SOUTHEND skipper Mark Williams wants his team to keep their cool when they bid to bounce back against Lydney at Warners Bridge tomorrow.

The Seasiders have had players sent off in their last two matches.

And Williams wants to stop the run of red cards this weekend.

“It’s something you do need to be mindful of because you obviously reduce your chances of winning the game when you go down to 14 men,” said Williams.

“We’ve had that two games running now so we need to try and make sure we stick to the rules and don’t find ourselves in trouble again.

“Last weekend at Clifton we played the whole second half without our scrum half who is the link between the forwards and backs so that meant it was always going to be difficult for us to win.”

As a result, Southend ended up losing 30-11 at Clifton to remain eighth in the National Two South standings.

That puts them just one point and one place behind Lydney and Williams is therefore expecting a close game.

“We’ve had similar starts to the season so you would think the match would be quite close,” said the powerful prop forward.

“But I don’t really know too much else about them or what to expect.

“Typically Lydney are tough up front so we will need to match that if we are to win but we need to start becoming a bit more consistent in our play.”