TOUGH LOST

Head coach Eddie Gooby was at a loss to explain his East London side’s poor showing as they lost 19-10 away to London 3 Essex leaders Upminster on Saturday (19 October).
“It was not one of our best performances and we need to take what few positives we can from it without taking anything away from a solid Upminster side,” said Gooby.
The first half saw the maroon and blues playing up the Upminster sloping pitch and into a strong wind. Despite some early pressure during which breaks from full back Max Stanyard posed problems for the home defence, East London were 12-0 down within 26 minutes to two tries, one of which was converted. Upminster missed two penalties as well during that period.
The visitors narrowed the gap on 33 minutes when flanker Nick Parrott scored. The skipper burst through two tackles to go over in the right corner. The conversion was missed.
Upminster missed another penalty on 37 minutes before an unfortunate fumble by inside centre Roger Ng allowed them to extend their lead to 19-5 at the break thanks to a converted try.
Stanyard missed a penalty on 44 minutes but there was hope for East London three minutes later when outside centre Kevin O’Donoghue scored a fine try. The conversion was missed.
Despite further pressure including two knock-ons when close to the line, the visitors failed to take advantage of the slope or the conditions to add to their score. The defeat saw then them drop to seventh in the table.
East London 1st XV versus Upminster 1st XV: 1. Huw Shortland; 2. Aidan Power; 3. Mantas Urbonavicius; 4. Ben Stern; 5. Luke Staples-Preston; 6. Nick Parrott; 7. Sam Cassidy; 8. Dan Bracken; 9. Will Brown; 10. Ryan Billinghurst; 11. Ernestas Lisauskas; 12. Roger Ng; 13. Kevin O’Donoghue; 14. Conor Reilly; 15. Max Stanyard. Replacements; 16. Dave Gibson; 17. Ed Brown; 18. Chris Brown.