Southend United defender Leon Cort lifted the gloom from Saturday's 2-2 Third Division Roots Hall draw with Oxford by revealing he planned to sign a new contract with Blues this week.

The Shrimpers threw away a two-goal lead against the U's, which saw them slip to 14th place in the League table.

Blues had opened up a strong advantage via hitman Tes Bramble's penalty and Cort's header, before Oxford rallied to steal a share of the spoils through forward Andy Scott and winger Paul Powell's spot-kick.

However, Cort said he intended to stick around and help Southend get it right next season.

"I've been given until the end of the week to make my mind up about the contract," said the 22-year-old, who is one of six Roots Hall players thinking over new deals.

"But I fully expect to be at Southend next season. There are just one or two things to iron out with my agent and I'm hoping to sign my new contract before the weekend."

And analysing the Oxford clash, Cort added: "We had a lot of chances to put this match out of sight and at 2-0 up you expect us to win the game.

"But we suffered a costly concentration lapse just before half-time, which gave Oxford a route back."

"When you are only a goal behind you've always got a chance of getting back into the match and it obviously lifted them for the second-half.

"But we still created more opportunities and with the score 2-1 in our favour Barrington Belgrave has missed a great chance to kill them off.

Published Monday, March 4, 2002