WILL Atkinson felt Southend United paid the price for not scoring when they were on top during Friday night’s 1-0 defeat to Scunthorpe.

Blues had the better of the first half at Roots Hall but were unable to break the deadlock.

And Atkinson, who impressed on his return to the team, insisted the Shrimpers should have made more of their period of pressure “We started well and I thought we were the better team,” said the midfielder.

“We dominated the first half in my opinion and should’ve been ahead at half-time.

“I think we need to score when we’re on top and we’ve paid the price for not doing that again.”

The defeat was Southend’s fourth in succession and saw them slip down to 15th in the League Two table.

But Atkinson does not think there is much wrong with the team’s displays.

“We deserved something from the game and we did against Chesterfield and Wycombe as well,” said the 24-year-old.

“Morecambe was different but we’re gutted to have lost again.

“The positive is I don’t actually think we’re playing badly but we can’t keep on saying we shouldn’t have lost and we need to start taking from the games.”

Blues next chance to get back to winning ways comes at Bury this weekend.

And Atkinson is adamant the Shrimpers will be fired up to stop the rot.

“We go again next week, we’ll have a good week of training and we’ll be ready to really give it a good go again,” said Atkinson.

“We’ll stay positive because there were some decent performances out there but we have to start making it happen.

“Hopefully I’ve done enough to stay in the team as well after being left out against Morecambe, which wasn’t nice, and I can help us get a better result.”