Southend United 1 Grimsby Town 1

Last updated : 26 November 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Southend United and Grimsby Town settled for a share of the spoils after an open contest at Roots Hall.

Right-back John McDermott gave the visitors a first-half lead before striker Freddy Eastwood earned the Shrimpers a point with his eighth goal in eight games.

Eastwood blazed wide after four minutes and six minutes later Mark Gower's free-kick cleared the Mariners' wall and whistled past the far post.

Grimsby were content to defend and wait for the breaks, a tactic that resulted in shots from distance from Jason Crowe, Colin Cramb and Terry Fleming.

Town's goal came from a Blues mistake when Wayne Gray's backpass to goalkeeper Bart Griemink deflected off Adam Barrett and McDermott raced on to the loose ball before slotting home from six yards.

Mark Bentley should have equalised on 40 minutes when Gower's free kick was cleared to him by Dean Gordon, but the midfielder screwed his shot over from close range.

Southend enjoyed the greater possession in the opening exchanges of the second half but had to wait until the hour to level.

A long ball from Duncan Jupp came off Rob Jones and fell to Eastwood, whose snap shot beat Tony Williams at his far post.

Gordon went straight down the other end to force a save out of Griemink, before Eastwood did the same to Williams a minute later.

Griemink pulled off a fine save to deny Andy Parkinson after he was set up by Cramb, before Parkinson's right-wing cross was headed inches wide by the diving Fleming.

The visitors came closest to securing all three points in injury time when Gordon's cross was hit against the underside of the crossbar before deflecting off Barrett for a corner.