Shrimpers are made to pay for bad misses

SOUTHEND United manager Chris Powell was left ruing his side’s poor finishing after their draw with Crawley Town.

The Shrimpers wasted a number of early chances before Michael Kightly fired them in front.

But Southend ultimately paid the price for the missed chances, as an 85th-minute own-goal from John White took the tie to a replay, much to the frustration of Powell.

“We didn’t take our chances,” said Powell.

“We weren’t ruthless enough and we should’ve been three or four up by half-time.

“We’re still in the Cup, of course, but what happened shouldn’t have happened because we should have been out of sight.

“I don’t think we sat back at all, as we still had chances but they decided to go a bit long

“We didn’t handle it towards the end but credit to Crawley.

“In the last 20 minutes they threw caution to the wind.”

Southend dominated the opening exchanges with Simon Cox wasting two excellent chances to open the scoring before the Shrimpers did make the breakthrough, with Cox teeing up Kightly to score his first goal of the season.

Crawley had Ollie Palmer’s header ruled out for offside 10 minutes before the break and enjoyed the better of the second half as Southend sat back on their lead.

Cox curled a rare effort inches wide of the right post before the visitors began to get on top, with Joe McNerney sending a close-range header against the top of the crossbar.

But Crawley were not to be denied and, in the 85th minute, White diverted Filipe Morais’ left-wing cross into his own net to set up a replay.

And Crawley boss Gabriele Cioffi – who was booked for protesting against his team’s disallowed goal – was pleased to avoid defeat away from home for the first time since his appointment in early September.

“It was a battling performance and it was one we were waiting for,” said the Italian. “We wanted to show we are a squad and that we want to play every game like there is no tomorrow and have no regrets.

“At the beginning we were scared but we showed real will and spirit and the goal was perfect for us.”