ON the weekend of the Grand National, Southend United entered the final furlong of their promotion push with a narrow and often quite nervy 1-0 win against struggling Tranmere Rovers at Roots Hall.

The Shrimpers were certainly not at their best and the encounter was far from entertaining.

But it mattered very little as Blues bagged the all important victory, with both striker Barry Corr and goalkeeper Daniel Bentley again taking centre stage.

Corr bagged the only goal of the game seven minutes before the break and must surely be League Two’s most in form striker at the moment having hit the back of the net nine times in his last 11 outings.

His latest effort came from a rare successful set-piece for the Shrimpers as he fired home a Will Atkinson corner to ensure a third successive victory for Phil Brown’s side.

However, the afternoon will be best remembered for Bentley’s achievements at the other end of the field as the young shot-stopper equaled a club record by keeping a 10th successive home clean sheet.

The 21-year-old has therefore now not conceded a goal at Roots Hall in six months and has remarkably gone 15 hours of action without being beaten.

To make the achievement extra special, the only other Blues goalkeeper to have secured 10 successive shut-outs at home, Mervyn Cawston, was back at Roots Hall for the first time in more than 20 years to be able to offer his congratulations to Bentley.

The Shrimpers goalkeeper will now looking to break the record when he faces Newport County tomorrow night.

But, whatever the outcome against the Welshmen, Bentley’s record deserves to be celebrated as it is just the second time in the club’s 109 year long history that such a stunning sequence has occurred.

Making it even sweeter are Bentley’s local links and the fact he came through the youth system with the Shrimpers, all of which make it even more staggering that the club stopped him carrying out any interviews at the end of the game.

However, it was still a pleasing afternoon for Southend apart from their promotion rivals also picking up maximum points.

Third placed Wycombe Wanderers and Bury, who are fourth, both triumphed in their respective outings, leaving Blues fifth in the table, still five points from the automatic promotion places.

The Shrimpers do still have a game in hand on Wycombe and also have five matches left to try and close the gap on the Chairboys.

But, despite Phil Brown’s side having now won three games in a row, there is still very little room for error during their run in if they are to work their way into the top three.

The nervousness of Saturday’s game with Tranmere could therefore start to become even more a regular occurrence at Roots Hall but Blues do seem to re-finding their form and an ability to grind out victories at just the right stage of the season.

The defensive unit stood strong when under pressure on Saturday, with Cian Bolger and Adam Barrett again forming a solid partnership at the heart of the back four to keep their third successive clean sheet.

In midfield, the energy of Will Atkinson caught the eye and so too did the influential Michael Timlin and Gary Deegan.

More creativity may well need to be added at times but, with David Worrall, Kevan Hurst and Jack Payne all waiting in the wings, Blues do possess a whole host of alternative options.

But, whoever gets the nod during the run-in, will find themselves with plenty to play for as promotion remains a realistic aspiration for the Shrimpers.

However, the most important matches of the campaign are fast approaching and Blues will be doing all they can to avoid a repeat of last season when they fell agonisingly short in the play-offs.