STUART Whatling wants to see a strong reaction from Southend Saxons this weekend.

Southend suffered their first defeat since the opening day of last season when losing 54-17 to Sudbury at Warners Bridge last weekend.

And Whatling is now looking to get back on track when Saxons host Old Northamptonians tomorrow.

“The reaction is more important than the result,” said Whatling.

“I don't think a loss is necessarily a bad thing for us at this point after 28 wins in a row.

“I said to the boys after the game that it's easy to be a good teammate when you're winning games every week but it's when you have a setback that the best players and characters stand up.

“The reaction in training this week had already been very positive but the true test comes on Saturday.”

Southend won their first two games of the Regional One South East season before Saturday’s defeat.

But Whatling feels lessons will be learnt from the setback.

“We got a rude awakening against Sudbury as to what it takes to win games in this league,” said Whatling.

“We were in the game at half time without playing particularly well but second half we were inaccurate in just about everything we did and Sudbury, to their credit, were ruthless in making us pay for our mistakes.”

However, Whatling does still not feel there has been a big step up from playing in Regional Two Anglia last season.

“It’s not a huge step,” said Whatling.

“We're two wins from three, we know we're at the level it's just about being consistent and backing performances up week after week as there are no easy games as there perhaps were in the league below.”

And Whatling knows it will be far from straightforward this weekend.

“We’re expecting a very strong Old Northamptonians side,” said Whatling.

“They move the ball and play at pace with some dangerous runners so we have to improve defensively.

“But we're excited to right the wrongs of last week.”

Southend go into the game sixth in the standings with Old Northamptonians a point below them in seventh.

In Regional Two Anglia this weekend, table-topping Westcliff head to bottom of the table Stowmarket.

In Counties One Essex, sixth placed Basildon host Upminster who are ninth.

In Counties Two Essex, Canvey Island are at home to Billericay.

Canvey are currently sixth in the table with Billericay third.