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Johnstone's Paint Trophy First Round: Southend United 1 Crawley Town 0
Liam Dickinson's spot-kick midway through the first half was enough to see off cash rich Crawley Town, who made seven changes from their league defeat at the weekend while the Shrimpers remain unchanged, however, on 66 minutes he was sent off for a poor tackle on the Red Devils defender Kyle McFadden,
Dickinson had already placed the ball in the net which was ruled offside as the home side dominated early proceedings, with the lively Leonard sending one of his reademark 20-yarders just wide, followed by a free-kick by the same player which was well saved by Crawley keeper Michael Kuipers.
Then the moment that put Southend in to the next round.
On 25 minutes Liam Dickinson was fouled in the area by Reds left-back Charlie Wassmer, up he got, dusted himself down, and found the net with a superb penalty that found the bottom right hand corner, that's two now, his third goal overall in five games, shame he missed that Orient one but the boys in form. (Shame we won't see it now for three matches!)
Neil Harris limped off later with a suspected groin problem, which could see him out for a while, and was replaced by Jemal Johnson.
The match also changed as moneybags Crawley piled on the pressure, certainly just before the break they had good claims for a spot-kick of their own as Chris Barker seemed to push Town striker Matt Tubs with the referee seeming to have a good view..
As the Blues had a calming cup of tea at the interval but saw Ryan Hall come off the bench for Lee Sawyer who picked up an injury to his thigh and is considered a doubt for Saturday's League two clash with Northampton Town also at Roots Hall.
But Southend had a huge left off at the start of the second period when Morris palmed out a low cross from Tubbs and Akpan could only fire the resulting rebound over the crossbar from six yards when he should have done better.
Shrimpers shot stopper Glenn Morris has been making some errors recently and early in the second period fumbled a Sergio Torres shot where Tubbs was ruled offside when he calmly placed the loose ball past the former Orient keeper.
More penalty appeals, again to the Sussex based side but referee Miller was not pointing to the spot, he was a waving a yellow card in front of John Akinde for diving when going for the same ball as Morris.
However, the scorer Dickinson was to make the last 24 minutes more interesting, well, maybe not for the Shrimpers faithful in the 2,053 crowd, of which 91 had travelled down from Crawley, when he went in two-footed on Red Devils centre half Kyle McFadzean and a straight Red was shown.
Cue Bilel Mohsni on up front for the unlucky Johnson.
Though it looked as if his opposite number in Steve Evans was going to explode as first Hope Akpan scooped the ball over the bar when it looked easier to score, then Morris saved well from Charlie Wassmer, it's Southend United that will go into the next round.
Can't wait to hear the quotes from the fat boy after this latest loss, this is not supposed to happen in Crawley's master plan to take over the universe.
Southend United Player Markings - Morris - 5, Clohessy - 6, Philllips -7, Barker - 7, Prosser - 7, Leonard - 7, Ferdinand - 6, Grant - 7, Sawyer - 6 (Hall 45 - 6), Dickinson - 6, Harris - 5 (Johnson - 5).
Ref: Mr. P. Miller - 6.