Millwall 17
Wanstead 10
(Essex One)

WANSTEAD suffered a third league defeat of the season.

The Herons raced into a 5-0 lead after winger Chris Luxmore went over in the corner. The hosts however made the most of some very charitable defending and ran in three tries, one of which was converted to give them a 17-5 interval lead.

Wanstead's chances of a fightback were dealt a blow when Darren Ashton was red carded at the start of the second period for foul play.

The visitors however tightened up at the back, but then found themselves down to 13 men. An injury to Andy Donovan saw him leaving the field with 20 minutes to play and with their three replacements having already been made the Herons were now down by two men.

They however continued to show fight and winger Luxmore went over for his second try in the corner. Wanstead continued to press after that, but they were unable to cross the Millwall line for a third time.Frustrated skipper Paul Cristofoli said: "Our first half performance was very disappointing, because we let them score three very soft tries.

"We did however show some fight after the break especially after we went down to 13 men, but we need to show that commitment from the start."