Sturrock: 'The score-line flattered us but we're pleased'
Blues boss Paul Sturrock was a contented Luggy after the 3-0 win against Shrewsbury Town Friday evening at Roots Hall that took the Shrimpers to the top of League Two, where they will hope to stay for longer than around ten to five Saturday, all eyes on Torquay v Morecambe, come on you Gulls! (Martin Ling owes us one!)
Sturrock told the PA: "The scoreline flatters us. We played very well in the first half and I was disappointed to only be 1-0 up. But in the second half Shrewsbury came more in to it and we had to work hard to keep them out. They hit the bar when it was 1-0 and if that went in then it's a different game. It's our fourth clean sheet in a row which is pleasing and the whole team worked their tails off. It's also no coincidence that our defensive record has improved since (Jean-Paul) Kalala has come back in and he got man of the match. But it's still very early days. We're only a quarter of the way through the season and plenty more games to go but we're pleased with where we are at the moment."
He also added to the Echo that: 'The fans were fantastic and definitely played a part in this win.'
Meanwhile, goal scorer Mark Phillips, his fourth of the season, not that I'm sure he knew mutch about it, received a 7 out of 10 from S24 for a strong performance from the centre-back, and he tweeted the following: 'Another good team performance and top of the league and another goal for me - couldnt be happier. Got to say the support was unreal tonight - thank you to all the fans.
Liam Dickinson and Neil Harris got the other goals from the spot, for the full match report click on the link at the bottom of the page; Shrimpers shatter Shrews to go top.
Turner: 'It's not been a good night's work for us'
On the other hand there was not much to please Shrews boss Graham Turner, no one likes a three goal thrashing, however the actual game panned out.
Turner told www.shrewsburytown.com: "We were poor tonight, for large periods of the first half I thought we had forgotten how to pass the ball. There was no movement, no getting it down and passing it and we played right into Southend's hands. We had a little bit of a flurry in the second half and might well have got the equaliser with the one that hit the underside of the bar, but then finished with two crazy goalsat the end that didn't do us any favours. To sum it up there have been two penalties and crazy mistakes, so it's not been a good night's work for us."
So what did he think about the spot kick decisions then?
Turner said: "One or two of the other lads have been protecting Jermaine by saying that he just had his eyes on the ball when he made contact with the striker, but we will have to wait until we see the DVD. Sahne Sherrif's was just a poor penalty, it was probably the culmination of a frustrating night for him when he'd been messed about in the air and it was a bad penalty to give away."
However, Turner wasn't much happier with his players at the other end of the pitch as well.
He continued: "We weren't sharp enough or bright enough to pass the ball in the forward areas. We are normally creating chances but tonight they were far and few between and the reason for that is we were slow to support the man on the ball. If we don't pass the ball we look a poor side, if we start to lump the ball foward we look a poor side. Tonight there were too many times when we wmakeere content to paly the long ball forward to Marvin Morgan, Terry Gornell or James Collins and hope they would get something, but it just wouldn't work. We are a passing side and we need to get to our wide players into the game to make us work."
Summing-up, the former Hereford boss could only try and knock this match on the head and move on.
Turner concluded: "It's a poor night for us but you look at the bigger picture and we put this to one side and think about what we've done in the majority of the games so far this season. We've got Barnet at home next week and a chance to put it right, if we get a result there then that will give us the 12 points from our latest six matxh sequence, that is the target so it all rests on that game."