Powell praises players after 10-man Southend draw at Charlton

Posted Sunday, February 10, 2019 by PA

Southend manager Chris Powell praised his players’ response to last week’s defeat against Bristol Rovers by battling to a point with 10-men at Charlton.

The Shrimpers went to The Valley trip on the back of two straight league defeats, including a disappointing display when losing 2-1 at home to Rovers seven days ago.

They took a 22nd-minute at high-flying Charlton courtesy of Stephen Humphrys’ deflected long-range effort before suffering a big setback within five minutes as Dru Yearwood was sent off.

Charlton equalised in the 59th minute through Ben Reeves and Southend had keeper Nathan Bishop to thank for pulling off a couple of super saves from Krystian Bielek and Josh Parker.

Michael Klass then had two great late chances to mark Powell’s return to his former club but in the end, the Southend chief was pleased to share the honours.

Powell said: “I am happy with a point. We’ve had a rollercoaster of a season so far and today’s performance showed me we have enough to pick up points at tough places.

“Of course I know how tough this place can be. There are some good players here at Charlton but we’ve had a good week of preparation and started off very well.

“We nudged ahead and obviously the big turning point is the sending off, so to be as resilient as we were to take something from the game (was good).

“I’d have loved three points. At 1-1 Charlton are going to press us but we’ve stood up to most of it.

“Our keeper made two great saves from the long-range shot and the header and then we could have maybe nicked it near the end.

“It is a performance the supporters should be very, very proud of because we let ourselves down last week, but I thought we got a lot of that back today.

“All power to my players because every single one of them, the subs included, played a part in us getting something today.”

Charlton manager Lee Bowyer was far from impressed, particularly with the decision making of his wide players.

He explained: “I thought we started well. We were the better side and then they got a goal against the run of play.

“They had a man sent off, which probably made it more difficult them going down to 10.

“Then after that, we were the better side and to be fair to them I thought their keeper made two or three very good saves.

“We’ve just got to be a bit more clinical in front of goal though. Our final ball wasn’t good enough most of the afternoon.

“The two wide men – their end product was not good enough. I just said to them when you are out wide and cross it, a cross is a pass.

“You don’t just lump it into the box, you’ve got to get your head up to look and see who is spare. It is a pass. That wasn’t good enough for me. It is two points dropped.”