Southend United winger Neil Jenkins admitted the Shrimpers had thrown away Saturday's Roots Hall encounter with Shrewsbury Town, which ended in a 3-2 defeat.

The 20-year-old fired Blues into an early lead, before the Seasiders were undone by a brilliant double strike from Shrews hitman Luke Rodgers and a Mark Atkins header.

Recalled Southend frontman Tes Bramble, who replaced groin injury victim Mark Rawle, pulled back a late goal from the penalty spot, but it wasn't enough.

"I can't believe we lost this one as we started off so well," said Jenkins. "We really had a go at Shrewsbury right from the kick-off and their defence was all over the place for the first quarter of an hour.

"We were rewarded for our positive start when I shot us into the lead, but then we just sat back and invited Shrewsbury to put us under pressure. It was just like we switched off and we certainly got punished for it."

And Jenkins revealed that Blues' players had held a changing-room summit after the game, which left Southend without a win from their first three Third Division matches.

"All the lads were very unhappy about the game and we had a long chat afterwards," he added.

Published Monday August 19, 2002

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