Alan McCormack and Franck Moussa came back into midfield for Osei Sankofa and Stuart O'Keefe, allowing Simon Francis to move back to right back, and Francis Laurent went up front in place of Matt Paterson.
The surprise was the last minute absence of captain Adam Barrett who aggravaited a hamstring during the warm-up and was replaced by Jean-Yves M'Voto, his central defensive partner Pat Baldwin grabbing the skippers armband.
Though for the first half-hour or so it didn't seem to matter who was weraing the Blue shirt as the importance of the game seemed to have passed them by. They were hardly breaking into a sweat!
In that time former Shrimper striker Charlie MacDonald had already found the roof of the net, the next time around he found the back of it.
21 minutes gone, a lovely pass by Carl Cort found MacDonald, who this time kept the ball low and under the advancing Mildenhall.
Nothing wrong with the goal than, as a mate told me at the break, Cort used his hand to control the ball, and MacDonald was offside when he received it!
One for the highlights but the assistant on the West Stand side was very poor, missing several key incidents, while Kettle was Kettle, though even fatter and slower than last time.
At last the Shrimpers woke up to the fact that relegation was staring them in the face and Laurent started to show his magic, while Scott Vernon went close from a Johnny Herd corner, which were a danger throughout, even more than his throw-ins for a change.
The second half saw the improvement continue and with the Roots Hall crowd starting to warm up to the task, led by the Blue Voice who were magnificent from the kick-off, the Essex boys pushed for an equaliser.
They found it from a player who could find some consistancy would be on many managers summer shopping list, as it is let's be happy Francis Laurent found his shooting boots at last.
The Frenchman went on one of his mazy runs on 56 minutes after being fed by Moussa. Finding himself one-on-one with Bees keeper Wojciech Szczesny, Laurent's low shot deflected off the shot stoppers body and into the net, 1-1 and all to play for.
Until eight minutes later when, once again al la Bristol Rovers away, possession was lost in central midfield with the Shrimpers now on top, allowing Brentford to counter attack and outnumber home defenders.
Cort received the ball and shot low and hard into the corner of the net, fine finish by an in-form forward.
So, that looked to be it. The 'R' word could be said openly, 'whatever will be, will be, we're all going to Shewsbury', could be sang on the terraces.
Yet, only 60 seconds later, there was to be one more twist that allows the funeral arrangements to be cancelled for a few days at least.
Moussa's left wing cross was deflected and fell to Laurent who made no mistake from close range, 2-2 and game on, again!
Keeper Szczesny stayed down, all eyes on referee Kettle to see if he'd found a reason to disallow the goal, but eventually he was carried off and the delay would lead to seven minutes of stoppage time added on at the end.
As Southend piled on the pressure to grab the precious three points there was always the danger of a Bees break, and after close efforts by Jean-Francois Christophe and Macca it was the West Londoners who could have snatched the game.
After a couple of terrific Herd corners, one which saw sub keeper Nikki Bull nearly palm the ball directly into his own net, the action went up the other end, and Lewis Grabban's low shot was palmed away by Mildy for a corner and the final whistle.
So only a point gained and in the cold light of a new day, and looking at the other results, it's certainly not enough.
However, as the maths don't quite confirm it yet, we'll move on to the Seagulls at the Hall next Saturday, but set the sat navs for Morecambe next season.
Southend player markings: Mildenhall - 6, Francis - 6, M'Voto - 7, Baldwin - 6, Herd - 6, Grant - 8, Christophe - 5, McCormack - 7, Moussa - 7, Laurent - 7, Vernon - 5.
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