Boothroyd: 'We went toe-to-toe with Southend for long periods'
Nothampton manager Aidy Boothroyd is not the type to take defeat lying down, and he came out fighting when speaking to the media after his side had received such a late mauling at the hands of the table topping Shrimpers and the two goal super sub Bilel Mohsni.
Boothroyd told www.ntfc.co.uk: "I think for long periods you wouldn't have been able to tell which team was top of the league and what team was at the bottom. We went toe-to-toe with Southend for long periods but we switched off in the latter stages and that's what cost us. It wasn't a 5-2 in terms of performance but we switched on for 95 minutes, not just 85 and we didn't do that today.'
The former head farmer was determined to take any positives he could from a defeat that placed them at the bottom of League Two on goal difference!
Boothroyd said: "The pleasing thing was that we didn't give up, we kept going and we are going to need to keep doing that in every game from now to the end of the season. We can talk about the penalty and we can talk about Ben Harding's free-kick that hit the post, you can talk about the free-kick form Michael Jacobs and you can talk about the header from Saido Berahino that was an inch wide but I believe that in the long-term you make your own luck."
That's a lot of talking Aidy, some would say excuses.
He went on, talking: "We can't start blaming referees and linesman because we have got to take responsibility for what we do. We can't make excuses and we will come back in Monday and start preparing for Barnet. We can't feel sorry for ourselves and we've just got to keep working hard."
Enough; We were the stronger side before the break until a defensive cock-up handed them the lead, after that, there was a clear hand ball that the ref missed in that first 15 minutes of the second half where Southend tore the home side apart, we could have gone 5-2 up in the period alone.
Yes, they came back well after Bilel had put us in the lead for the first time with a great header, but we had the options on the bench that they didn't, and didn't we make it tell.
Brilliant Blues, roll on the Shrews next week, I think more tickets might be sold for that game after this cracking performance after the break.
'I think we're win 4-0'; views from the holt end: www.thehotelend.co.uk
Discuss the game on S24: http://boards.footymad.net
Dicko's spot kick: www.youtube.com
The DSG match report: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk
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