Steve Tilson hailed a "fantastic performance" from his Southend United players, but in the end was left to reflect on a series of missed chances in their Carling Cup defeat at Hull City.

Tilson saw the Blues take firm control of the match at the start of the second half, but they couldn't make their pressure count in a 3-1 defeat.

Yet the Blues chief takes away plenty of positives from a narrow defeat to their Premier League counterparts and is now looking to take that into the league at Swindon Town on Saturday.

"It was a fantastic performance from us," Steve told Blues Player.

"In the end, it was a shame things didn't go for us in front of goal, because it was there for us to win.

"Their goalkeeper has made some great saves from us, but we didn't take our chances.

"I thought that our performance certainly deserved more.

"There was only one team in it for the first 30 minutes of the second half.

"We were all over them to be honest and got some great balls into the box.

"There are loads of positives to take out of the game again though, especially when you consider we were up against a Premier League club.

"I'm really pleased with the lads yet again.

"We now have to take that back into the league, starting at Swindon on Saturday.

"That will be another hard game, but if we play like that again, then we have a real chance of getting more points on board."