If ever there was a perfect example of that sports clich 'a game of two halves' then this was it.

With the senior side taking a much needed break to regroup their forces for the relegation battle ahead, it was left to Chris McCann and his men to fly the black and amber flag.

Thanks to a strong wind which turned kicking and passing into a necessary hazard the outcome of Saturday's game was always going to be a bit of a lottery.

Predictably Southend, playing with the howling gale at their backs in the first period, capitalised on the strength of their large pack to establish a 26-0 interval lead.

Buoyed by McCann's stirring half term team talk Tree came out after the break and harnessed the same natural asset to their own advantage.

But as it was they narrowly missed overturning the home side's lead, and were left to rue a series of missed tackles in the first 40 minutes which cost them dear.

Using their superior speed, Tree used tap and run tactics to torment their tiring opponents in a one sided second half.

Dan Phillips was first over the line for the black and ambers when he collected a pass from a tap and go penalty to crash over the line.

Shortly afterwards Phillips' score, Australian centre Lauchlan Marris burst through at pace to score under the posts.

The impressive Mark Wombwell audaciously drop-kicked the conversion to reduce the arrears to 26-12 and Tree's tails were up.

With less than 10 minutes remaining a flowing backs move found Mike Pengelly on the overlap and the Australian stormed over to score in the corner.

Tree continued to press as the game wore on and can count themselves unlucky not to have overturned Southend's first half lead.

Skipper McCann, making a welcome return to the second team after a recent run in the senior side, singled out Wombwell, young hooker Tom Sturman and forward Carl O'Brien for praise.

McCann said: 'It was a classic game of two halves but we paid for too many poor and missed tackles in the first 40 minutes.

"They had a big pack and I thought young Tom Sturman did very well against their hooker even though the wind played havoc with his throw-ins to the line-out.

"We used our speed and superior fitness to get at them in the second half but we ran out of time."

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