SOUTHEND United striker Harry Cardwell was pleased to return to action pain free at Chesterfield on Saturday.

Blues’ top scorer has been troubled by a knee problem all season.

But, after six weeks on the sidelines, Cardwell now feels far more comfortable and is keen to kick on during the second half of the season.

“I’d had it all season really,” said Cardwell.

“It was one of them where once the adrenaline kicked in during games you forgot about it.

“But the back end of November and the start of December it was too much to play through.

“I took time to get sorted and hopefully is it now so I can really looking forward to the rest of the season.

Cardwell played 67 minutes of the 3-0 defeat against the Spireites.

And he will now be looking to improve his match sharpness.

“There’s a bit of match fitness to build on now but 65 minutes in my legs is good,” said Cardwell.

“I felt good and it’s good to be back because it’s been frustrating being out.

“I’m looking on to the pitch and when I first got injured it was really tough because we didn’t have the bodies to take over.

“The lads have done well but there are a lot more bodies to help now and it felt good being back out there again with them.

“It was an niggling injury which took time to get over, but it’s nice to be trying to help the team again now.”

However, Cardwell was unable to stop the Shrimpers suffering a 3-0 defeat at table-topping Chesterfield.

“We knew it was tough ask coming here,” said Cardwell, who has 12 goals in 24 games this season.

“They’re top of the league and rightly so.

“We felt like we went toe to toe with them for the majority of games but goals at crucial times set us back.

“One so early killed us a little it and we were always fighting an uphill battle.

“We felt like we matched them but both boxes let us down.”

The defeat saw the Shrimpers slip to 15th in the table but Cardwell is keeping his hopes high.

“There’ a lot of confidence in that changing room and a lot of good players,” said the striker.

“We’ll start again next week and hit the ground running again.

"It's still so tight and we'll take it game by game.

"But with the quality we’ve got we feel like we can do something special if we string a few results together."