SEAN SEEKS POSITIVES FROM SCUNTHORPE PERFORMANCE

Here is what Sean O'Driscoll had to say after witnessing his side draw 2-2 at Scunthorpe.

"Credit to Scunthorpe, they applied a lot of pressure towards the end. Before they scored we'd had a few off the line and Gareth (Stewart) had also made a couple of decent saves. They've taken a chance and it's difficult to know how to react after that. If we'd had a few more points we might have gambled, but we haven't. All in all I thought the draw was a fair result.

"The only time they had the ball in the first six minutes is when we gave it away. We're a passing side. Sometimes it can be our biggest strength and sometimes it's our biggest weakness. It's another game unbeaten, we were excellent for an hour and now we've got to take that forward into the next game. We've got our ball players back and that's how we encourage the team to play.

"The referee said Eddie pulled down Steve Torpey for the penalty. From where I was I thought they collided as he got up. It's difficult to see from the dug-out, but we reacted well to what was a dubious penalty.

"We were back in the game right after their goal. We dominated the rest of the first half and Hayter's header was the icing on the cake. James (O'Connor) had a good chance before he scored and if both of his chances had gone in we'd have been home and dry.

"We've had a chat afterwards with the players and said what do you do when they throw three forward. We changed things around a bit and put Marcus in front of the back three for some protection. Keogh switched flanks and started running at Stephen (Purches) and that also made a difference."

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Cherries manager Sean O'Driscoll was pleased with the way his side handled the problems caused by Southend to pick up a point against the league leaders.

"I thought it was a hard earned hard fought point. At times I thought we wouldn't get back into it and Southend showed what a good side they are, particularly in the first half. You can see why they are clear in this league and taking that into consideration I thought with did okay.

"Steve Foley got a kick in the first half and his calf stiffened up. That change was an injury problem, but we also changed the tactics to solve the problems they were causing us, which I thought we did. We plugged away and the lads showed a great resilience and thankfully scored when we got a chance.

"They gave us problems with their movement and Freddy Eastwood dropping off. We changed it half way through the first half, but we tend to play straight lines with a 4-4-2 and don't get so much movement. We altered things around at half time and stopped them playing. Everyone kept believing and we got the goal.

"Our tactics didn't change after the equaliser. They're too good a side for us to go gung-ho and they showed that in the last few moments with Eastwood breaking. We got a goal playing the way we were so there was no real need to change it."

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