Southend's promotion charge suffered a setback when they were agonisingly edged out by rivals Haywards Heath.

After gifting several early tries to their rivals, the seasiders were always up against it.

But they attempted a brave fightback and almost pulled it off following tries from Nathan Strange and James Wagstaff, plus four penalties and a conversion from Ali Chambers.

First-team manager Gerry Lamb said; "There were too many avoidable errors and the Southend players are well aware of this.

"There is a lot of hard work to do to put this game behind them."

Published Tuesday, January 14, 2003

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