A GROUP of Southend United supporters have swapped the Shrimpers for England this summer.

The fans have travelled over to Germany to roar the Three Lions on in the European Championship.

And Shrimpers supporter Gareth Pummery was among the fans in attendance for Gareth Southgate side's 1-0 win against Serbia on Sunday night.

“It was great to be there watching and there were quite a few Southend fans and flags,” said Pummery.

“I thought England showed their potential and what they could produce but the second half we showed the possible lack of a tactical change.

“Serbia came out in the second half a totally different side and I felt they could have nicked something but thankfully we held on.”

Jude Bellingham, whose dad Mark is also a Shrimpers fan, scored the only goal of the game.

But boss Southgate felt the win showed the group stages will not be straightforward for the Three Lions.

“Look, this team is still coming together,” manager Southgate said.

“Everybody is expecting us to waltz through but there is a lot of hard work ahead.

“We’re short of certain things but we’re finding best possible solutions.

“We’ve had a very complicated run-in to all of this, but the spirit of the group was there for everybody to see tonight and we’ll definitely grow from that.”

Bellingham epitomised the spirit and skill England will need to go deep in the tournament, with Southgate full of praise for the match-winner.

“He writes his own script,” he told the BBC.

“The timing of his runs. It was a super bit of play in the build-up of his play. I think all of our forward players looked really good.

“I am confident we will score goals.

“Playing against a back five, it is not easy to create chances and we did.

“I liked the fact we had to suffer without the ball because that is an area we have worked on a lot this week. We were obviously much better than last week at doing that.”

Bellingham was the standout performer on a night when Southgate went for converted right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold as part of his midfield three along with Declan Rice.

“I was really pleased,” said Southgate.

“Of course, Jude has such a prominent role, but he goes forward a lot and Trent had to cover a lot of spaces. That is not a role he’s done very often at all.

“I thought he showed great discipline. He showed some moments of that fabulous passing range that he has, the shot on goal as well.

“We’re obviously learning with him in this role, but I thought he showed some of the attributes that he can bring.

“Whatever we do in there, we’re going to be playing a young player or an inexperienced player, so it was great to see him come through that test.”

While England prepare to face Euro 2020 semi-final opponents Denmark in Frankfurt on Thursday, defeated Serbia will look to bounce back against Slovenia.

Head coach Dragan Stojkovic said: “It was a very good match, high quality from both teams.

“England are a very good, strong team, but we played a very brave game, the style of football we were aiming to play.”