Southend United 1 Scunthorpe United 2

Rob Newman will be seriously worried about the future of his job after his team slipped to an incredible seventh home defeat.

The Shrimpers fell even further into the relegation mire on this dreadful afternoon, and one suspects that anything less than three points - in comprehensive fashion at that - against Oxford United in three days time will spell the end of Newman's tenure as Southend boss, if indeed he manages to survive this embarrasing defeat.

Despite supposedly having home advantage Newman still stuck to the negative tactics of the Boxing Day match at Cambridge United, with Tes Bramble remaining as a lone striker with the only change seeing Tony Scully return to the starting line-up ahead of fellow loanee winger Daniel Marney. Goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan started the match despite carrying an injury to his right leg.

The match, played in continuous drizzle on what was already a damp surface - indeed the match had survived two pitch inspections - was slow to come to life in what was strangely an almost mute Roots Hall, but a great ball by Jay Smith on eight minutes was well intercepted by visiting goalkeeper with Scully rushing in and ready to pounce.

Of course Scunthorpe had a jewel in the crown with ex-Shrimpers striker Martin Carruthers, redicuolously booed by a section of supporters with very selective memories, and he caused problems all afternoon, his first warning came on the quarter-of-an-hour mark when he weaved himself into a great position inside the box before twisting and firing a deflected shot inches wide of the target.

Kevin Maher tested Evans with a fierce drive from 25 yards before Flahavan did very well to tip Wayne Grave's effort over the crossbar. Then, just seconds later Scunthorpe were awarded a bizarre penalty when Ian Kilford smashed a cross against the arm of Bramble from point blank range. There was certainly very little Bramble could do about it and i was made all the stranger by the fact that referee Steve Tomlin had only minutes earlier failed to spot a blatant handle by Carruthers. However justice was done when Andy Dawson blasted the resulting spot kick well wide of Flahavan's right hand post.

Leon Cort had given the Shrimpers the lead just before the interval.

Bramble's knock-back then found Maher who saw a low drive blocked by Graves before Damon Searle's dangerous cross was grasped by Evans under pressure from Mark Beard before a diving Maher headed a Scully cross inches wide when perhaps he should have done better.

However, the Shrimpers grabbed the lead on 39 minutes, Bramble doing well to win a corner which Maher chipped to the edge of the six yard box where Leon Cort, yet again, was on hand to head the ball past Evans and just inside the near post. Cort has headed all but three of Southend's home goals since August.

With Newman's men going in a goal to the good at the break, it seemed to be the same old story in the second half as Southend, once again to their disadvantage, sat back on what was a far from comfortable lead. A sign of what was to come arrived in the 48th minute, big striker Steve Torpey saw a shot blocked by Cort before it was Cort again who did well to hack the ball clear after Flahavan had spilt Dawson's cross. Dawson's low, long range free kick two minutes later however was relatively easy picking for Flahavan.

What was a somewhat hot-tempered second period, with Scunthorpe always looking to pick a fight exploded in the 52nd minute when for some reasaon Matthew Sparrow took exception to his own foul on Mark Rawle! As Bramble weighed in to haul Sparrow's flying arms away from the shell-shocked Rawle the Scunthorpe midfielder pushed and then punched Bramble in the face, amazingly Tomlin gave Sparrow nothing more than a stern talking to. Then, six minutes later came a most bizarre incident in which Tomlin came under the spotlight once more. A swirling Maher free kick was dropped to Evans and amongst a huge scramble Rawle stabbed the ball forward where Phil Whelan just managed to get his boot ahead of a desperate defender to poke the ball in from literally a matter of inches with Scunthorpe players lined up on the goalline. However with the Roots Hall crowd joyous and with Whelan dancing with delight infront of the South Stand, Scunthorpe were suddenly breaking forward, with the goal, for a reason known to only Mr Tomlin, disallowed.

Bramble smashed a decent 20 yard effort just wide on 64 minutes before Scully, running at goal was hauled to the deck by Mark Jackson, with Tomlin shaking his head it was down to linesman Mark Scholes to wave his flag at what was an obvious free kick, but amazingly Tomlin once again refused to take action where some officials may have directed a red card at Jackson. The resulting free kick saw Searle curl a great shot against the angle of crossbar and post with Rawle only able to place the rebound straight at Evans.

The match turned following Kevin Maher's poor penalty miss.

Bramble screwly a shot badly over the top after Rawle a touched back a Scully centre before Scunthorpe stole the match on 81 minutes. A right-sided Dawson corner was flicked on by Carruthers and with the Southend defence in sheer panic the ball wasn't cleared and Bryne nipped in at the far post to nod the ball into the net from close range.

With Southend, now without a clue how to go about getting themselves back into the match, tamely chasing the match, Beard fired a shot wide of Evans' goal before, deep into stoppage time Maher rolled a rediculously weak shot at Evans.

It's now seven ome defeats for the lacklustre Shrimpers, with an incredibly tough match at Roots Hall against Oxford on New Years Day only three days around the corner, and following that the long trek to Carlisle, a place where Southend have a notoriously abysmal record. Southend are slipping towards a relegation dogfight and anything less than victory against Oxford will almost certainly spell the end of Rob Newman as United manager.

SOUTHEND UNITED (4-5-1):- Darryl Flahavan; David McSweeney, Damon Searle, Leon Cort, Phil Whelan (Daniel Marney 84); Mark Beard, Kevin Maher, Jay Smith (Barrington Belgrave 78), Tony Scully (Graeme Jones 89), Mark Rawle; Tesfaye Bramble. Unused subs - Neil Jenkins, Daniel Gay.

SCUNTHORPE UNITED (4-4-2):- Tommy Evans; Nathan Stanton, Andy Dawson, Clifford Byrne, Mark Jackson; Wayne Graves, Ian Kilford (Scott Brough 64), Matthew Sparrow, Lee Featherstone; Martin Carruthers (Andy Parton 86), Steve Torpey.

Goals: Southend: Cort 39 (header; inside area) Scunthorpe: Carruthers 75 (lob; inside area), Byrne (header; inside area)

Bookings: Southend: Flahavan (22 - dissent), Smith (69 - foul), Scunthorpe: Kilford (44 - dissent), Byrne (57 - dissent), Jackson (73 - dissent)

Shots/headers on target: Southend 4, Scunthorpe 5
Shots/headers off target: Southend 7, Scunthorpe 5
Blocked shots: Southend 2, Scunthorpe 1
Hit woodwork: Southend 1, Scunthorpe 0
Corners: Southend 7, Scunthorpe 5
Offside: Southend 3, Scunthorpe 2

Match Time: First half: 46:25, Second half: 49:19. Total - 95:44

ATTENDANCE - 4,248 (approx 200 away fans)

REFEREE - Steve Tomlin (Lewes)