Southend United's Peter Gilbert tells team to channel their anger in to league wins

Blues were beaten 1-0 in an FA Cup second round replay at Boundary Park on Tuesday night.

But Gilbert now wants to avoid further disappointment.

“I’m absolutely devastated about losing because we were the better team but we need to use this anger and take that in to trying to win the league,” said Gilbert, 28.

“We need to make sure we react in the right way too because we have a very important match against Bradford on Friday.”

Southend go in to the game on the back of three straight defeats and Gilbert is keen to get back to winning ways.

Blues were knocked out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy by Swindon Town before losing at Cheltenham Town 3-0 in League Two.

After that came the reverse at Oldham which stopped Southend travelling to Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup in January.

And that frustrated the full-back.

“A trip to Anfield was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it might be the last one a few of us have of getting to play there,” said Gilbert.

“If we had kept 11 men on the pitch then I definitely think we would’ve won the game. We were really on top and Oldham weren’t really threatening us.

“But when we went down to 10 men it changed and it made it much tougher for us because we couldn’t get enough players forward.”

Blues had to play with a numerical disadvantage for 52 minutes after Bilel Mohsni was sent off.

However, Gilbert did not want to discuss the Frenchman’s dismissal.

“I don’t really want to talk about it but everyone knows what’s happened and I guess we do feel let down because there was such a big prize at stake,” said Gilbert.

“We were on top and it’s just so frustrating. I’d also like to say sorry to the fans because for so many of them to travel up to Oldham was fantastic.

“It’s an expensive time of year and we definitely appreciate the support they’ve shown us. Hopefully they can be right behind us again tomorrow and we can get back on track.”