Town boss Paul Jewell was again left ruing his side’s failure to defend set pieces and crosses into the box after losing 2-1 to Southend in a friendly at Roots Hall. The Blues were two goals behind after 11 minutes via Kane Ferdinand and a Luke Chambers own goal. Town’s reply was an own goal from Shrimpers’ defender Mark Phillips.

Jewell felt the game was much like the match at Luton on Saturday: “We had all the ball in the second half again.

“But the goals we concede are just beyond belief really, not even for a Championship team. But that’s been the case for a while.

“Once again Massimo was excellent,” he added, turning to the positives to be taken from the match, “Chops worked hard, he looked sharp, especially in the second half. We got better as the game went on and were in total control of the game but you always feel we’re susceptible to the counter-attack.”

He says there’s still much to do between now and the start of the season: “We’ve played Luton, who are a Conference team and Southend, not easy games, but we’ve conceded goals from three set plays and a cross, so that tells where we need to improve, certainly one area and other areas of the pitch as well.

“You can see we need to stop goals going in the back of our net. That means to say we need to work harder to stop crosses, we need to work harder not to give silly freekicks away, we need to be more professional in the right areas and stronger, mentally and physically in one-to-one challenges.”

Midfielder Lee Martin missed out again due to injury but Jewell says the problem’s not too serious: “He did his thigh over in Holland. He came in against Cambridge last week and felt it again unfortunately. He’s OK, but we don’t want to risk him breaking down.”

The Blues boss made only two changes as he looked to give his more senior players a full game, although one of the substitutions was enforced by a niggle: “Andy Drury had a calf injury and Luke Hyam was just a little bit tired.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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