SOUTHEND United defender John White was left cursing his bad luck following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Charlton Athletic - despite scoring his first goal in 16 months.

White headed home a first half equaliser at the Valley.

But the full-back was forced to hobble off with a hip problem in the second half and, with the Shrimpers also crashing to defeat, White took no pleasure in hitting the back of the net.

“It’s a nice feeling for five minutes after but if it doesn’t get you anything from the game it doesn’t mean much at all,” said White, whose goal was his first since netting at Colchester United in December 2015.

“I’m more about clean sheets and good defending because that’s what keeps you in the team so to get injured and to lose the game is difficult to take.

“It’s been tough for me this year, having to wait so long to get a game so to have to go off injured just seems to be my luck at the moment.

“But I’ll do my best to get back as quickly as I can.”

White came off with an injury to his right hip in the 70th minute, he initially suffered in the first half.

Blues boss Phil Brown felt White’s withdrawal played a huge part in the defeat and the 30-year-old acknowledged the subsequent reshuffle was far from ideal.

“It was a frustrating time for it to happen and we had to reshuffle things more than we would have liked,” said White.

“It kind of stopped the momentum we had and they capitalised on it shortly afterwards.

“It changed the way we had to attack the game but there was no way I could carry on unfortunately.

“I got a twist in my hip and it just got stiffer and stiffer.

“I gave it a go at the start of the second half and it felt OK until I got another knock on it.

“It stopped my movement and was limiting me.”

White’s start was just his ninth in the league this season.