Southend United boss Alan Little hit out at his "sloppy" players, following a lacklustre 2-0 defeat at promotion chasing Northampton Town on Saturday.

The Cobblers punished a feeble Shrimpers performance as goals from Dave Savage and Jamie Forrester kept the home side's automatic elevation hopes alive, leaving Blues firmly stuck in the Third Division doldrums.

"I handed the players an end of season target of 60 points and a top ten finish before the game, but we've got no chance if we perform as we have done against Northampton," said a far from happy Little.

"We'd had two good results before this match - a home win over Chester City and a draw at Hull - but we've pushed ourselves back again.

"Some of my team were very sloppy and it has cost us dearly, which just isn't good enough."

Southend still occupy a depressing 16th place in the league standings and Little admitted his side never looked capable of grabbing three points to push themselves further up the table during their Sixfields Stadium debacle.

"Not for the first time this season we had plenty of possession, but we didn't do anything with it," said Little, whose team have now failed to find the net for 514 minutes away from Roots Hall.

"Our display was full of passing, but it was going nowhere. We failed miserably to trouble Northampton in the final third of the field and we just didn't hurt them.

"When we did have the ball in good positions or at free-kick situations we wasted it, with Scott Houghton in particular lacking quality in his delivery.

"But the manner in which we conceded the two goals was also disappointing as we have been undone by another couple of basic errors.

"Northampton's first goal came from a long punt forward, before they added a second by taking advantage of our back-pedalling defence, which are problems we should be able to cut-out."

However, Blues' mediocre performance failed to dampen the enthusiasm of young defender Garry Cross, who, handed a surprise start, showed the hunger sadly lacking among some of his more senior team-mates.

"It's not the result we wanted, but for me personally it's just great to be playing in the first team again," said the 19-year-old from South Woodham Ferrers.

"Hopefully I've done enough to keep my place in the starting line-up and I can get a run in the side between now and the end of the season."

Meanwhile, Blues boss Little has denied reports linking his 17-goal top-scorer Martin Carruthers with a £100,000 deadline day bid from Northampton last Thursday.

"We've had no offer from Northampton and £100,000 falls a long way short of our valuation of Martin, who is a player we wouldn't want to sell anyhow," confirmed the Shrimpers chief.

No players came in or out of Roots Hall around the transfer cut-off point, with transfer-listed striker Neville Roach returning to the Essex coast following an unsuccessful spell as a trial ist at Conference League Scarborough.

Overshadowed - Blues veteran defender Rob Newman keeps a close watch on Canadian hit-man Carlo Corazzin during the Seasiders 2-0 defeat at Northampton.

Picture: DAVE MONTIER

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