Southend manager Phil Brown felt that the better team lost after a 2-1 defeat of his side against Walsall in the Capital One Cup.
Brown insisted that his side should have won despite substitute Kieron Morris bagging a late winner for the Saddlers.
"For me the better side have lost out their tonight," said the Shrimpers boss.
"The players couldn't really have done anymore and it's frustrating because when it went to 1-1 the game was really there for the taking."
"We had one or two chances we could maybe have done better with but Walsall is a good side themselves and they showed that quality with their second goal."
"It's hard to take and I thought Walsall should have been down to 10 men when their defender (Paul Downing) was the last man and fouled Lee Barnard."
"The ref had a nightmare there but there were plenty of positives from our point of view and Jack Payne was a real thorn in their side."
Walsall seemed to be in control of the game early on when they scored the first goal in the 25th minute by Mal Benning, six yards away. However, Southend began to get better with Barnard having his effort saved by Richard O'Donnell when clean through on goal.
Walsall had survived the scares of loss when they bagged a late winner as Morris collected the ball just outside the penalty area and sent an excellent left-foot shot flying past Paul Smith.
Dean Smith, the Saddlers boss, was delighted for this hard win his team got a hold of.
"Southend made it difficult for us but we expected that because they are a good side," said Smith.
"They made the play-offs last season and have strengthened since then so we always knew this was a hard game."
"After going in front, I thought we were a little bit unlucky to have a Tom Bradshaw effort ruled out for offside. I've seen it again and it looked fine to me. I also wasn't sure about the free-kick which led to Southend's equalizer."
"But thankfully that didn't come back to haunt us as we were still able to make it through."
