Powell happy with show of character

Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2018 by PA

Chris Powell was delighted with the second-half showing from his Southend United side as they came from behind to beat Burton.

Tom Hopper and Simon Cox came up with the goals after the half-time introduction of Michael Kightly to give the Shrimpers a notable 2-1 away win.

“The application of the players was excellent,” Powell said.

“I had to do something. We knew in the first half we had to change because, give credit to Burton, they were excellent. Our keeper had to make some key saves and kept us in it.

“We are 1-0 down but goals change games and we needed to do something so I just adjusted it a little bit. I know Michael Kightly is a good player at this level and I knew he’d want to do well back at a club he had spent some time at previously.

“The players responded brilliantly and it has kept us going.”

Powell felt that Burton’s dominance in the first half was down to their own excellence rather than anything significantly wrong with his own side.

“They put us on the back foot,” he continued.

“We had to hang in there but it was tough going. We needed half-time.

“I couldn’t be happier. We haven’t been behind too many times this season so that is another thing we can tick off on the list, that we now know we have that character to come back in games.”

For Nigel Clough it was a case of not taking advantage of his side’s first-half superiority, after Liam Boyce stooped to head home Scott Fraser’s cross on 21 minutes and give the home side the advantage.

“It’s another case of 80 to 90 per cent of the performance being very good tonight and the game should have been over and finished at half-time,” said the Brewers boss.

“The only reason we haven’t won the game is wasted opportunities in the first half, and there were so many of them.

“Second half we didn’t start the game as we had finished the first half, and allowed them back into it and encouraged them in the first 15 minutes after half-time.

“They get a goal from a corner and then a scramble near the end and you end up losing a game that should be a comfortable victory.

“We had that many chances it was almost total domination in the first half at times and you have to get more than that one goal because no team is going to come and lie down for 90 minutes.

“We warned the players to be ready for the second half. They upped it without a doubt and we didn’t match them in our performance at the start of the second period, we were too negative.”