Recalled striker Barrington Belgrave was full of festive cheer after inspiring Southend United to a remarkable 4-2 Boxing Day victory over Rushden and Diamonds at Roots Hall.

Happy days - for two-goal Southend striker Barrington Belgrave. Picture: TERENCE BUNCH 5DCGL16C

The League new-boys stunned the Shrimpers by taking a two goal half-time lead through midfielder Gary Butterworth and forward Scott Partridge.

But four goals in 24 thrilling minutes after the break -- with Blues defender Leon Cort, hitman Tes Bramble and Belgrave, twice, all getting on the scoresheet -- sealed an amazing comeback.

And Belgrave, who was making his first start in six weeks, said: "It hasn't been nice sitting on the bench just watching the games, but these two goals have made things much better.

"There have been times since I came to Roots Hall that I haven't done myself justice.

"I've played a lot of games on the right-wing, which I'm not very comfortable with.

"But I've shown people what I can do playing up front against Rushden and I was even more pleased because my girlfriend was in the crowd to see it."

And Belgrave, who has now scored four times this term, revealed that Blues' players still believed they could beat Rushden, despite going into the interval 2-0 down.

"We know we are a good side and we'd missed a few chances in the opening period as we struggled to get to grips with the icy conditions," he added.

"But we are always confident in our ability and we just went out for the second-half and did our job."

All six goals were scored in front of the South Stand -- a part of the Roots Hall pitch Shrimpers chief Rob Newman said was very difficult to play on.

"The South Stand's shadow doesn't give the facing goalmouth much sun so it doesn't thaw out as well as the rest of the pitch," he said. "This part of the field was quite frozen which made it very difficult to turn and play on.

"Rushden took full advantage in the first-half, but we mastered the surface even better after the break and staged a great comeback.

"There is an excellent spirit within our camp at the moment and our collected self belief helped us to bounce back."

Blues climbed to 12th place in Division Three and are now unbeaten in six matches.

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Published Thursday December 27, 2001