KEVAN HURST was left feeling gutted after Southend United's 1-1 draw with Rotherham United, despite scoring a screaming 30 yard shot.

Hurst put Blues ahead with the impressive effort from long range midway through the second half.

But he felt the final score-line took the shine of his sixth goal of the season.

“I caught the shot nicely and it was great to see it go in but it doesn't mean much now and I'm just gutted we haven't won,” said Hurst, 27.

“We looked like we were going to get the victory but with two minutes to go we suffered a lapse in concentration and we need to cut them out really because we're running out games to get in to the play offs now.”

Southend have 11 league matches remaining and are six points behind the play-off positions.

However, Hurst believes Paul Sturrock's side are still capable of working their way back in to the top seven.

“Against Rotherham I thought we were on top for the majority of the second half and they're a good team with good players so that bodes well for us and what we can achieve,” said Hurst.

“We have a week off now for us to recharge the batteries and get our energy back which will do us good and then we can go again and get a run going, starting with Port Vale on Saturday.

“We still believe we can make the play-offs but we need to start getting results quite quickly.”

But for that to happen, Blues must start to improve their first half performances.

They have now gone 12 games without a goal in the opening 45 minutes.

And Hurst has no idea why Southend struggle to find the net before half-time.

“I only just found out about that statistic last week and it's unbelievable really,” said Hurst.

“I can't put my finger on why it's happened and it's something we need to look at and improve.

“But to be where we are in the table with that in mind shows how well we have done in the second half but we need to do it for the whole 90 minutes now.”