Southend United's last home match of the millennium failed to produce a desperately-needed victory as Northampton Town extended the Shrimpers' woeful Roots Hall run on Boxing Day.

Blues entered this festive fixture nursing a wretched record of four consecutive league and cup defeats on their own ground, which the promotion seeking Cobblers hoped to make the most of.

Neither side managed to grab the three points on offer from this Sunday afternoon encounter as both teams fought out an eventually entertaining Third Division draw which stretched Southend's winless sequence to eight league outings.

The Seasiders' last league success, their previous triumph at Roots Hall, was a 2-1 victory over Brighton on November 2.

But it was hard to see where a goal was going to come from during the opening period of this clash as both teams contested a drab affair, which must have left the watching punters wishing they had stayed at home to view the equally poor Christmas TV programmes.

However, Southend, playing with a 4-4-2 formation, had more solidity about them than in recent weeks, with Blues' players looking far more happier and comfortable with this system.

However, the central midfield area still left a lot to be desired, with new loan-signing from Aberdeen, Nigel Pepper, finding his feet on his Southend debut and partner in crime Mark Tinkler still jaded following a ten-day stint in bed with flu.

Southend's game-plan was also disrupted by the loss to injury of central defender David Morley and winger Gordon Connelly, both with hamstring pulls, during the proceedings, which helped inspire a more open and pulsating second period.

Blues striker Martin Carruthers did his best to lift Southend out of the doldrums with his eighth goal of the season straight after the break.

But, predictably, the Seasiders got into the Christmas spirit by gifting their visitors two goals, converted by John Frain and Ian Sampson, as fifth-placed Northampton began to break forward and find space much more effectively than their hosts.

However, Southend hitman Neil Tolson grabbed a bizarre late equaliser as Blues clung on for a share of the spoils from this sometimes niggly match, which saw both sets of players lacking festive cheer at times as the tackles flew in and scuffles broke out.

Shrimpers boss Alan Little shuffled his pack again as he searched for the winning formula, replacing underfire goalkeeper Mel Capleton with veteran custodian Mark Prudhoe.

Skipper Simon Coleman and young apprentice Morley took the central defensive positions, with controversial stopper Leo Roget still sidelined by flu, and the magnificent Martyn Booty settled in at full-back alongside the equally impressive Nathan Jones.

Pepper and Tinkler were paired in central midfield with Connelly and Scott Houghton employed on the flanks, and Carruthers and Tolson again teamed together upfront.

And it was Tolson who had the first sniff of goal after just three minutes as he chested down a clearance from Jones and sizzled a 35-yard drive just wide of Northampton keeper Keith Welch's left-post.

Within another 60 seconds, Tolson and Jones combined again to bamboozle Northampton's static rearguard only to be denied what looked like a blatant penalty.

The lanky targetman collected a left-wing pass from Jones and as he intelligently made room for a shot Tolson seemed to have his legs taken away by Sampson, but referee Keith Hill was having none of it.

Frustrated, but undeterred, Blues continued to pressurise and Carruthers had a close-range effort blocked by Cobblers defender Duncan Spedding, before the Southend forward picked up the rebound and crossed to the far-post, where Tolson nodded wide at full-stretch.

However, the rest of the first period was about as exciting as a soggy mince pie as neither team created a clear cut chance, although Tinkler did manage to clear the North Bank with a 17th-minute drive.

Ian Hendon replied with a 25-yard free-kick for the visitors, which safely nestled inside Prudhoe's midriff soon after, and Carruthers found the side netting again in first-half injury time, before Pepper slid a mis-hit cross from Beard - Morley's replacement - just wide.

The boredom of the initial 45 minutes was lifted after the break though as Blues and Northampton served up a Christmas cracker of a second-half.

Southend made their intentions known four minutes into the restart as Coleman sliced a Houghton corner wide of the left-post, before Tolson ran onto a defence-splitting pass from Booty, now playing at centre-half following Morley's departure, before blazing wildly off target with only Welch to beat.

However, Blues finally got it right in the 51st minute as the hard-working Carruthers deservedly opened the scoring.

An attempted one-two with Tolson on the edge of the Northampton box ricocheted into the goalbound frontman's path off of visiting defender Sampson, leaving Carruthers to rattle the ball into the left-hand corner of the net from 16 yards.

Carruthers then tried to turn provider as another two surging runs and smart passes presented Connelly and Houghton with good chances to increase Blues' tally, but neither man took their opportunities.

Inevitably, having failed to kill off their opposition again, Southend allowed the Cobblers to pick themselves up and battle back to pull level.

Northampton's right-winger Dave Savage hit a deep centre into Southend's penalty area which left a hesitant Prudhoe flapping, but the keeper redeemed himself as he pushed away Steven Howard's point-blank header at the foot of the right-post.

Yet the Shrimpers' leaky defence failed to clear the danger allowing Sean Parrish to fire the ball back goalward, which was met by a Howard flick and headed over the Southend goal-line by Frain from six yards on 61 minutes.

In reply, Houghton hit a half-volley just over Welch's goal, but Northampton, who were missing their usual forward duo of Daryl Clare and Carlo Corazzin, bedridden by flu, had the upper hand now.

All of a sudden the Seasiders had that familiar wobbly look about them again as they surrendered possession cheaply, with Tinkler the biggest culprit, inviting Northampton to stream forward.

Simon Sturridge missed a great chance for Northampton as he drilled past the right-post from 10 yards completely unmarked on 67 minutes, before his team-mates took advantage of Southend's inability to defend high-balls to prod themselves in front.

A looping left-wing free-kick from experienced campaigner Frain was again met first by Northampton's Howard in the Southend box, which led to Sampson out-jumping Pepper to the second ball and glancing a header into the top left-hand corner of the goal on 78 minutes.

Blues remained resilient, though, and grabbed a wacky leveller three minutes later.

Carruthers turned and volleyed a right-wing throw from Jones high into the Northampton box, which Tolson was allowed to meet unchallenged at the far-post with a bouncing header, his ninth goal of the season and his first from open play in 12 outings.

However, Northampton came within a whisker of condemning 13th-placed Southend to another home defeat during injury-time.

Booty and Coleman clattered each other going for the same ball, which allowed Parrish to accelerate forward and cross from the left to Howard, whose header smashed against the foot of a post.

On the run - Southend's man-of-the-match Martin Carruthers surges forward

(Left) Shoulder to shoulder - another fierce contest for the ball

Pictures: STEPHEN LLOYD

Match facts

Shots/headers on target: Southend 5, Northampton 6.

Corners: Southend 4, Northampton 5.

Bookings: Southend - Tinkler (4 mins, dissent), Tolson (4 mins, dissent), Houghton (33 mins, unsporting behaviour), Pepper (54 mins, foul) . Northampton - Parrish (75 mins - foul), Howard (90 mins - foul).

Welch 7, FRAIN 8, Sampson 6, Howey 7, Savage 7, Hunter 7 (Hunt 6), Howard 7, Hendon 7, Spedding 7, Parrish 7, Sturridge 5 (Gibb 6). Subs not used: Peer, O'Reilly, Hope.

Northampton

(In 4-4-2 formation with ratings out of 10):

Prudhoe 6 - flapped a couple of times, but kicked well.

Booty 7 - hardly put a foot wrong.

Jones 7 - another virtually flawless display.

Morley 7 - coasting before a hamstring injury forced him out of the game.

Coleman 6 - never lets anyone down, but was below par.

Pepper 6 - lacking match fitness, but did not shirk a challenge.

Tinkler 6 - gave away ball too many times and looked fatigued in the second period.

Connelly 6 - rarely seen as an attacking force before hamstring trouble ended his game.

Tolson 7 - battled and displayed a great understanding with Carru-thers.

CARRUTHERS 8 - so energetic and showed he can create chances as well as take them.

Houghton 6 - subdued performance from the winger.

Subs:

Beard 6 - moved to full-back in place of central defence bound Booty when Morley left the field after 38 minutes.

Campbell 5 - replaced Connelly for last 22 minutes.

Newman 6 - first appearance of the season two minutes from time in place of a tiring Pepper got the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

Subs not used: Maher and Capleton .

Southend Utd

Southend United (0) 2 (Carruthers 51, Tolson 81)

Northampton Town (0) 2 (Frain 61, Sampson 78)

Attendance: 5,449

Referee K Hill (Royston) 5 out of 10.

Other Division Three results

Brighton 1 Barnet 1

Carlisle 1 Rochdale 2

Cheltenham 3 Exeter 1

Darlington 0 Hull 0

Halifax 3 Lincoln 0

Hartlepool 2 York 1

Leyton Orient 0 Swansea 1

Mansfield 2 Chester 1

Peterboro 0 Rotherham 5

Plymouth 2 Torquay 2

Shrewsbury 0 Macclesfield 1

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.