Southend United (H): Press Conference Notes

[The Joker]

Andy Scott Quotes:
“I think we did reasonably well in the first half. Whether it was a goal or not, we don’t know and we’re not going to bleat about it. I thought we responded quite well and had a couple of chances.

The lads wanted to get on the ball and put them under pressure. At half time it really was a case of making sure that the injustice of the goal against us didn’t hamper us and we did something about it.

I asked them to show a bit of bottle and everyone did. I thought we were excellent in the second half and Kevin stepped up and showed real professionalism to get his two goals.

But we deserved it and had them under pressure for long periods of the second half and they never really troubled us.

In any game you’ve got to earn the right to play and as the game wears on and the other team gets tired that is when you can come to the fore.

I think because we came up everyone thinks League One is a bit more cultured, but you’ve still got to battle and fight and get the ball back first.

I believe in them and we deserved that tonight. We deserved it after a really poor performance on Saturday. I asked for a response and we got that. We got a response from the crowd as well who enjoyed it saw that we’ve got that fight and ability and everything they want in a Brentford team and I’m delighted they saw another win at home.

We’re ticking along. Not quite as well as I would like, but I’m always looking for more. Hopefully this get us back on track and we have another good game at home on Saturday with Swindon.

Well we looked over and he [the linesman] was by the corner flag when he gave it. We’ve seen photos from the photographer who was virtually on the line and a couple of subs down there who said it wasn’t even close. But I’ve got to believe the linesman. But two minutes later he gave a thrown in when the ball was nowhere near out!

Who can tell? I can’t make a judgement on it because I wasn’t in the same position he was.

Sometimes it is very easy for players to go into their shells and hide. But I asked them to stand up and be counted and there were some strong performances. The work rate was excellent and we won the ball back very quickly.

We’d lost two games in a row and the last time we did that was January. Apart from those at the very top, this league is very tight and we need to be consistent and pick up points from the teams who are around us and that will push us up the league and we can then hopefully get points off the bigger teams to really push us forward.

Kevin is a model professional and always has been since I was here as a player. He has conducted himself perfectly, despite having come through a lot of personal problems and he is respected for that. He leads by example and doesn’t put a foot wrong and his perfection rubs off on everyone else.

We have struggled for goals. But I don’t want to bring in players who aren’t better than we’ve already got. We’re trying to get Ben Strevens back as soon as we can and Carl should be fit soon. Myles Weston can play up there and is learning every game.”