National Two South

Southend 12

FORMER Lydney player Sam Arnott came back to haunt his old club with a winning late touchdown for Southend.

The young scrum-half – who also had a spell at Cinderford – wriggled over in the corner three minutes from time to give his side a crucial advantage in front of a bumper Regentsholme crowd of 456. Andrew Frost slotted a difficult conversion.

Lydney tried hard to strike back immediately, running the ball from deep, but the visitors shut them out.

Lydney's Craig Jones said of Arnott: "Of all the people to score it had to be him!

James Bashford calls him rat boy – because he's an annoying little rat on a rugby pitch, always winding people up – but we're good mates off the field."

Brett Turner booted Lydney into a second minute lead with a 30m penalty, but the home side's plans were hit by a hamstring injury to scrum-half Lee Thomas that forced him off the pitch. Chris Holder replaced him in the 16th minute, with Will Kane switching from the wing to scrum-half.

On 30 minutes, Southend switched play to capitalise on a huge gap on the left. Billings handing Andrew Frost an easy stroll to the corner for an unconverted try.

Southend began the second half strongly and Arnott felt hard done by when he was adjudged to have knocked on when crossing close to the posts in the 45th minute.

A high tackle on full-back Tony Wicks incensed both the Lydney players, their dugout and the home crowd, bringing the game to life.

A mass brawl broke out and Lydney found renewed conviction.

The pack drove Jim McMahon over from a line-out catch-and-drive with 10 minutes to go. Turner was unable to land the conversion.

Lydney's Craig Jones said: "It won't be long before we start picking off some of these top sides.

"I thought Will Kane did a great job under pressure at scrum-half. He's only just come into the side and hasn't played much at nine, but losing Lee didn't affect us too much.

"We had the wind with us in the first half but didn't play as well as we would have liked.

"I thought our forwards were excellent in the second half and we kept the ball well in phases. It was anyone's match, but we drifted away from our normal gameplan at the end and threw it wide more often."

Lydney: Tony Wicks, Will Kane, Brett Turner, Josh Hannam, Charlie Vine, Craig Jones, Lee Thomas, Nick Stoneman, Ben Lewis, Nick Selway, Dave Bennett, Jim McMahon, Tim Longton, Will Jones (capt), Matt Taylor. Reps: Chris Holder for Lee Thomas 16mins; Leigh Green for Nick Stoneman 46mins; Paul Scott for Tim Longton 48mins; James Bashford for Dave Bennett 70mins. Rep not used: Rob Sargent.