SHAQ Coulthirst’s second minute header secured Southend United a narrow 1-0 win against Shrewsbury Town at Roots Hall this afternoon.

The on loan Tottenham Hotspur striker nodded home an excellent right wing cross from John White.

And that proved enough to hand the in-form Shrimpers a fourth successive win.

Shrewsbury also had substitute Andy Mangan sent off five minutes from time after being shown two yellow cards.

By then the damage had already been done with White delivering a deep right wing cross which allowed Coulthirst to brilliantly loop a header over Shrews goalkeeper Jason Leutwiler in to the bottom right hand corner of the net.

The shell shocked visitors immediately hit back with striker James Collins sending a 25 yard shot inches wide of the left post.

But Blues were soon back on top and they came close to doubling their lead when Kevan Hurst’s right wing cross picked out Coulthirst but this time Leutwiler was able to block the striker’s header.

Having survived the scare, Shrewsbury replied and came close to equalising when Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro fired against the left post from long range.

After that the game started to die down until Coulthirst again came close to scoring on the stroke of half-time when his back post header from Myles Weston’s deep right wing cross was kept out by Leutwiler.

At the start of the second half, Weston was involved again when his well struck shot was parried out by Leutwiler and Conor Clifford fired over the awkwardly bouncing rebound.

In a bid to get back in to the game, Shrewsbury made a double substitution in the 56th minute with Mangan and Jordan Clark entering the action in place of Liam Lawrence and Cameron Gayle.

Seven minutes later, the Shrimpers also made their first change with Will Atkinson coming on to replace Hurst.

But, despite that change, Shrewsbury threatened next and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro should have done better with a close range header he sent over the crossbar after being picked out by Clark’s left wing cross.

Blues responded with another change of their own as Barry Corr replaced Jack Payne.

And Corr soon almost doubled Southend’s lead when his header from Weston’s left wing cross was smothered by Leutwiler.

Following the Irishman’s opportunity the game again died down before Shrewsbury substitute Mangan was sent off five minutes from time.

The striker, who had already been booked, caught Bentley with an elbow in the air and was immediately dismissed by referee Kevin Johnson.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, Shrewsbury pushed hard for an equaliser but Blues were able to hang on to secure another victory.