Sturrock: 'I think a draw was the fair result'
Blues boss Paul Sturrock would obviously loved to have picked up the win that would have closed the gap on seventh-placed Gillingham after their 2-2 draw Tuesday evening at Roots Hall.
However, the draw left them five points behind the Kent club along with Torquay but with both clubs having two games in hand, for the Shrimpers that's Accrington and Crewe away, easy!
Sturrock told BBC Essex: "It was end-to-end stuff. In the first half I didn't think we played to the standard we have been achieving here at home. But the second half was much better and we were much more up to the pace of the game. I think we had several chances in the first half, they had several chances in the second half, so I think a draw was the fair result."
The S24 Report:
www.southendunited-mad.co.uk/rprt/mtch/
southend_united_2_gillingham_2_655481/index.shtml
Hessenthaler: 'It was a case of two teams trying to win a football match'
Meanwhile, Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler was concerned they let a one goal lead at the break slip away, their 7th draw during their ten-match streak since losing 2-0 at leaders Chesterfield in January.
Hessenthaler told www.gillinghamfootballclub.com: "It was an entertaining game but we need to learn to do better when we are in a winning position. It was a case of two teams trying to win a football match and I felt the game was probably a little bit too lose. There were lots of chances at both ends and either team could have won it on the night. We are on an unbeaten run of 10 games, so I can't fault the boys too much because they put in a lot of effort in. We just dropped too deep and didn't make the right decisions with the ball and we need to learn from that."
Hessenthaler was forced into bringing off their big man up front and former Shrimpers target Bayo Akinfenwa was throwing up! The Gills manager cerainly felt it was a turning point for his side.
Hess continued: "We were 2-1 up at half-time and had to make a change with the big man coming off because he was being sick. We brought Oli on and were perhaps guilty of not doing the things that we told the players they needed to do at half-time. We started the half quite well and hit the post but didn't use the ball as well as we could and missed the big man because he works the ball well and brings people into play."
Finally, in the local paper, Hessenthaler had a good word to say about the star of the evening.
He told www.kentonline.co.uk: "We lost the ball in the middle of the park for the second goal and got punished by the lad (Ryan Hall) who had a fantastic game, but we could have done a lot better in the second half."
The Gillingham official match report:
www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/page/MatchReport/0,,10416~53152,00.html