SOUTHEND United manager Paul Sturrock feels he must make new signings to help his side bounce back from Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Exeter City.

Blues slipped to seventh in the table after suffering a third successive league defeat.

And Sturrock believes fresh faces are now needed to breathe new life into the team.

“I thought we looked like a leg-weary side trying to chase the game in the second half and it cost us,” said the Scotsman.

“We were on a roll earlier on in the season going 14 or 15 games unbeaten when we just had to turn up to get a result, but now we seem to have hit a bit of a wall.

“I think it’s got to the point where we need a hand and it’s something I will be talking to the chairman about.

“But there are certainly two or three areas of the team where we need to have more of a body count and bring people in.”

However, Saturday’s game at St James Park could have been a different story had a first-half header from Barry Corr been deemed to have crossed the goal-line.

The Irish striker was adamant the ball had gone in after bouncing down off the underside of the crossbar.

But the officials disagreed and Exeter took full advantage of the let off by bagging a trio of goals.

“Barry is certain it went in and that their defender behind the line actually hand-balled it as well,” said Sturrock.

“It was hard to tell from where I was standing, but I was disappointed with the bad goals we gave away. It’s three defeats in a row in the league now and we haven’t scored in those games either, which isn’t good enough, to be honest.

“We’ve shown the standards we can reach this season and we need to get back to them as quickly as we can.”

Blues have a chance to bounce back to winning ways tomorrow night when they travel to League One Brentford for an FA Cup third round replay.

The winners will play Premier League giants Chelsea in the next round.