Southend United finished their Roots Hall programme by slumping to defeat against Bury to set the worst home record of their 97-year history on Saturday.
Headed goals from Michael Nelson and Lee Connell, either side of an equaliser from Blues' newly crowned Player of the Season Leon Cort, cemented the Shakers' place in the Third Division promotion play-offs.
It was the tenth time the Shrimpers have lost in front of their own fans this term, the largest number of league losses they have ever suffered on home soil since they began life in 1906.
The one that got away : Bury survive despite the efforts of Leon Cort and Mark Rawle
Bury had previously failed to win in Southend for 43-years, but the present day Lancashire outfit put in a workmanlike display to nick the three points and stay fifth in the basement league.
The Seasiders remain 14th, a position they seem to have been stuck in forever, as the 2002/03 season has tailed off to a gloomy conclusion.
This was Blues' seventh setback in their last ten matches and new manager Steve Wignall knows his job will begin for real after the final whistle is blown on another miserable campaign at relegation-threatened Exeter City this weekend.
From a defensive point of view both Bury goals were a nightmare as Nelson and Connell were left free to net routine headers.
Blues did rally to grab an equaliser on the first occasion they fell behind -- thanks to Cort's perfect half-volley, the centre-half's seventh strike of the season -- leaving things all square at the interval.
But the biggest disappointment was that the Seasiders had no reply to Bury's second goal, which proved to be the winner, just after the restart.
The Shrimpers were completely devoid of ideas and were forced to keep playing the ball backwards as their total lack of width again came back to haunt them in suffocating style.
In contrast, Bury were allowed to knock the ball around at their own leisure at times, but in all honesty were hardly boiling over with attacking ideas themselves and rarely threatened a third goal.
Published Monday, April 28, 2003
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