Tilson guided Southend to the League One title in 2006

Southend United manager Steve Tilson says his side paid the price for a poor start in their League One defeat at Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

The Blues were 3-0 down at half-time before pulling it back to 4-2.

Tilson told BBC Essex: "The first half was a poor showing from ourselves, we never got going.

"In the second half, we came out and showed a bit of pride. We could have crumbled but showed a lot of character, we've got to move on now."

The defeat ended Southend's seven match unbeaten run and moved them down to 10th in the League One table.

Rickie Lambert scored all four goals for Rovers and Tilson was disappointed he was able to reach that tally: "He's the top scorer in the league, so you've got to get a bit tighter than we did.

"It's one of them things, we didn't do well enough trying to keep him quiet. He was the man we had to keep quiet and we haven't done that."

The Blues look to bounce back from the defeat with home matches against Leeds on Tuesday, and Colchester on Saturday.

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