Craig Ratford

National Two South: Southend 55 Barking 14

Barking had a second half to forget on Saturday at Southend as they slumped to their 10th successive loss in National Two South to remain firmly rooted to the bottom of the league.

At the interval, Dean Cutting’s side were 24-14 down, but with a real chance of picking up their first league points of the season.

But the second period proved to be one-way traffic as Southend took control and moved themselves away from the relegation zone with a first win in five games.

Recent signing Stephen Hihetah moved into Barking’s starting XV after making an appearance off the replacement bench last weekend in their 85-3 loss at home to league leaders Henley Hawks.

And they didn’t get off to the best of starts as Southend came flying out of the blocks.

They took the lead after just three minutes when No.8 Sam Cook went over and two further tries from Sonny Gay and Mark Billings, one converted via the boot of Bradley Burr, put them into a 19-0 lead. Barking responded, however, and centre Andrew Mead crossed the whitewash before three Craig Ratford penalties pulled them right back into it despite Chris Vaughan crossing for the fourth bonus-point winning try.

But not for the first time this season Barking’s opponents started to profit, despite Southend being reduced to 14 men when Burr was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes after a petulant throw of the ball at an opposing number.

Despite that, the visitors failed to profit as Vaughan went over once more and Andrew McClintock added the sixth try

They failed to make the most of another 10-minute period with the hosts down to 14 men.

And before the hour was out a penalty try stretched Southend’s lead and Billings notched his second try of the afternoon.

Burr’s conversion of that score pushed the hosts past the 50-boint barrier and to round off the victory replacement Daniel Cleare went over for the ninth try.

Barking: Quirke, Solanke-Caulker, Hihetah, Mead, Foster, Ratford, Fouracre, Ambrose, M Anderson, S John, James-Nicholls, Fox, Kearsey, R Anderson, Peasnall. Replacements: McFarlane, N John, Layade, Udo-Udoma, Lowe.