RUGBY: Southend Saxons head into tomorrow’s clash with Shelford on a high after returning to winning ways.

Southend ended a run of six successive defeats by beating North Walsham 18-10 on Saturday.

And co-captain Ben Lloyd admitted the positive result has given Saxons a big lift.

“Of course winning always helps,” said Lloyd.

“ It’s contagious, it affects the atmosphere at training during the week and this group got very used to that winning feeling last season.

“It’s been great to have that back again.

“We were so determined to get ourselves back there, you could see that in the opening quarter of the game where I think we played some of our best rugby.”

The victory moved Southend ninth in the Regional One South East standings.

But Lloyd always felt it would take time for the Saxons to get used to playing at a higher level after being promoted as Regional Two Anglia champions last term.

“This season was always going to mean some adjusting to life at a new level,” said Lloyd.

“The blueprint is there from other teams who have done the same thing in recent seasons and are now competing at the top end of this league.

“We’ve already shown what level we can get to, we’ve caused problems for some of the best teams in the league but our challenge is to consistently produce top performances.

“There’s no easy weekends like there might have been last year.”

Shelford arrive at Warners Bridge sitting seventh in the table, six points higher than Southend.

And Lloyd has been encouraged by how the Saxons have improved throughout the campaign so far, “It’s definitely a process,” said the fly-half.

“We’ve run some good teams close but there’s also been opportunities to take more from some games than we did.

“The positive though is there’s clear improvement and that will continue as we adjust.

“This group is determined to keep getting better and to really compete at this level, so I’m excited to see where we can get to and what the second half of the season might look like.”

Elsewhere this weekend there is a top of the table clash in Regional Two Anglia as league leaders Westcliff travel to second placed Eton Manor.

Westcliff head into the game three points clear of their title rivals.

Elsewhere, ninth placed Rochford Hundred head to Wanstead who are sixth in the table.