A DISAPPOINTED Kevin Maher felt Southend United paid the price for conceding “crazy goals” in their 3-1 defeat to Sutton United at Roots Hall.

The Shrimpers went in front after just 11 minutes with the in-form Gus Scott-Morriss scoring his sixth goal of the season.

But a dejected Maher was frustrated with how Blues gifted Sutton a way back into the game during a performance he admitted was not good enough.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Maher.

“It was a game we started OK in.

“We took the lead with a great finish from Gus and we’re in control of the game.

“They’re low in confidence after losing games and we had a really good chance to make it 2-0 through Bim (Pepple).

“But from there an attack we’re in control of, Harry and Crowths get in a muddle and all of a sudden it’s 1-1 just before half-time.

“They were all crazy, crazy goals we let in from our point of view.”

And Maher was also frustrated by other aspects of the display.

“I don’t think we played well at all in the second half, said Maher.

“We came off the structure and it wasn’t good enough.

“Individuals got a lot of praise on Tuesday night and rightly so but today really wasn’t good enough.”

“It’s a lack of know-how and character in seeing where the game is.

“We should see it out before half-time and we shouldn’t give them any encouragement.

“We did that and struggled then to get a rhythm in our game.

“We started to play as individuals a bit.”

But the Shrimpers still had opportunities to score with substitute Macauley Bonne spurning two clear cut chances.

“We had better chances and I’m not sure they had too many shots on target but they’ve scored three goals so they deserve to win,” said Maher.

“We weren’t good enough, especially in the second half.

“We were in ascendancy and we should have gone on to win.”