BLAIR Sturrock made a goalscoring return from injury to help Southend United’s reserve side secure a 1-1 draw at Concord Rangers tonight.

The Scottish striker, who was making his first appearance since picking up an ankle problem in May, slotted home six minutes from time.

And his effort cancelled Tom Bruno’s first half opener for the Beachboys.

Blues came close to opening in the 12th minute of the match when centre-back George Artemi headed a right wing free-kick from James Stevens against the crossbar from close range.

But, having survived that scare, Concord started to get on top and they almost took the lead when Elliott Charles fired just wide of the left post after being teed up by his strike partner Connor French.

Charles then saw another effort saved by Blues shot-stopper Daniel Bentley before the young keeper embarrassingly fumbled a right wing cross from Bruno in to the back of the net in the 35th minute of the match.

Moments later, Charles saw an effort bounce back off the left post before Sam Collins’ follow up effort was smartly saved by Bentley.

Blues then hit back at the start of the second half with Harry Crawford dragging a left footed volley wide of the right post from just inside the penalty area.

And they then wasted an even clearer chance to score when an unmarked Anthony Furlonge failed to connect with a deep Stevens free-kick when an equaliser seemed certain.

In reply, Charles should then have scored at the other end of the pitch when he failed to finish from close range and Southend immediately began to get back on top.

As a result, Sturrock soon fired against the right post from eight yards when he should have scored and Kyle Asante then fired in to the side netting from an acute angle in the 75th minute.

Sturrock was again denied by the right post before he finally hit the back of the net in the 84th minute when an instinctive close range shot to ensure the game finished all square.

Southend: Bentley, Leonard, Artemi (Nesbitt 81), Furlonge, Gilbert, Asante (Njie 76), Woodyard (Hyland 87), Stevens (Smith 55), Johnson (Paxman 80), Crawford (Auger 87), Sturrock