A FINE debut from centre Mike Stanley helped Southend fight back to beat Nuneaton 41-15 at Warners Bridge on Sunday.

The England Under-19 international, who is on the books of Premiership club Saracens, scored one try and made another as the Seasiders came back to from 15-7 behind at the break to win.

And Seasiders coach Kevin Harman was full of praise for Stanley's performance.

"It was a really good debut from Mike," said Harman.

"We've obviously lost Faapulou Soolefai who has gone back home after his visa ran out but Mike has settled in really quickly.

"He's a different type of players to Hats (Soolefai) but he has plenty of pace and he really played a big part in the win."

Southend ran home six tries to see off Nuneaton but were forced to endure an indifferent opening half as the visitors piled on the pressure.

"We started well with a try but apart from that we played poorly in the first half," said Harman.

"We went to sleep a bit and Nuneaton were on top.

"That meant we had to change things around to stop that and it went well. We were more direct and we started to catch and drive more which in the end proved crucial in the win.

"It was a good day all round too as we had around 700 people there for our family day and our youngsters were coached by Kris Chesney from Saracens before the game which was great for them."

The emphatic victory saw Southend stay eighth in the table, four points below fifth placed Cambridge.

And Harman is hoping to narrow that gap during his side's final two games of the season.

"We want to finish as high as we can and it's certainly still possible for us to be in the top five," he said.

It did not take long for Southend to open the scoring as winger Tyson Lewis superbly sped over in the early exchanges.

Top scorer Andrew Frost again converted but against all odds the lowly visitors, who are fighting relegation, hit back to take the lead.

Fly half Rickie Aley kicked a penalty and in the 23rd minute flanker Gary Holmes touched down for a try, with Aley adding the extras.

Scrum half Huw Thomas then also scored a try to make it 15-7 but Southend came out stronger after the interval and, with 46 minutes on the clock, Stanley scored his first Southend try with Frost again converting.

A superb Simon Hoult try, which saw the full-back collect his own chip forward, then put the homeside into lead and Frost's usual conversion made it 21-15.

Frost then ran in a well executed try from the half way line which he also converted before scoring a penalty.

That made sure of victory but Southend finished well with two tries from replacements in the final two minutes.

The first saw Mark Billings secure an overhead pass from Hoult and dash for the line beating the opposition out of a tackle and the second came from the incredible pace of Chris Vaughan who maintained his speed from his own 22 to reach the try line for the final points of another pleasing Warners Bridge win for Southend.

Southend: Hoult, Lewis (Vaughan 68), Stanley, C Green, Frost, McKeith (Billings 59), Powell, Guess, Pay, I Cook (North 68), McClintock, Waring, Gill (S Cook 68), Johnson, Legge.