Kevin Maher, the manager of Southend United, believes his team lost two points after a 1-1 draw with Hartlepool United on Monday, the bank holiday.
Nathan Sheron's deflected attempt saved a point for a determined Pools team, making the Shrimpers pay for wasted opportunities.
A battling point in Essex was a great outcome for Pools, who have terrible memories of the infamously difficult August bank holiday weekend, but Maher's team was left to lament lost chances on a day when the home team should have really taken all three.
The lengthy journey to Essex on Monday was Pools' first truly important test of the new season.
Although Simon Grayson's team had a fantastic start to the season—winning three and drawing one of their first four games—they had not yet put themselves to the test against elite opponents. Prior to the game, Southend, who suffered a crushing defeat in the previous season's play-off final, had already held title-favorites York to a goalless draw and had nearly the same record as Pools:
both teams had accumulated 10 points out of a possible 12 and neither had given up in their first four games.
That quickly changed as Pools had the worst possible start and fell behind just two minutes after Tom Parkes returned to the team and skewed an attempted clearance into his own net.
The Shrimpers pushed in for the kill with well over 8,000 home fans behind them, and if it weren't for a combination of bad finishing and some more superb goalkeeping by Harvey Cartwright, a speedy loanee from Hull, they should have been out of sight at halftime.
gaining popularity among Poolie supporters. When the energetic Keenan Appiah-Forson went down in the area during the first half, Maher also believed his team should have had a penalty.
The Shrimpers manager acknowledged he hadn't seen the incident in real time when he spoke to Southend's official club website following the game, but he said he believed it should have been a spot-kick.
Simon Grayson's team started to fight their way back into the game after Pools made changes at halftime.
However, the visitors still had to rely on more heroics from Harvey Cartwright, as the rookie goalkeeper made two excellent saves from the unrelenting Charley Kendall in quick succession.
After wrong-footing the unfortunate Collin Andeng-Ndi, Nathan Sheron's effort in the 66th minute was diverted through a mass of bodies and nestled in the bottom corner, making the home team pay for their careless finishing. In the last twenty minutes, both teams had multiple half-chances to create a winner.
while both managers tried to force the problem by making offensive adjustments. On a day when Pools celebrated a hard-won point and Southend lamented a lack of creativity in the final third and thought about what seemed like two points lost, neither club was able to identify a winner in the end.
Maher said, "I think we did enough to win the game," on the official Southend website.
"You want to be gaining three points based on the game's balance, our chances, and our clear-cut opportunities. We got off to a fantastic start. Harry Boyes' brilliant ball in around the back of their defenders clearly sent them into a panic and caused them to slice one into the net.
I believed we were in complete control after that and were just waiting for the second one to arrive.
They changed structure, but we still seemed to be in control. Based on our opportunities, I believe we can easily defeat them if the second goal is scored. Even though the score is 1-0, there's still a potential that something could happen, like a deflection.
Suddenly, the game is on. Your next Hartlepool United article: Sheron praises the return of the Shrimpers as evidence of the team's character
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