JACK Payne's injury time penalty rescued a share of the spoils for Southend United against struggling Crewe Alexandra at Roots Hall tonight.

The Shrimpers, who missed a first half spot-kick when Tyrone Barnett saw his effort saved by Ben Garratt, went behind when George Cooper netted a fine free-kick from 25 yards.

But Blues hit back to secure a 1-1 draw with Payne firing home from 12 yards deep into stoppage time.

Crewe started the stronger of the two sides in a disappointing encounter and came close to scoring when a long range shot from George Cooper struck Cian Bolger before flying just inches over the South Stand goal.

But, with 19 minutes on the clock, the visitors wasted a golden opportunity when Marcus Haber's close range header from James Jones' left wing free-kick was impressively saved by Southend goalkeeper Daniel Bentley before Ben Nugent somehow fired the rebound over from inside the six yard box.

Moments later, Crewe threatened again when Tom Hitchcock beat Bentley to Zoumana Bakayogo's left wing cross but he could only send his header over the crossbar.

After surviving the scares, Southend hit back and wasted a brilliant opportunity to break the deadlock four minutes before the break when referee Charles Breakspear awarded a penalty after David Mooney had been brought down in the box by Oliver Turton.

But, after Mooney missed a spot-kick at Port Vale on Friday night, Barnett took over the responsibilities from 12 yards – only to see his tame effort saved low down to his right hand side by visiting goalkeeper Ben Garratt.

With Blues continuing to push for the game's opening goal, Gary Deegan then sent a 20 yard shot inches past the right post in the closing action of an uninspiring half.

The second half also started slowly before Shrimpers boss Phil Brown opted to make a double change in the 58th minute with Jamar Loza replacing Mooney in attack and David Worrall coming on for Sam McQueen on the right flank.

Shortly after his introduction, Worrall curled a 20 yard free-kick wide of the left post.

But, after that, Blues continued to struggle to break-down a stubborn Crewe rearguard.

In a bid to improve going forward, Southend boss Brown made a third change 11 minutes from time with Jack Payne coming on to replace Will Atkinson.

However, the Shrimpers rarely threatened and appeared to be heading for defeat when Cooper curled a 25 yard free-kick into the top right hand corner of the net in the 86th minute.

But Blues hit back to pick up a point when they were awarded a second spot-kick after Nugent brought down Loza in the box.

And that enabled Payne to fire a penalty into the bottom right hand corner of the net to make sure of a point for a below par Southend.