LUKE Prosser felt Southend United's performance at Barnet on Tuesday night was below the standards they have set themselves this season.

Blues were brushed aside by the Bees as they sunk to a 2-0 a defeat at Underhill.

And that frustrated Prosser who again skippered the side in the absence of the injured Chris Barker.

“That was not good enough out there and we all know that, it was a very disappointing result,” said Prosser, 24.

“I don’t think we approached the game in the right way and you just can’t afford to do that.

“We came into the game off the back of a good 2-1 win at Wycombe but that’s irrelevant if you can’t build on it in your next game.

“At the moment we seem to be picking up a win, then drawing and then losing we just can’t seem to put a run together.

“That's something we're normally good at but there's not many games left in the season now so we're going to have to do it again if we are to get back in to the play off positions.”

Defeat against the Bees pushed Southend down to ninth in the League Two table, five points below the play-offs.

But Prosser is certain Blues will produced an improved performance when promotion pushing Rotherham United visit Roots Hall on Saturday.

“We will respond, because we have to.,” said Prosser.

“We have to get into the play-off places and a win on Saturday can kick start that.

We want to do it for the fans as well because I thought we owed them an apology for how poor we were at Barnet.

“Hopefully they will all be at Roots Hall on Saturday and we can pick up an important win and put on a good performance for them all.”