Anyone reading our reports this season will be fed up of us saying that games are won and lost in midfield. But today this was truer than ever, as our midfield trio, despite the best efforts of Martin Thomas to get a grip on things, failed to come to terms with a Southend side which battled and harried from first whistle to last. The other telling factor, as expected, was the disruption to our back four. Jones was preferred to Evans at centre half, to fill the gap left by Bound, and this meant that Lee Jenkins came in at right back, with Coates replacing the injured Howard at left back.

The absence of our regular wide men also caused us some problems, and led to JH further experimenting with the 4-3-3 formation which we saw last week against Macclesfield. But again it left our style of play far too narrow. When we got the ball on the deck we could not thread it through a packed midfield, and this left us pumping the ball long to the head of Alsop, or into the corners where we too often saw Alsop and Watkin pulling wide to the touchline in the space which should be occupied by the absent Roberts, Price, Appleby, Casey or Coates (who was stuck at left back). The frustrated Boyd started dropping back into our own third in an effort to get into the game.

We started brightly enough and nearly took the lead in the first couple of minutes when a vicious shot from Thomas seemed goalbound before it struck our own Jason Smith. But after that it was continuos back pedalling against a Southend team that seemed determined to end its poor run in front of the cameras of a documentary film team shooting "A week in the life of Southend". We had little answer to the excellent front running of Carruthers and the midfield promptings of ex Leeds player Mark Tinkler. Cusack found himself stranded in front of our back four, which was clearly unsettled by the loss of Bound and struggled to clear high balls; and Gareth Phillips just did not have the speed or physical presence to influence the midfield.

Despite this, Southend created only two clear cut chances in the first half - from the first Roger made an excellent save, and from the second, he came agonisingly close to saving an excellent Carutthers header, but could only palm it into the net. The game seemed to be following the same pattern as the same fixture last year, and indeed the unfortunate performance at Hull earlier this year - frankly we were just being muscled out of it. But the character of the team is different now and we did rally - a spell of pressure late in the half led to Mark Tinkler punching the ball away from Steve Jones in the penalty area - for an agonising second it looked like the referee was not going to give the most blatant penalty of the millennium so far, but he did, and Cusack slotted it away.

This gave us cause for optimism, but this was scotched early in the second half, when a deep cross from Houghton was headed home by the excellent Carruthers - serves me right for calling him a Posh reject two minutes earlier! But would he have stolen in at the back post and headed home unchallenged if Matty Bound had been there in the six yard box? - I don't think so. And should he have played at all - he was due to be suspended, but a recent red card was rescinded on appeal (ironic that we chose NOT to appeal, for laudable reasons, against Bound's red card - perhaps a lesson learnt there).

After this we completely lost our grip and Southend had four clear cut chances to increase their lead, Freestone saving twice from close range as our defence tried to push forward, and the rather poor Tolson twice shooting over from the edge of the box. JH recognised that our pattern of play was not being effective, and in two stages he re-worked the formation to a 4-4-2 by replacing Thomas with Casey and Boyd with Roberts - the tactical purpose of the substitutions was completely justified, but the choice of players removed more debatable - Phillips and Watkin would have been better players to sacrifice to achieve the same ends.

But in the last quarter of an hour our new shape really began to cause them some problems. Roberts was terrific, running fearlessly at their defence, and on three occasions roasting them and delivering dangerous crosses which we just could not touch home. Casey also managed to deliver three or four dangerous crosses from the left and combined well with Coates. Watkin had a shot blocked, Roberts perhaps should have done better with a chance that fell to him, Casey fluffed a chance at the far post and in injury time Mel Capleton made a good low save. A draw would have been undeserved, but the good news is that as our more familiar shape emerged, it made us look like promotion contenders at least for the last few minutes of the game.

Player scores:
Freestone - 8 Made several good saves to keep us in it.
Jenkins - 6 A useful auxiliary right back, but not in the Jones class.
Coates - 7 Again, a tidy replacement defender, but more effective in a forward-looking midfield role.
Jones - 6 Some great moments, but really not a centre half, and possibly at fault for second goal.
Smith - 8 Did his best to shore things up, but seemed like he was really missing something..or someone!
Cusack - 5 Back to his early season non-influential self.
Phillips - 5 Young and inexperienced so we won't give up on him yet!
Thomas - 7 Tremendous commitment but seemed to be holding the midfield together on his own.
Watkin - 6 Out of sorts again.
Alsop - 6 Put himself about and worked hard, but no real impact
Boyd - 6 Some great touches but no real chances. Sometimes he seemed to hold on to the ball thinking "who is there good enough to pass it to?!"
Subs:
Roberts - 9 Well done Stuart - they couldn't hold your running and you delivered some great crosses. Almost rescued us a point
Casey - 8 Delivered at least four decent crosses on 30 minutes on the field.
De Vulgt - insufficient time on the field, but looked better than Phillips.

Summary -
A combination of an unfamiliar defensive line up and an experimental formation that really didn't come off, cost us the points today. Priority is to get our wide men back in the fray (which began yesterday), return to our old formation and somehow shore up the gap left by Boundy. Still - we had to lose sometime and now that the record has gone, we can regroup and start again by winning game number 1 on Friday. There was enough shown in the last few minutes to persuade us that the good side is still there, and there is no cause for panic.

To the plonker behind us who shouted "Hollins out"....get a life, and try to learn a little bit about this game you are watching. To the plonkers who were fighting in the stand - just go away, permanently.

Honest Cusack, who grabbed City's consolation from the penalty spot admitted, "Southend fully deserved the points as they were the hungrier of the two sides.

It's hard to explain why we were so lethargic but we never really got going until the last few minutes and by then it was far too late."

Delighted Southend boss Alan Little celebrated his side's second win in 13 games and said, "This was a superb performance by my lads and highlighted what I had beeen saying for weeks that we are a much better side than our sorry recent form would suggest.

Hopefully this will give the players confidence to go on and give our fans a lot more to celebrate in the run-in to the season." Two goal hero Martin Carruthers also hoped the victory would signal a late burst into the play-off frame.

He said, "It was great to get both goals but the important thing today was that we broke our terrible recent run. There's no reason at all why this result should not springboard us into ending the season on a high note." It was hard to believe that lacklustre Swansea went into the game on the back of nine successive wins as Southend always looked far sharper and much more positive in the vital midfield area. In front man Carruthers, just back from a one-match suspension, they had a player who was determined to chase everything.

Only 'keeper Roger Freestone really lived up to his reputation as shoddy Swansea were torn apart at the back with monotonous regularity - sadly missing suspended Matt Bound. Freestone twice denied Southend with brave saves while home striker Neil Tolson failed to take advantage when left in the clear twice in the second half.

Carruthers deservedly gave Southend the lead after 33 minutes when he got his head to a Mark Tinkler cross to steer the ball into the top corner of the net from ten yards out.

Swansea were given a lifeline two minutes from the break when Tinkler needlessly handled a cross from Steve Jones and Cusack stepped up to send Mel Capelton the wrong way from the spot.

But rampant Southend were not to be denied and grabbed maximum points six minutes into the second half when a deep cross from the lively Scott Houghton out on the left was headed in at the far post by man-of-the-match Carruthers.

Swansea showed few signs of staging a fightback until the dying minutes when both sub Stuart Roberts and Steve Watkin failed to find the target as the home side hung on grimly for a rare but welcome win.