Will Green assessed Worthing’s first home slip-up of the season and declared: “We could have won with 14 men.”

Raiders had hooker Joe Shopland dismissed for a second yellow card late in the first half as they lost 36-28 to fellow top six side Southend.

They were already missing banned lock Charlie McGowan and unwell skipper and flanker James Arthur.

Stand-in captain Jamie Redmayne crossed in the second half and there was also a late penalty try but the West Sussex side narrowly missed out on both losing and try-scoring bonus points.

Green said: “We were a man down after 35 minutes but we are pretty positive because we felt we could have won the game with 14.

“We dropped the ball twice when we were over the line. We missed a couple of kicks.

“So we had opportunities but just did not convert them.”

Stuart Pearham scored a 13th-minute try as Raiders took a 10-5 lead.

Southend had two players sin-binned but the advantage shifted their way when Shopland was yellow-carded, then came back on and was soon adjudged to have deliberately blocked a pass while coming back from an offside position.

His dismissal will be subject of an RFU hearing, possibly this week, but there is no automatic ban.

Andy Frost, top scorer in the division, helped himself to 16 points for Southend including a try.

Matt McLean landed two conversions and three penalties for Raiders.

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