BRENTWOOD climbed up to fifth in the table despite a sloppy performance against bottom-placed Rochford.
The visitors kicked off down the slope on a sticky surface following the recent snow and rain, and Brentwood were immediately penalised for an illegal shoulder charge in front of the posts, but Rochford missed a relatively straightforward chance to go ahead.
The visitors continued to press, with Brentwood totally out of touch and making a stream of unforced errors, and Rochford's profligacy again came to the fore as they missed another kickable penalty on ten minutes.
The home side improved slightly after the midpoint of the first half as they started to put some phases together. A series of scrums on the visitors' five-metre line gave their powerful pack every chance for a first try, but the back-row failed to exert a decent eight-man shove and the opportunities were lost.
Scrum-half Luke Green was starting to influence the game for the home side but their momentum was lost as they went down to 14 men when centre Adam Thomas was yellow carded.
And Rochford took advantage of the extra man, taking a 7-0 lead thanks to an easy converted try.
It got even worse for the home side when Tom King was also sin-binned, but despite their two-man disadvantage, a quick break upfield set up fly-half Declan Gillet to reduce the arrears, and although the conversion was missed, the home side were just two points behind.
Rochford's No 8 was sin-binned just before the break, which helped Brentwood's cause, but it could not avenge a miserable 40 minutes for the home supporters.
Fortunately, going downhill in the second half and back to their full complement, Brentwood's structure returned.
With Green constantly probing round the scrum and ruck, Rochford were now on the back foot.
It took 20 minutes for the breakthrough though when a surge downfield led by winger Ryan Dee ended with a penalty in front of the posts which Dan Whitehead converted to put Brentwood ahead 8-7.
This score was quickly followed by the second Brentwood try. A break by Green took play into Rochford's 22, and a big drive from the scrum resulted in captain Josh Woodcock going over for an unconverted try.
The home side were now in control but handling errors kept hard-working Rochford in sight of victory.
But a final drive to the left corner put Steve Killington over for the third Brentwood try to seal victory at 18-7.
Brentwood are back in action on Saturday when they travel to face fourth-placed Colchester at 3pm.
