Chris Powell hopes return to winning ways gives Southend confidence boost

Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2018 by PA

Southend manager Chris Powell wants his side’s 2-0 win against Scunthorpe to boost their flagging confidence.

The Shrimpers’ victory against at Roots Hall ended a run of four successive defeats in Sky Bet League One.

And Powell was delighted to get back to winning ways against a Scunthorpe side who had James Perch sent off after 38 minutes.

“The boys have been low on confidence and this was a big game tonight,” said Powell.

“They gave me everything and I know fans will say it’s 11 against 10 but the players are nervy and they are bound to be.

“We needed a result and it didn’t matter how it came. We were in the ascendancy and maybe it might have been better if Scunthorpe stayed with 11 men.

“We got a clean sheet which we haven’t had for a while and a win which we needed too.

“We nearly messed it up tonight but this will help our confidence. We’re a young team who have been hurting and they were desperate to get that win.

“People do need to realise where we are and we’re threadbare right now with the injuries we’ve got, but this win will give everyone a lift.”

The Shrimpers opened the scoring after just eight minutes when Harry Bunn’s cross was met by a powerful Timothee Dieng header.

The Iron were reduced to 10 men in the 38th minute when Perch was shown a second yellow card by referee Trevor Kettle.

Despite the defender’s dismissal, Scunthorpe still looked a threat at the start of the second half with Cameron Burgess having a header tipped over by Southend goalkeeper Mark Oxley, who then also pushed away a free-kick from Josh Morris.

But the Shrimpers made sure of the win in the 80th minute with Sam Mantom netting with a low shot against his former side.

Scunthorpe came close to netting a consolation when Lee Novak hit the crossbar but boss Stuart McCall was a frustrated figure after seeing his slide down to 20th in the standings.

“We never got out the traps, we were too slow and ponderous in the first half,” said McCall.

“We needed to start well but Southend got an early goal.

“It’s a long journey down but there are no excuses.

“We needed to put them under pressure with the run they’re on but in the second half you wouldn’t really know who had 10 men.

“We have players out of position but we really felt we could’ve got back in the game.

“We showed spirit but the first-half performance just wasn’t good enough and it wasn’t acceptable.”