Southend United's last gasp goal hero Tes Bramble admitted he was not sure whether he would get the chance to seal Blues' 1-0 win over Rochdale.

The 22-year-old hitman broke the deadlock 60 seconds from the end of normal time, following a great advantage from referee Iain Williamson.

Going up - Tes Bramble duels with Dale defender Simon Grand while Mark Beard looks on

Substitute Shrimpers forward Barrington Belgrave was clattered by Dale defender Simon Grand as he prepared to break clear, but the Reading official allowed play to continue, with Bramble beating goalkeeper Neil Edwards to score.

"It was a great advantage from the referee," said Bramble, who now has 10 goals for the season.

"When I got the ball I saw the linesman stick his flag up and I was expecting everything to stop.

"But the referee ignored his assistant and let me run through to beat the keeper and put the ball into an empty net.

"He also did the Rochdale player a lot of favours as well because he could have ended up being red carded if the referee had pulled back play following the foul on Baz."

And Blues' top-scorer wasted no time casting an eye towards tomorrow evening's re-arranged Roots Hall clash with promotion-chasing Oxford.

"We were delighted to make it back-to-back league wins against Rochdale, keeping clean sheets in both games, which sets up nicely for Oxford," added Bramble. "If we carry on doing the business tomorrow night then we can start looking back up the table again."

Southend manager Rob Newman admitted Saturday's encounter was not the greatest spectacle for the paying fan.

"It wasn't a brilliant game to watch, but we got the three points and that's all that matters at the end of the 90 minutes," he said.

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Published Monday, January 20, 2003

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