Tom helps to win it on the Hop for Powell
CHRIS Powell was delighted to see Southend record their first victory of the season – despite thinking the Shrimpers were not at their best against Bradford.
Second-half headers from Tom Hopper and Simon Cox handed Southend all three points at Roots Hall.
But Powell said: “We’ve played better in the other two games and not won, but we did enough and we showed our quality in the end.
“I think everything had been a little bit on edge so it’s good to get the first win and clean sheet.
“The two strikers got the goals and that’s what they’re judged on, so it’s been good all round and we’ve ticked off a lot of things.
“Tom is a good player and he’s a striker the fans will really grow to like here.
“He works hard, he’s brave, his link-up play is good and he gets in the box.
“It was good for Simon to get a goal, too, and you could see how much it increased his confidence because he started shooting from about 85 yards afterwards!”
Southend dominated the majority of the first half with Stephen McLaughlin, Michael Kightly and Jason Demetriou all going close to opening the scoring and Hopper having a close-range effort ruled out for offside.
At the start of the second half, John White saw his closerange volley tipped on to the crossbar by Bradford keeper Richard O’Donnell.
But Southend finally broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute when Kightly’s pinpoint left-wing cross was met by Hopper, who headed a firm header into the left hand side of the net.
Four minutes later, the Shrimpers doubled their lead when Kightly teed up Ben Coker and his cross was nodded into the back of the net by Cox. Cox should then have added a third, but his chipped shot bounced back off the crossbar before Southend goalkeeper Mark Oxley did well to deny Jordan Gibson late on.
Bradford boss Michael Collins slammed his side’s performance.
“They wanted it more than us,” he said.
“There was more desire from them, there was more commitment to win second balls and more desire to do the ugly side of the game.”