KEVIN MAHER fumed with his side’s inability to deal with York City’s corners as his Southend United side dropped to a 3-0 defeat on Saturday.

After surviving opportunities for Tyrese Sinclair in the first-half, York had to bide their time and take advantage of set-pieces in the second 45 to claim the three points from the match.

Dan Batty’s delivery was powered against the crossbar by Callum Howe with just over an hour gone, before Dipo Akinyemi found himself unmarked in the area who rifle the rebound home.

Just minutes later Howe had more luck in front of goal, this time directing his header past Collin Andeng Ndi.

And from another corner, Malachi Fagan-Walcott headed into the path of David Ajiboye, who flicked the ball into the back of the net.

It was an understandable frustration for Maher, who was angry at his players for failing to do their jobs.

“There’s moments in the game that we felt that we didn’t look after the ball enough, but second-half they haven’t opened us up,” Maher told club media.

“From mistakes in the first-half they have had chances, from sloppiness in our point of view, and I think it’s happened earlier in the season where people let their men go on corners and they don’t deal with it.

“People are supposed to do their jobs on set-pieces, do them.

“That’s what’s cost us and it has done all season, it’s not good enough.

“We’ve had a set-piece in the first-half where someone just needs to gamble on the front, and then it’s a tap in.

“Within the first minute, Bim [Pepple] has got in a great position where he lands on it in and around the box, but just couldn’t get it out of his feet.

“In the second-half [Jack] Bridge has had one, Charley [Kendall] has had one, Gus [Scott-Morriss] has had one that you’ve got to take.

“We haven’t done that, and we’ve been done with a sucker punch on the set-pieces, but they had a lot of the ball to be fair to them.”