In this tale of two keepers it was the boy yank on his debut, the chants of USA everytime he did anything was terrific, who won the day in the hot autumn sunshine against his opposite number, the former Blues shot stopper Steve Collis.
Funny how things can go for you. Joyce had not touched the ball when a Crewe shot from outside the box hit the post and rebounded to a home forward whose follow up strike was brilliantly caught by the new Blues No.1. If the original shot had gone in who knows how the afternoon might have turned out for him.
As it was Ian's handling was solid and distribution good, he cannot be blamed for any of the goals as he was let down by another chaotic defensive display, Harding once again excused, while Francis is again let off a 5 performance at the back by what he does when going forward, being involved in two of our goals. Luckily, their defence was worse than ours!
However, as the Railwaymen pulled back a two goal deficit to lead 3-2, it ended in smiles for team and supporters alike as deadly Dougie equalised, and then Blues sub Anthony Grant capitalised on a defensive clanger from Crewe Alexandra captain Julian Baudet to steal a dramatic win.
Grant headed the winner in a seven-goal thriller after Collis had parried man of the match Dougie Freedman's shot.
The veteran striker dispossessed Baudet near the halfway line to complete an afternoon of misery for the Frenchman.
As early as the third minute his hesitancy let in Freedman on the edge of the six-yard box and the 34-year-old was able to roll the ball home.
Then when right-back Simon Francis' cross flew in, Baudet was unable to get out of the way and the ball cannoned off his knee for Southend's second in the 20th minute.
But Crewe staged a quick comeback. Michael O'Connor, who hit the post before Freedman opened the scoring, crashed home a deflected effort in the 24th minute and four minutes before half-time Tom Pope broke free on to O'Connor's long pass and steered home the equaliser. A question of offside that only replays may be able to answer, it looked close.
Calvin Zola, lively and a handful as expected, was still guilty of a succession of poor misses, particularly when he was freed by Pope only to sky the ball high and wide.
For Southend Sawyer was sensational, winning everything in midfield, his usual mazy runs were now cutting into the heart of Crewe's defence causing panic.
Substitute Shaun Mlller injected some life down Crewe's left flank and when he set up Byron Moore for a stinging shot, Southend's American keeper Ian Joyce was glad to scramble the effort over the bar.
From the resulting corner on 66 minutes Zola made amends when he hooked the ball into the roof of the net, after Adam Barrett had failed to clear allowing Pope the chance to flick into his strike partner's path.
Southend weren't finished by any means though, Collis did well to deny Lee Barnard the near post.
Then Freedman was allowed far too much room to chest down another Francis cross and volley in the equaliser in the 69th minute.
O'Connor curled a free-kick on to the far post and substitute Hal Robson-Kanu almost caught out Collis with a long-range low angled drive.
It was the Shrimpers who sneaked victory with three minutes left, leaving Crewe first-team coach Steve Holland in despair with his side's defending.
Though Tilly can't be too happy with ours, even so if we keep scoring one more than our opponents the season will turn out far better than many felt was the case a fortnight ago.
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