SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown felt his side looked nervous in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Exeter City at Roots Hall.

The Shrimpers led 1-0 at half-time with David Worrall heading home his first goal for the club.

But a poor second half display enabled the Grecians to secure a share of the spoils.

And that frustrated Brown.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t won the game but the longer it went on the more nervous we seemed to get,” said Brown.

“It was nervous on the terraces, on the touchline, in the dug-out and out on the pitch as well.

“To their credit Exeter carried on playing and got an equaliser.

“They could’ve gone on to win it after that with their effort that hit the post so overall a point was probably about fair.

“But it’s still frustrating not to have won.”

Blues seemed to sit back after the break in order to protect their lead.

However, Brown insisted that was not done intentionally.

And he also felt Exeter deserved praise for how they performed to get back in to the game.

“We lost our way in the second half,” said Brown.

“We didn’t squeeze high enough up the pitch and we started to drop off.

“We lost our shape and they played through us which you have to take your hat off to them for doing.

“The composure on the ball wasn’t there for us, we gave it away straight away after working hard to win it back and we had to do too much chasing in the second half which meant our legs started to tire.

“Exeter smelt blood but I’m disappointed in the goal they got. We should’ve done much better in trying to deal with it.”

Grecians striker Graham Cummins well taken strike meant the game ended all square.

His effort also stopped Worrall’s goal being the winner.

But Brown was still full of praise for the winger.

“Wozza has been waiting for an opportunity and he certainly took it out there and so did Will Atkinson” said the Blues boss.

“Wozza is not prolific by any stretch of the imagination but he took his goal well.

“We deserved to be ahead and you can’t question the way we played the game in the first half.

“We opened them up several times but we needed a second goal which unfortunately didn’t come. “