SOUTHEND United suffered a second home defeat in the space of five days tonight as Chesterfield secured a 2-1 victory at Roots Hall.

Blues had been looking to bounce back from Friday night’s 1-0 loss against Barnet.

But a first half header from Laurence Maguire and well taken effort from Ryan Colclough after the break secured the Spireites all three points despite Harry Cardwell getting a goal back for the Shrimpers.

Southend striker Callum Powell saw an early effort, from the right hand side of the penalty area, smothered by Chesterfield goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons.

But, with 14 minutes on the clock, the visitors broke the deadlock when a left wing corner from Liam Mandeville found Maguire whose header took a slight deflection on its way into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Chesterfield continued to look the more threatening of the two teams and came close to making it 2-0 in the 28th minute when Jesurun Uchegbulam’s right wing cross picked out Paul McCallum at the far post and his header bounced back off the crossbar.

Blues hit back six minutes later and came close to equalising when Powell’s right wing cross was deflected into the path of Bridge whose low, 12 yard shot was well saved down to his right hand side by Fitzsimons.

At the start of the second half Fitzsimons easily gathered a 25 yard free-kick from the fit-again Cardwell who was one of two changes in the Shrimpers starting line-up.

The other alteration came between the sticks as Steve Arnold returned for his first start since August and he replaced Blondy Nna Noukeu following his return to Stoke City.

Blues soon replied with Gus Scott-Morriss heading a left wing corner from Bridge over the crossbar before the home-side made a double change in the 61st minute with Chris Wreh and Dan Mooney replacing Powell and Harry Taylor.

But Chesterfield still continued to threaten and doubled their lead in the 65th minute when Colclough fired a low, 20 yard shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Southend rallied well after conceding the second goal and soon halved the Spireites lead when Wreh played in Cardwell who sprinted through on goal before firing a low shot under Fitzsimons from close range.

Moments later, Noor Husin fired a 12 yard shot straight at Fitzsimons before Blues made their final change 10 minutes from time with Nathan Ralph coming on for Louis Lomas.

But Blues were unable to conjure up an equaliser with Arnold heading over a late cross from Bridge.

The Shrimpers remain eighth in the table, four points behind the play-off places.

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