FRUSTRATED Paul Stephenson admits his side were made to pay the price for slackness at both ends of the pitch on Saturday.

His Hartlepool side fell behind to a first-minute goal at leaders Southend, but then missed some decent openings to pull one back.

Pool have scored only 13 times away from home this season, the third lowest tally in League One.

Adam Boyd started on the bench after feeling the affects of his return to action after six months out with knee ligament damage, as Stephenson handed Michael Proctor his first start since November 12.

But it was at the other end where Pool were up against it, as they conceded three goals for the fifth time this season.

"It puts your game plan out of the window straight away,'' he said. "How long was it? Within 60 seconds and it gave us a mountain to climb.

"I felt we shored it up a bit and Proctor had a good chance with his shot, but it it the bar and we cannot seem to get one under the bar at the moment.

"Then I felt at one-down at half-time we were right in it and that's what I said at half-time.

"We had a lot of the ball for long periods and we had to continue doing what we were.

"Creating chances, creating more chances and away from home that's what you have to do. You need a better ratio of taking chances and we didn't quite have it.

"We haven't took any and created some great openings. But at the other end, we have been sloppy for their goals.''

He added: "We had two bad starts to the halfs.

"We didn't quite start either how we wanted or expected.

"The second goal was a killer - the big fella has had a good game again, but he knows he could have kicked the ball out of the ground and given us the chance to regroup. Then we get our shape back.

"They got the goals and we didn't - but we had as good a chances as we have created for a long time away from home, really gilt-edged.''

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