DANNY Cleare is ready to rebuild at Rochford Hundred.

Rochford suffered relegation from Regional One South East this season.

But head coach Cleare knows it could take time to get things back on track.

“Naturally after a relegation the initial feeling is to want to bounce straight back but the reality is often very different,” said Cleare.

“It’s all about keeping our feet grounded, start to rebuild and just concentrate on taking a game at a time, rather than thinking about end of season goal a year in advance.”

Rochford finished second from bottom in the standings having triumphed five times in 22 outings.

And Cleare felt a lengthy injury list proved costly.

“Naturally it’s frustrating to be relegated and it certainly wasn’t something we expected at the start of the season, especially when we won three of the first four games,” said Cleare.

“But it seemed week after week we were picking up season ending injuries including ACL ruptures, broken shoulders, broken fibula and tibia bones, a broken back, and hip arthritis just to name a few.

“In all my years I’ve never seen anything like it.”

However, Rochford still dug deep in a bid to stay up.

“We remained competitive for most games this season even if we weren’t winning them, until the last couple of months,” said Cleare.

“We took a couple of heavy losses, but the last two games when we had some important experienced players back you could see what we are capable of.

“We beat Old Northamptonians and should have, and could have beaten Oundle as well.”