Five Million watch Southend v Chelsea

Last updated : 15 January 2009 By Shrimpers24
ITV1's FA Cup coverage of Chelsea's 4-1 hard fought win against Southend United won the prime time slot with 5.1m viewers and a 21.7% share of the 8pm-10.15pm audience.

It got a million more than the Elephant Show in second place and three million more than Ulrika struggling with a bow and arrow.

Blues boss Steve Tilson was certainly proud of the display his team put up in front of the nation and accepted that Petr Cech's world class save from Alex Revell was the turning point at Roots Hall Wednesday night.

Adam Barrett had put the Shrimpers into the lead when the Chelsea keeper somehow kept out Revell's header from close range.

Tilly believes that was the pivotal moment of the match: "If that goes in we're 2-0 up and all of a sudden Chelsea are really up against it. They would have been struggling and it becomes a different game. It was a fantastic save and Revs couldn't have connected with it any better so it's certainly unfortunate from his point of view. Even at the start of the second half Jean-Francois Christophe had a chance to score with a free header so we did have opportunities. But against these type of sides you have to take them or you're going to get punished, which is what happened in the end."

That frustrated Tilly who admitted to being disappointed at the final score-line. However the Shrimpers manager remained upbeat and admitted his players could not have given any more.

He continued: "They put absolutely everything into it and they should be proud of what they've done here. We were up against a team who are right up towards the top of the Premier League and reached the final of the Champions League last season. They're fantastic but we've given them a bit of a scare and a good game. The last two goals we let in were poor because we gave the ball away. A team like Chelsea will take advantage of that but a team at our level wouldn't. That's the difference but this has been great for the football club. We've made good money and everyone has enjoyed it"

As for the on/off saga re the fog: "It was all quite strange but it was the right decision in the end. We could've done with it coming back at the end though!"