Rochford continued to attack the Norfolk outfit in the first quarter as Holt struggled to contain their opponents but the Essex boys could not add to their early score.

Gradually Holt worked the long journey out of their system and started to come back into the game and although still struggling in the tight they were lively in the loose and Rochford had to defend well to keep them out.

Holt eventually made pressure tell and went over for an unconverted try to level the scores at 5-5 at the break.

Rochford opened the second half in a positive mood and more sustained forward power saw Scott Horsburgh go over for a try to take his side back into the lead.

Holt hit back with a penalty kick as the game became very tight and both teams looked for that little extra to break the deadlock.

Second row Richard Mott provided that spark when he broke away and ran half the pitch to beat the defence and score an excellent try.

He was having a good game as was his second row partner Scott Wheeler who gets better and better with each game with his aggressive tackling and scrummaging.

The visitors fought back again with another penalty kick to put the score line at 15-8 and then went and scored another try which was converted to level the score at 15 points all.

This tight match was all in the balance but the home team had more urgency about them now and applied the pressure which resulted in two penalty kicks for Simon Ashton. He took full advantage to put Rochford ahead 21-15 going into the final minutes.

They just needed to see the game out and not give away any chances for Holt to comeback. Unfortunately that is exactly what they did do to give their opponents that chance and which Holt took gladly.

Their winger picked up loose ball and ran through many players who failed to stop him touching down in the corner.

A very difficult conversion from the touchline was hit well and dropped over the crossbar to the dismay of the watching Rochford players and spectators.

Only seconds remained and in spite of a last gasp effort time ran out for the shell shocked home team.

There were a number of good individual performances from such as Wheeler, Mott, Tom Corbet, Greg Whight, Sam Edwards, Matt White and others but the side have some issues to sort out in defence and decision making before taking on Ipswich next week.