SOUTHEND United boss Kevin Maher was pleased to finally be focusing on football again seeing his side win 4-1 at Bishop’s Stortford.

The Shrimpers are fighting for their future off the pitch and had to cancel pre-season friendlies with Canvey Island and Billericay Town due to a lack of players.

But Saturday’s clash at the RDA Stadium got the go ahead and Maher was delighted to see Blues back in action.

“It’s been incredibly difficult and all we want to do is focus on football,” said Maher.

“The players want to play football, I’m sure the fans want to watch it and that’s what a football club is.

“The prime focus and the sole focus should be on that but with stuff going on it’s been difficult.

“The players have brilliant though and I honestly can’t speak highly enough of them.

“We know we’re behind with our pre-season and you might have expected them to be a long way off.

“Look, who knows what will happen but that effort and application out there today, I couldn’t praise them anymore.”

Blues also showed good character to come back from going back in the first two minutes of the match.

And Maher was full of praise for the performance, which came just four days after the Shrimpers had beaten a young West Ham side 2-1.

“We had the game during the week which was a good building block and this was a more senior side to play,” said Maher.

“We started slowly giving the goal away but the response and the quality of our football was very good.

“It was pleasing to get the goals and to get a lot of good minutes into a lot of the lads.

“We haven’t played competitively for a long time but credit to the players.

“It can take time to get used to the basics again but it’s pre-season so there are going to be mistakes.”