CONOR Clifford came off the bench to fire Southend United to a 1-0 win in a fiery encounter at Cheltenham Town tonight.

The midfielder was surprisingly selected among the substitutes after making an impressive start to the season.

But, following an injury to Ryan Leonard 10 minutes before the break, Clifford was handed another opportunity to impress.

And the Irishman took it with both hands, helping Blues to edge past the 10 man Robins.

Cheltenham midfielder Jason Taylor was dismissed in the 38th minute after appearing to lash out at Clifford who then delivered the best kind of retribution.

The former Chelsea trainee netted from long range just seven minutes in to the second half to secure a second successive victory for the Shrimpers.

However, before the drama unfolded, the match got off to an event start and Cheltenham came close to opening the scoring in the 13th minute when Jordan Wynter unleashed a powerful effort which Blues goalkeeper Daniel Bentley did well to parry out low down to his right hand side.

Moments later, Bentley was again called in to action as he blocked another low shot, this time from Oman Sterling-James who capitalised on a slip from John White to burst in to the penalty area.

Having survived those scares, Southend soon hit back and, with 33 minutes on the clock, the recalled Shaq Coulthirst turned sharply on the edge of the box before unleashing a swerving shot Trevor Carson tipped wide of the right post.

But, just two minutes later, the Shrimpers were forced in to making their first substitution of the night as Leonard limped off injured with what seemed to be a hamstring problem and was replaced in midfield by Clifford.

The Irishman did not take long to get involved either as three minutes after his introduction, his clash with Taylor resulted in the Robins midfielder being sent off.

The duo ended up tangled together on the floor following a strong challenge before Taylor appeared to needlessly lash out.

Blues attempted to immediately make the most of their extra man and, at the start of the second half, Jack Payne curled a 20 yard shot straight at Carson.

But, with 52 minutes on the clock, Southend made the breakthrough, with Clifford netting an excellent long range effort.

The midfielder collected the ball 25 yards from goals and composed himself before drilling an impressive low shot in to the bottom left hand corner of the net.

The Shrimpers remained on top after the goal and Myles Weston soon wasted a golden chance to score.

The striker cut in off the right flank and saw his initial effort parried out by Carson before wastefully firing the rebound wide of the right post from six yards.

Moments later, Payne’s instinctive volley from Jerome Binnom-Williams’ left wing cross was smothered by Carson and another chance soon went begging when Weston over-hit his cross when Payne was free in front of goal.

Payne was now starting to cause Cheltenham constant problems and, with 71 minutes on the clock, his deflected 20 yard shot flew just wide of the left post.

The Shrimpers then came even closer to making it 2-0 when Kevan Hurst smashed a long range shot against the crossbar.

In a bid to finally kill the game off, Blues boss Phil Brown made his second substitution in the 76th minute with Lee Barnard coming on for Coulthirst.

Will Atkinson then also came on to replace Payne and he missed a great chance late on, delaying his shot when clean through on goal.

But the wasted opportunities did not come back to haunt Southend as they comfortably held on to secure all three points.