MATCH REACTION: The Peterborough United players and the match officials cop it from a frustrated Grant McCann

The visitor, who had lost 10 of their previous 14 away matches in the League, claimed the points with an early penalty. McCann insisted his side had two Andrew Hughes ‘goals’ wrongly ruled out for offside, but still accepted Southend were worthy winners.

Other results weren’t too bad for Posh who remain eighth, but five points outside the play-off places. They have two games in hand on sixth-placed Bradford City who lost for the sixth straight game today.

McCann started with a positive 4-4-2 formation which included a debut for transfer deadline day signing Omar Bogle.

“We were very, very poor from start to finish,” McCann added. “Southend overpowered us all over the pitch. They had more legs, they had more energy and they had more nous. We couldn’t cope with them physically.

“We gave them a dreadful goal with a sloppy piece of play from a throw-in and we rarely looked like getting back on terms. There was no urgency about our passing. It was too slow. We were too lacklustre in everything we did and we deserved to lose.

“We did have two perfectly good goals disallowed though. I’ve watched them back and Andrew is a yard onside for the first one and probably level for the second one. It was a poor day for the officials as well. It’s always a horror show for us when this referee (Dean Whitestone) turns up.

“People want us to play 4-4-2, but to do that you need to have legs in midfield and you need the wingers to work hard, but we hardly picked up a second ball all game and I can only remember one time when Chris Forrester passed the ball forward and he almost got Omar through on goal.

“The two midfielder (Forrester and Anthony Grant) need to buck their ideas up. Michael Doughty was knocking on the door to play today, but fell ill.

“It was very disappointing. It seems every time we have a chance to make up some ground we mess it up. We need to forget about the games in hand we have and the position we are in, and just concentrate on producing a performance in the next one.

“All we can do is regroup and go again. We have 17 games to go and we are not too far off the pace.

“I usually defend my players in press conferences, but we need to improve on that. As the manager I take responsibility for the side I picked and today it wasn’t good enough. Six home defeats in the league is far too many.

“We have a week’s training now and it’s back to the drawing board. Omar did okay considering he was feeding off scraps. We played into him too early. He’s only had one training session with us though. He will turn into a good player for us.”

Posh are next in League One action at Gillingham next Saturday (February 10).