BLUES boss Paul Sturrock was furious at his side's failure to defend dead ball deliveries at Morecambe.

Southend conceded twice from set piece situations as they suffered a 2-1 defeat.

And that disappointed the Scotsman.

“I thought we had got that out of our game but it has reared its ugly head again,” said Sturrock.

“You can't give goals away like we have and win the game and it was a frustrating afternoon.

“We did OK for the first 10 minutes of the second half and equalised from a penalty but other than that I thought we looked leggy and I will try and put my finger on why we were so indifferent.”

The defeat pushed Blues down to ninth in the League Two table, five points outside the play-offs.

But Sturrock defended his decision to switch to a 4-4-2 formation and leave Lee Sawyer on the bench as Louie Soares made a surprise return to the starting line-up.

“We played 4-4-2 at Rotherham and Oxford and won and I tried three different formations to get us going in this game,” explained Sturrock.

“I felt Lee's performances in training hadn't been up to standard so that's why I left him out but when he came on he did very well and sometimes managers are made to look silly.

“I will be having a chat with him and he's certainly given me food for thought for the game with Gillingham on Tuesday.”

FULL STORY IN MONDAY'S ECHO