KEVIN Maher was delighted by Southend United under 21 team’s impressive 2-0 win against a strong Peterborough United side at Boots & Laces yesterday.

Posh included midfielder George Moncur and former Blues loanee Jerome Binnom Williams in their starting line-up.

But it was the Shrimpers who came out on top thanks to goals from Joe Bedford and Dan Matsuzaka.

And Maher was full of praise for the performance.

“I was really happy with how everyone played and it was a good result too against a very strong Peterborough team,” said the former Southend skipper.

“Most of their team had first team experience and it’s great for our youngsters to be faced with that kind of test.

“Our team was very young apart from Marc-Antoine Fortune and Zavon Hines but the lads did a lot of good work and it was a great clean sheet we got as well.”

Both of the Shrimpers’ goals came in the second half in a game which saw several strong challenges being made.

But Maher was pleased to see a competitive encounter.

“I prefer it when the games are like that and have a bit more of an edge to it,” said Maher.

“Sometimes under 21 games can peter out a bit and can also be too friendly with not many challenges being made at all.

“But it wasn’t like that out there at all and we were maybe a little bit unlucky not to get a couple of penalties.

“We caused them problems going forward and could maybe have had a couple more goals.

“However, we have to be happy with a 2-0 win especially as there was a lot of good work being done all over the pitch.”

That included a fine midfield display from Sonny Coutts who performed well in the centre of the park after being moved from his usual centre-back role.

“We want to get Sonny minutes on the pitch after his injury and he’s good enough on the ball to play in midfield,” said Maher.

“I actually thought he did very well and he fills in some good positions defensively in that role so it works well.

“But that’s the standard we need to keep week in week out at this level or higher and the boys need to be doing the right things all the time because they’ve shown what they’re capable of producing.”