SHREWSBURY Town substitute Tyrone Barnett bagged a late leveller to hold Southend United to a 1-1 draw at Greenhous Meadow.

Blues seemed to be heading for a fourth successive win when Jack Payne fired them in front.

But Barnett came off the bench to rescue a share of the spoils with an excellent finish from a narrow angle following a rare mistake from Shrimpers goalkeeper Daniel Bentley.

That maintained the table-topping Shrews’ unbeaten home record and Micky Mellon’s side were on top early on.

And, with just two minutes on the clock, they wasted an excellent opportunity to go in front when Mickey Demetriou’s left wing cross eventually dropped to Bobby Grant at the far post but he could only drag a poor 14 yard shot wide of the left upright.

However, Blues soon hit back with Joe Pigott doing well to meet Will Atkinson’s right wing cross with a cushioned header which Shrews goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler diverted wide of the target.

The Shrimpers remained on top and soon forced three corners in quick succession, one of which resulted in Ben Coker picking out an unmarked Jerome Binnom-Williams but he scuffed his volley in to the ground, enabling Connor Goldson to head the ball over his own crossbar.

Blues went close to scoring again in the 24th minute when another left wing Coker picked out Adam Thompson but his well struck volley was smartly smothered by Leutwiler.

The Shrimpers continued to enjoy more of the possession during the remainder of the first half but were unable to make a breakthrough.

But, Shrewsbury almost did exactly that at the start of the second half when midfielder Ryan Woods saw a low, 20 yard shot well saved by Bentley.

However, Southeend hit back to take the lead in the 54th minute, with Payne on target for the seventh time the season.

The attacking midfielder latched on to the ball inside the penalty area before brilliantly firing a rising shot in to the top right hand corner of the net.

Moments later, Pigott curled an effort just inches past the right post but Shrewsbury were soon pushing forward themselves and Connor Goldson had an eight yard header impressively palmed to safety by Bentley.

But, five minutes from time, Bentley was beaten after making an uncharacteristic mistake.

The young shot-stopper spilt the ball when attempting to stop a corner and that enabled Barnett to fire home from an acute angle via the inside of the right post.