Southend United winger Steven Clark was pleased as punch after firing his team mates to a 1-0 Third Division victory at Lincoln City on Saturday.

On the up -- Southend's stand-in keeper Daniel Gay made the most of his first team chance at Lincoln City. Picture: LUAN MARSHALL 7zavx4m

The 20-year-old's first senior goal came after just seven minutes at Sincil Bank and sealed Blues' first away success for more than three months.

And the former West Ham wideman said: "I'm delighted to get off the mark, but I'm even more happy for the rest of the lads.

"Our away form hasn't been the best, so it's nice that my goal has given us all three points at Lincoln.

"And it was a bit of a collector's item as I never scored that many when I was playing for West Ham's reserves. But hopefully it will be the first goal of many.

"I had another good chance to double my tally after the break and make life easier for us. And I really should have scored, but the goalkeeper made a decent block."

And Clark, who was making his first League start for six weeks following a knee problem, said he was hoping for an injury free end to the season.

"The knee's feeling fine and I just want to feature in all of our last six games now," he added.

"I still need to get my match fitness up and the only way I can do that is by playing regularly and hopefully helping us get a few more wins between now and the end of the season."

Injury-ravaged Blues, who remained 12th in the League table, travelled to lowly Lincoln with just 16 fit players.

Rookie shot-stopper Gay, who was preferred to contract rebel Darryl Flahavan, thanked Newman for giving him a rare chance to shine.

"I didn't know that I was playing until the day of the game, it was all a bit unexpected, and I'm grateful that the gaffer has given me a chance," said the 19-year-old.

"I thought I did okay. My kicking and taking of crosses was quite good and I made a couple of decent saves."

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Published Monday, March 18, 2002