GUS Scott-Morriss wants Southend United to react stronger to setbacks coming their way.

Blues were beaten 2-1 at Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday night despite dominating the opening half an hour.

And Scott-Morriss was disappointed with how the Shrimpers reacted to gifting the home-side their equalising goal.

“There was a sloppy mistake from us and I don't think we ever recovered from that," said Scott-Morriss.

"We just didn't get going after their first goal and we've said that as a group we need to make sure we're better with that.

"Our problem last season was that after a blip or mistake we never really recovered and we need to be better with that."

The Shrimpers started brightly with Harry Cardwell firing Kevin Maher's side into an early lead.

However a misplaced pass from Noor Husin lead to Ryan Seager equalising for the hosts before a late header from Jason Prior condemned Blues to their first defeat of the season, much to the frustration of Scott-Morriss.

"We're very disappointed and I think we let ourselves down," said Scott-Morriss.

"The first 30 minutes I thought we were excellent.

"We should have had the game done and dusted but we shot ourselves in the foot by conceding late on as well."

But Scott-Morriss refused to blame the small size of the Shrimpers squad for the defeat.

"I'm not going to make excuses," said the 26-year-old.

"We were a bit leggy but both teams played Saturday,Tuesday.

"If we're talking here and we've taken our chances to go 2-0 up or more I don't think we would be mentioning it at all.

"We were leggy on Saturday as well but there's no excuses on that front, we just weren't good enough.”

The defeat means Blues have taken six points from their opening three games of the season.

And Scott-Morriss is remaining level-headed.

“We can't have it both ways,” he stressed.

“It can't be all happy days when we win and all doom and gloom when we lose.

“We'll stick together and it's still early doors in the season.

“We've won two and lost one which isn't too bad.

“The season only really starts after about 10 or 15 games anyway and we'll try get back on it Saturday.”

The Shrimpers host Hartlepool United this weekend.

But Scott-Morriss will not be adding extra significance on the game.

“Saturday is important but every game is important,” said the wing-back.

“We'll try to bounce back and the management here are first class with that.

“If we win or lose it's never too high or never too low and we'll assess it Thursday and try to put it to bed on Saturday.”