Darlington can consider themselves very unlucky not to have come away from Roots Hall with three points after losing to 10-men Southend.

The home side were reduced to 10 men on 37 minutes when Damon Searle was shown a straight red card after tangling with ex-Shrimpers forward Barry Conlon.

The teams went into half-time level and Southend manager David Webb would have been happy to see his team finish the game level with Gary Bennett's side.

Southend came out for the second half defending very deeply with Leon Cort - brother of Newcastle striker Carl - looking very solid.

Quakers had a number of chances, especially through Danny Mellanby and Barry Conlon, while Michael Convery had a long range shot brilliantly tipped wide.

Ten minutes from time Mark Rawle fired a shot from the edge of the box past Andy Collett to secure Southend three very fortunate points.

Read more about the Quakers here.