"Super proud of the boys," says Town boss McGrath after battling draw at Southend

Town twice came from behind in the game and earned a point thanks to a goal in each half from Amari Morgan-Smith and Tayt Trusty.

"Really pleased. If you look at the fixtures beginning of the season, Southend away, decent side, if we can go there and play well and come away with a minimum of a point," McGrath told the Courier.

"We tweaked it slightly in terms of our shape and personnel and I think we got it right.

"We were well worthy of the point and could have got all three."

On his tweak in formation, McGrath said: "We felt they'd step out from the back with the ball, they've got exciting players at the front but we wanted to be, as always, front footed.

"We wanted to get Will Hugill into the side away from home, where we know his energy would be needed, and Morgs up top with Conor gave us that outlet where sometimes you might have to go back to front a bit more.

"We worked on it all week and it worked. We knew they'd keave Conor and Morgs two v two as their full-backs bomb on, and it worked a treat."

McGrath had no qualms with the award of a penalty for Southend's opener.

"Hobbo has apologised, he knows it was really sloppy defending," he said.

"He was in a really good position and just let him turn, tried to rectify it, stepped across him. It's a pen.

"The second goal is a bad defensive error from Mackenzie, who had just come on and hasn't played a lot of minutes."

But the Town boss said twice battling back showed character from his team.

"You're playing in-front of eight thousand fans who expect promotion," he said.

"I want promotion but the minimum I expect from my team is full commitment and to come here and be disappointed with going away with a draw; we said at half-time 'the minimum requirement now is we come away with a point'.

"I asked if they'd be disappointed with a point and they said they would because we felt we were in the ascendancy.

"Super proud of the boys. We made mistakes defensively but I thought True Grant was excellent, he did everything required of him, the back four, apart from the mistakes was good, midfield was good and I was really pleased with Morgs and Conor up top.

"We had great options off the bench too. The recruitment's been really good in the summer, they're a really good, bonded unit.

"I saw it coming down on the bus. They're a good group and I think you can see it on the pitch."

Southend were fuming after Town's equaliser as they were prevented from bringing on substitute Ben Goodliffe.

"I can sympathise. It's a rule change to stop time-wasting and stop players slowly going off and killing the game," said McGrath.

"I get it, I've been on the receiving end in the past. The referee was right, the player didn't go off quick enough which meant a minute's penalty for the player coming on.

"It just happened they had a goal kick and I think you have to stop the clock while the goalkeeper strolls to get the ball and that seems to be another 30, 40 seconds so it seems to be a lot longer than it was but the fourth official showed me his watch and it was bang on a minute."

On the injuries to Raheem Conte and Max Bardell, who both had to be subbed off, McGrath said: "Raheem took a bad knock, he's got a dead cald and Max looks like he's tweaked his hamstring.

"We'll assess them tomorrow."