SOUTHEND United boss Kevin Maher felt the Shrimpers showed their spirit in Saturday's 2-2 draw at Rochdale.

A brace of Harry Cardwell headers saw Blues battle back from two goals down to secure a share of the spoils in Maher's 100th game in charge.

And Maher was delighted by the response of his side.

"The lads just keep going and it shows the spirit of the club," said Maher.

"We've only got three on the bench again, they've got five and can change it up but JD (Jason Demetriou) is still going at the end, Cav (Miley), Noor (Husin) all of them are.

"The fans keep cheering them on too.

"They were massive for us and a point is good considering where we were in the game."

Rochdale were on top early on and led 2-0 at the midway point of the first half, thanks to goals from Jimmy Keohane and Kairo Mitchell.

And that led to Maher opting to change to a back four at half-time.

"In the first half we got pinned back quite a lot," said Maher.

"We gave up a lot of possession and the goals from our point of view were really disappointing.

"To respond the way we did with the Cards goal was good and then in the second half, I thought we were excellent.

"We changed the shape to get more pressure higher up and it looks like it worked.

"Rochdale are a good side who look after the ball well but in the second half we were better on the ball ourselves."

That improved possession led to Cardwell heading home his ninth goal of the season.

And Maher was pleased with the striker's performance.

He’s been brilliant and so is the amount of work he does for the team," said Maher.

"All that work is worth it when he gets to the ball in the net like that.

"He pulls into great areas and he can do a bit of everything."

And the well-taken headers also meant Maher avoided defeat while bringing up his century of games as head coach.

"I didn’t want it to be a damp squib and not come away with something," said Maher.

"It was important we did and sometimes you do have to grind out results.

"Maybe we haven’t done that enough at times but we did that today and showed quality to score the two goals too. "