A LONG season came to a close on Saturday for Redruth as they managed to hang on for an 18-16 victory against Southend despite having a man sent off.

The Essex side departed the Rec with a losing bonus point which in the process saw them just hold off relegation and send Lydney, who did all they could with a 26-24 win at Shelford, down instead on points difference.

Their desperation to stay in National League Two South next season clearly spurred on the Saxons and they probed the Reds defence throughout the match, with their endeavour creating a mistake from the hosts when the ball went lose at a scrum with Daniel Legge diving over the line.

Nielson Webber was sin-binned soon afterwards and with momentum right in Southend’s path, it seemed like there was only one direction the scoreboard would be going.

However, going a man down temporarily seemed to galvanise the home team and they put in a decent shift to keep their opponents at bay before getting on the scoreboard themselves when a rolling maul saw Todd Prisk dot the ball down, with Ashley Hosking adding the conversion.

It remained 7-5 for the rest of the half and just before the break, Southend’s David Jackson was shown a yellow card. This did not prevent the Essex boys from putting in a good start after the interval and frustration was starting to develop in Redruth’s ranks.

This culminated in referee Calum Howard brandishing his red card in the direction of home scrum-half Greg Goodfellow after some serious foul play and shortly afterwards Southend were back ahead with Legge getting his second try.

The hosts were determined to finish the season with a real hurrah though and they showed grit when hooker Richard Brown was driven over the whitewash from a maul to put them 12-10 ahead.

Penalties were then the order of the day as the teams exchanged the lead once more when Bradley Burr’s kick was matched by two from Hosking.

A kick in the final minute from the visiting full-back ensured the point required for the Saxons to stay up, but it was Redruth who finished the day with four points to push them into ninth place above county rivals the Cornish All Blacks.

REDRUTH: 15 Hosking, 14 Vinnicombe, 13 Wedlake, 12 Webber, 11 Bowden, 10 Rule, 9 Goodfellow; 1 Phillips, 2 Brown, 3 Williams (Drew 50), 4 Cook, 5 Prisk (Howe 56), 6 Stevens (Hambly 69), 7 Fuca (Stevens 70), Marriott.

UNUSED REPS: Southworth, Rutter.

TRIES: Prisk, Brown.

CONS: Hosking 1/2.

PENS: Hosking 2.

SIN-BIN: Webber (16).

RED CARD: Goodfellow (48).