Shrimpers show their Roots Hall resilience
PHIL BROWN saluted Southend’s resilience as they came from behind to record victory over Scunthorpe at Roots Hall.
Goals from Michael Timlin and Ben Coker saw the Shrimpers come from a goal down to clinch all three points.
And Brown was full of praise for the way his players fought back to secure back-to-back victories for the first time this season.
“The resilience in the end stood us in good stead and got us the win,” said the Southend boss.
“When Scunthorpe went in front it was a bit of a shock to everyone and it took about 25 minutes for us to have an attack.
“We got back into it with a goal from Michael and I think that was the key factor because it just settled everyone down.
“After that it was a bit of quality from Ben which won us the game and it’s a great result in the end.
“The lads worked tirelessly to get it and to go behind and win is testimony to our character.”
Scunthorpe have not won away from home since January, but went in front against the Shrimpers after eight minutes when Gary McSheffrey netted from long range.
The experienced winger brilliantly teed himself up after a collecting an attempted clearance from Southend right back Luke O’Neill and fired home a fantastic effort from 25 yards.
Southend hit back to equalise in the 36th minute when Coker did brilliantly down the lefthand side before teeing up captain Timlin to stroke a low effort into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
Scunthorpe almost regained the lead on the stroke of half-time when Paddy Madden fired against the inside of the right post.
But Southend stood firm and netted the winning goal 15 minutes from time when Coker burst into the left-hand side of the penalty area before netting with a blistering effort which flew into the bottom righthand corner of the net.
The Shrimpers almost extended their lead at the death when David Mooney saw an effort blocked by Luke Daniels.
Scunthorpe were unable to get back into the game and that made manager Mark Robins a frustrated figure at the final whistle.
“It’s been a poor day,” he said.“Coming here we wanted to win the game but Southend did what they do better than we did what we do and we’ve been disappointing after a good start.
“We need to win these games and we haven’t made them work hard enough for the three points either.
“We’re getting fed up of it, we’ve been poor and need to turn it around.”