Crewe Alexandra slipped to their eighth home defeat of the season as our former striker Lee Barnard came back to Gresty Road to haunt us. The former Spurs youngster netted twice as Southend United recorded a 3-1 win but that doesn't tell the entire story with Crewe missing two penalties. Midfielders Gary Roberts and Kenny Lunt saw their spot kicks saved by Darryl Flahavan.
Trying to defeat the in-form side in League One was going to be difficult enough without wasting the opportunity to give us a lifeline from the penalty spot.
As expected Steve Jones (back) and Michael O'Connor (groin) were both ruled out for this afternoon's match, with Dean Morgan returning to the starting 11 after not being permitted to play against his parent club Luton Town last weekend. Steven Schumacher was recalled to the starting line-up for the first time since the Port Vale defeat.
It is quite amazing how many times a former player comes back to haunt us. It happened with Chris Dickson earlier in the season when he returned as a Gillingham player and now Barnard enjoyed his return to South Cheshire in the sky blue colours of Southend. It took the blonde striker just 2 minutes to make his mark. Crewe had ample opportunity to clear their lines but Julien Baudet's clearance was more up than away and after James Walker whipped it back over, George Abbey missed his header, thus allowing the alert Barnard to pick up the loose pickings and drive it beyond the despairing hand of Ben Williams. It was an awful start to the proceedings.
Barnard's early strike certainly settled Southend United down but Crewe looked nervous and jittery. There was a lot of anxiety in and around the Stadium and the Alex were struggling to get hold of the ball and impose themselves on the game.
Tommy Black and Alan McCormack tried their luck from distance before Crewe conjured up their first effort on the Southend goal. Joe Anyinsah was arguably Crewe's most effective player in the opening passages of play and he put over a splendid far post cross for Dean Morgan but the on loan Luton forward headed straight at Flahavan.
Southend then duly doubled their lead after just 19 minutes. McCready's clearance was charged down by the impressive McCormack and he sent James Walker away through the centre of the Alex defence for him to score. Williams got a strong hand onto the shot but couldn't keep it out. Crewe had an enormous mountain to climb and the fans understandably vented their frustration. It had been quite a dreadful start. We hadn't come out of the blocks at all and needed a lifeline and spark from someone.
Crewe continued to conjure up something with Maynard and then Morgan caught offside. They looked dubious decisions. We did get a lifeline though on 34 minutes when Maynard was felled just inside the box by Adam Barrett. Gary Roberts stepped up to take it but saw his spot-kick pushed away by the flying Flahavan. It was a nice height for the goalkeeper but he still showed tremendous agility to keep it out. It was certainly a missed opportunity to claw ourselves back into the contest.
As a fairly eventful half drew to a close, Baudet headed a Kenny Lunt corner over the top of the bar before Charlie Mulgrew became the first player to be cautioned for hacking down the lively Anyinsah.
It so nearly got worse for the Alex with a superb passing move from Southend nearly resulting in a splendid goal for the visitors. They gave us a master class in possession football and after working it into Barnard on the edge of the penalty area, Crewe were thankful again to the agility of Williams who tipped over an effort from Walker. It would have been some goal.
Crewe came out with a lot more purpose in the second half. Dean Morgan sent an early effort sailing over the crossbar before we lost Danny Woodards through injury. The full-back was caught by full back Simon Francis and had to be stretched off. Mark Carrington replaced him with Gary Roberts moving back into the bottom four.
From the resulting free kick, Kenny Lunt picked out the head of Baudet and Maynard wasn't too off connecting with an ambitious flick in front of goal.
Southend were still playing some excellent football though. McCormack shot straight at Ben Williams and Nicky Bailey forced Ben Williams into a decent save with a surprise shot from distance.
The next goal was going to be crucial. Morgan saw his powerful shot deflected over the bar, before Barnard forced another one-handed save from the busier of the two keepers' Williams.
Moments later Anyinsah wasted a good opportunity when he smashed a shot into the roof of the stand after Barrett's headed clearance fell invitingly to the winger. Anyinsah was involved in the second penalty with just over 20 minutes left. The powerful Preston winger burst through and was just about to shoot but was upended by Peter Clarke.
This time the vastly experienced Kenny Lunt took the responsibility, but again he saw Flahavan respond superbly to get a hand to it and keep it out. Remarkably, Crewe had missed a second penalty and hadn't done us any favours whatsoever.
A couple of minutes later though, Crewe finally pulled one back. A Lunt free-kick was cleverly headed in by Maynard from close range. Maynard's sixth goal in his last five games, takes his tally to 10 for the season. A tremendous feat considering he had missed half of it through injury.
Crewe were now eager to push on looking for an equaliser. Boosted by the goal we were now having the better of it. Simon Francis was booked for a shove on Morgan and the same player went close again to draw the home side level.
Then with just 9 minutes remaining and somewhat against the run of play, Southend killed us with a classis counterattack. Barnard was there to finish us off, calmly slotting it past Williams and into the bottom corner for his 10th goal of the campaign.
After beginning to mount some pressure, it was a killer blow and we didn't look like coming back from that. Morgan had a late shot saved again by the impressive Flahavan and Maynard had another effort blocked that would have tested the Southend keeper. If it had got through I'm sure Flahavan would have saved it anyway, as was his form this afternoon.
