SOUTHEND United coach Danny Heath felt the Shrimpers did not deserve to lose tonight’s FA Youth Cup clash with Cambridge United.

The U’s triumphed 2-1 at Roots Hall with Jake Battersby scoring twice for the visitors.

But Heath thought the Shrimpers should not have been beaten.

“We should have walked off having won the game on the basis of the second half performance,” said Heath.

“It was a game of two halves and in the first half we weren’t our usual selves in terms of our tempo and how we play from an attacking point of view.

“We still looked fairly comfortable but in the second half I thought we were excellent.

"The tempo went up and we got more men forward.”

The Shrimpers equalised at the start of the second half with Bobby Unwin netting an excellent individual effort.

And Heath was happy to see the winger hit the back of the net.

“It was a great finish and Bobby is a great runner with the ball,” said Heath.

“He’s a player who can beat men but the part of the game we’ve asked him to get better at is his finishing.

“He’s showing that now and it’s a massive positive.”

However, Unwin’s effort ultimately went unrewarded as Battersby bagged his second goal of the game to send Cambridge through to the second round.

Yet Heath felt that did not reflect the balance of play. 

“The only thing Callum Taylor has had to do after half-time, other than one save at the start, is the pick the ball out his net,” said Heath.

“At the other end, the quality of play to create our chances was outstanding.

“There was some good defending from them on the goal-line and we had three definite penalty shouts but we’re not going to say that’s why we lost because we had the chances.

"The boys have to learn from it though, keep their heads up and go again."