BARRY Corr continued his stunning form to fire Southend United to a 1-0 win against Tranmere Rovers, despite not feeling at his best.

The in-form Irishman made it nine goals in 11 games with a neat, near post finish in the first half at Roots Hall.

But Blues boss Phil Brown had been concerned Corr may not have been able to play much of a part in the match.

“Barry Corr was suffering a bit, he didn’t have a virus but he just didn’t quite feel the same,” said Brown.

“We wanted 45 minutes minimum for him but we got more than that in the end, including another goal.

“He wasn’t the same player he has been recently but he got the winning goal and he’s invaluable for us at the moment.”

Corr’s latest effort came when he fired home a right wing corner from Will Atkinson.

And Brown revealed the set piece routine had been worked on in training after noticing a weakness in Tranmere’s play.

“We worked on that corner in training because we noticed that Tranmere didn’t mark the posts so we knew there was a hole,” said the Shrimpers chief.

“We exploited it well and the bit of detail won us the game in the end.”

That made it three wins in a row for the fifth placed Blues.

And Brown is pleased to have already matched last season’s points tally.

“We’ve now got as many points as we accumulated in the whole of last season which is great,” said the 55-year-old.

“Three wins in three with three clean sheets means it’s coming right at the right time for us.

“With five games to go there’s plenty to play for but 15 points on top of 72 might not be enough because the top three are setting an unbelievable pace this year.”