ADELE Cole netted the winning goal as a depleted Southend & Benfleet side ground out a victory at Chelmsford III.

S&B travelled to Chelmsford with the bare 11 players to field a team, but were determined to get all three points after being frustratingly held by Chelmsford earlier in the season.

It was the hosts who started the stronger with Nicola Coleman and Jodie Linge having to be on top of their game to shut them out.

But they were powerless to prevent Chelmsford from eventually breaking the deadlock from a short corner.

Despite being pegged back, S&B did not panic.

Kirsty Edmunds had earlier shown she was causing problems on the right wing and soon the visitors, led by Hayley Middleton winning back the ball in midfield, had wrestled back superiority.

But it wasn’t until late in the half that they got back on level terms.

Ashlie Colman and Sarah Conway threaded the ball up the pitch with quick passes to each other before a diving touch from Conway levelled the score before half time.

S&B took the game up a notch in the second half, but could not break down the resilient Chelmsford defence.

Chelmsford themselves were proving to be a threat on the counter-attack but were denied by Rachel Jeffery and Nicola Bryant.

With the visitors pressing for the win, they decided to throw caution to the wind and push sweeper Linge up the field.

And that tactical change paid off as, after some good work from Meredith, player-of-the-match Cole was on hand to flick home the winning goal.

Southend & Benfleet’s second team hosted Chelmsford IV but slipped to a 2-0 defeat.

Player of the match was Hannah Daish who came closest to scoring for S&B while Isabelle Williams, brought up from the third team, impressed at the higher level.

There was success for the third team, however, as goals from Grace Wright and Chloe King gave them a 2-0 win at Chelmsford VI.

It was goalless at the interval, despite Lily Cole testing the Chelmsford defence.

Wright opened the scoring at the start of the second half with a clean shot before another shot by player-of-the-match Wright, deflected by Aimee Cole across the goal fell to Chloe King to finish it. The win sees the third team go into the Christmas break fourth in division five.