them somewhat.
“We didn’t get the rub of the green when it came to the decisions and on another day with another ref we could have come away with a win.
“I can’t fault the players for their effort but our failure to convert possession into points cost us dear and we looked a bit leggy at times so we need to work on our fitness again.”
Tree will have to dust themselves off quickly as they are back in action next weekend when they play their third away game on the trot away to Bancroft.
Said Joslin: “Bancroft are a very good side and will be out for revenge after their defeat to us earlier this season so we’ll have to be on our mettle.”