SOUTHEND United boss Kevin Maher felt the Shrimpers showed ‘character and quality’ to draw 1-1 at Woking.

A well-worked goal from Jack Bridge cancelled out Marcus Dackers’ opener for the third placed hosts.

And Maher was pleased to see his side fight back to secure a share of the spoils.

“Our response to going behind was brilliant and to show the character and the quality that we did is a testament to the boys,” said Maher.

“It was a good overall performance at a tough place to come.

“They’re very good at home.

“They cause teams a lot of problems and ask a lot of questions of you defensively so it’s a decent point away from home but we wanted to try and win it to close the gap a bit.”

Ninth placed Blues remain five points behind the play-off places.

And Maher was frustrated with how Woking took the lead, with ex Shrimpers loanee Marcus Dackers on target after the visitors failed to deal with a long clearance from goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen.

“We haven’t dealt with the first ball,” said Maher.

“It’s a good finish to be fair to him but we know all about Marcus and it was pleasing how we responded.”

That led to Bridge bringing Blues back level with a well-taken effort.

And Maher stressed the plan was always for Bridge to feature at some stage, despite starting the game on the bench.

“Bridgey wasn’t so much dropped, we’re a team and we need everyone,” said Maher.

“It was one of those games I thought was going to be physical and conditions were blustery too.

“But we knew he would play a part coming on and it was a great ball from Noor (Husin) to set it up too.

“He took it brilliantly too.”

Bridge now has 10 goals for the season and Maher is happy to see the wing-back reach double figures for the first time in his career.

“I know he’s got a few penalties in there but we spoke to him at the start of the season about getting his numbers up because of the ability he’s got,” said Bridge.

“On Friday it was a good controlled finish from him and today it was a brilliant finish too.”

But Maher believes both sides will feel they could have gone on to win the game after Bridge’s equaliser.

“They had a bit of pressure with balls coming into the box with set pieces as well but we felt if we got the break right we might have got in as well,” said Maher.

“But we’ll keep going, we’ll look to win the next game now and see where that takes us.

“It’s a tough one at home but if we keep the same attitude hopefully we’ll win enough games to give ourselves a chance (of the play-offs.)"

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