26 December 2020

Resurgent Southend delivered Christmas present for absent fans – Mark Molesley

26 December 2020

Southend manager Mark Molesley feels his team “delivered a Christmas present” to the club’s supporters with their 2-0 win against Colchester.

First-half goals from Simeon Akinola and Timothee Dieng saw resurgent Southend move off the foot of the Sky Bet League Two table.

And Molesley dedicated the Essex derby victory at Roots Hall to the fans watching from home.

“The message before the game was to deliver a Christmas present for our fans and we did just that,” said Molesley.

“It’s tough times out there at the moment and we’ve sorely missed them being with us.

“But we knew they would be watching and we wanted to give them something to cheer about.

“We showed we were willing to die out there for those three points today.

“The attitude, work rate and endeavour was second to none which it needs to be in a derby.

“Colchester are a really good side and they’re well drilled so we knew it was always going to be a tough game and we would really have covered some ground out there to get the win.”

Southend opened the scoring after just 10 minutes, with Akinola bagging his first goal for Southend as he headed home a fine left-wing cross from Sam Hart from 12 yards out.

The Shrimpers remained on top and doubled their lead in the 22nd minute when Kyle Taylor charged forward before rolling a fine pass into the path of Dieng, who fired home an excellent first-time finish.

Southend, who are now unbeaten in five games, came close to making it 3-0 when Shaun Hobson headed Jason Demetriou’s right-wing cross just wide of the left post.

Colchester replied just before the break with Kwame Poku curling an effort against a post before Michael Folivi saw two efforts parried away by Southend goalkeeper Mark Oxley in the second half.

The Shrimpers sat back to protect their lead and held on to make it nine Boxing Day games without defeat.

Colchester boss Steve Ball, whose side have now lost three games in succession, was critical of the U’s display.

“We worked all week on wanting to start well,” said Ball.

“We knew they hadn’t come in yesterday and we had so we prepared properly.

“But we showed naivety in giving away silly free-kicks against a team who have changed their style.

“They’re putting the ball in the box at every opportunity now and we gave away awful free-kicks which have cost us.

“We haven’t picked people up properly from them either which seems to be a common theme.

“I counted six free-kicks we gave away in the first 15 minutes.

“It’s sloppy and lazy defending.”

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