A rare taste of Friday night football at Roots Hall heralded the end of Alvin Martin's troubled reign as Southend United manager as the Shrimpers slumped even nearer to non-league oblivion.

Visitors Hull City, bottom of the Third Division a few weeks ago, couldn't believe how easy their Roots Hall ride was as they achieved maximum reward from a match correctly billed as a relegation six-pointer.

To make matters worse, current basement boys - rock bottom Scarborough - picked up a priceless 1-0 home win over Rochdale, which leaves them just six points behind Blues with a game in hand.

This was a match which Southend's players should have been desperate to succeed in, to ease their own fears of playing Conference soccer next season, but for whatever reasons, be it a lack of passion or confidence, they never looked like doing so.

The Tigers didn't have to roar -- a meow would have sufficed - as they sealed victory with a late strike from skipper David D'Auria, the first Blues had conceded at Roots Hall in 512 minutes.

The Seasiders lacked quality in every department, from rookie keeper Mel Capleton's erratic kicking right through to forwards Barry Conlon, Neville Roach and substitute striker Neil Campbell's woeful attempts to test Hull keeper Andy Oakes.

All three hitmen failed miserably, not mustering a single shot on target during the entire 90 minutes, but they can't take all the blame.

Apart from debutant winger Lee Hodges, on-loan from West Ham, Blues' masquerading midfield lacked invention or vision of any sort as the Shrimpers' frailties in the middle of the park were once again highlighted.

German Lars Unger struggled to get to grips with the pace of the game, while his partner Kevin Maher was again anonymous to the naked eye and received the biggest cheer of the night when he was substituted after 61 minutes.

Home debutant Steve McGavin tried in vain to bring some attacking flair to Southend's midfield, but after being put in charge of Blues' set pieces he also had a night to forget as he consistently overhit deadball crosses which flew past his team mates' heads.

Yet again Southend coped fairly well at the back, restricting the visitors to the minimum of shots, but the sending-off of young defender Leo Roget didn't help their cause as they played the last 15 minutes with ten men.

However, by this time substitute stopper Simon Coleman, who has been one of Southend's most consistent performers this term, was on the pitch, following Martin's bizarre decision to drop his skipper before this crunch game.

Coleman became the fall guy for Hull's visit as Martin scrapped his wing-back system of recent weeks in favour of a 4-4-2 formation to accommodate McGavin in midfield alongside Maher and Unger.

It was the newcomer, Hodges who tried to show Southend the way in the opening minutes of the match.

The tricky left-winger cut inside and ripped through the heart of Hull's midfield before drilling a low shot wide of the right post, much to the relief of the Tigers' back-pedalling defence. It was nearly 20 minutes before either side conjured up another opportunity, but it was Hull's turn to cause problems.

Capleton was forced to run out of his box and head the ball away from Duane Darby to safety, after the Hull forward had outstripped centre-back Rob Newman when chasing a long punt forward from Steve Swales.

Blues hit back and a neat one-two between Hodges and Conlon allowed the wideman to hit a left-wing cross into the Hull box which Maher headed into the path of Roach, who volleyed just wide of the left-hand post.

Five minutes before half-time Conlon missed Southend's best chance of the night after Martyn Booty's good work down the left.

The full-back fed Conlon the ball on the edge of the box, but, with a clear sight of goal, the big Irishman blasted wide. Shrimpers chief Martin hauled off Roach at half-time in favour of Campbell to give his attack more strength against Hull's dominant rearguard.

However, it was to no avail as the visitors' long-ball tactics began to take the upper hand.

Hull hitman Colin Alcide hit a low drive inches wide of Southend's goal after robbing Roget in the 56th minute, but the defender redeemed himself 11 minutes later by making a fantastic block on Darby inside the Southend box.

Blues' only reply was a series of desperate efforts that were closer to the North Bank scoreboard than the Hull goal as the visitors restricted Southend to wild, long-range shots.

After 71 minutes Booty was forced to head Gerry Harrison's cross inches wide of his own goal and four minutes later the Seasiders' problems doubled as Roget was shown his second yellow card - followed by a red - for a desperate lunge on goalbound Alcide.

What else could go wrong? Only one thing, and it did, as Hull got the goal they had threatened for long spells, which brought to an end Martin's 20-month stint in the Roots Hall hotseat.

A left-wing cross from Justin Whittle found D'Auria unmarked at the far post for the midfielder to lash home a deflected shot from 12-yards.

Hull nearly doubled their advantage 60 seconds later when Capleton pushed away Harrison's drive, but the damage had already been done and the final chapter written for Southend's seventh manager of the 90s.

Blues have loaned defender Nathan Jones to Scarborough for the rest of the season.

Long stretch - Blues' Leo Roget (right), later sent off, tackles Colin Alcide

(Right) Slip-sliding away - Blues striker Barry Conlon (grounded) challenges Hull's Justin Whittle as Southend stutter to another defeat

Pictures: ROBIN WOOSEY

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