Southend United defender Simon Francis was pleased to score his first goal of the season last night but admitted it meant little in the scheme of things.

Francis put his side ahead at Griffin Park with a bizarre free-kick which was his first league goal in 18 months but Blues still lost 2-1 after two second half penalties from Kevin O'Connor.

"It was nice to get a goal again but it's not the same when you lose," Francis told Blues Player.

"They came back at us with two penalties in the second half and it's disappointing because the ref didn't have the best of games.

"He seemed to be giving them everything and, although the first one maybe was a penalty, I really didn't think the second one was.

"Maybe if we had battled a bit harder though we would have taken something out of the game and it's hard to take losing like that."

Early on at Griffin Park things were looking good for the Blues with Francis putting them into the lead after just nine minutes.

The defender delivered a free-kick from the left hand side which was embarrassingly carried over the line by Brentford goalkeeper Nikki Bull.

"I didn't see it go in because my first thought was to get back into position for the goal-kick," said Francis.

"It really wasn't a very good free-kick but then the linesman started flagging and the lads ran towards me.

"It was great to give us the lead but we're disappointed again and need a result now at Stockport on Saturday."