Southend United's two-goal hero Ben Abbey was all smiles after shooting down Macclesfield Town at Roots Hall on Saturday.

The substitute frontman, recently signed on a free transfer from Oxford United, marked his home debut with a stunning brace in a 3-1 victory which pushed the Shrimpers into fifth place in the Third Division table.

And the 22-year-old was joined on the scoresheet by Blues winger Scott Forbes - with both players scoring their first ever League goals - although visiting midfielder Karl Munroe pulled back a consolation strike for the visitors.

"This is a dream start to my Southend career - I can't believe how well it went," said an ecstatic Abbey.

"A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the stands watching Oxford losing and in my first home game for Southend I score two goals - it's just unbelievable."

Abbey's double blast helped Blues stretch their unbeaten run to 13 games and the former Crawley Town hitman hopes there are more goals left in his boots for Southend's fans to enjoy.

"I live for goals and I want to score more and more," he added.

"I've come to Roots Hall following a frustrating year with Oxford where I was never given a fair crack of the whip.

"But I want to make up for lost time and I can't thank David Webb enough for giving me my chance with Southend.

"Now all I want to do is keeping giving it 100 per cent at Roots Hall and keep finding the back of the net."

However, Seasiders manager David Webb admitted his side made hard work of beating a depleted Macclesfield team, who were reduced to ten men for most of the game having lost their goalkeeper Tony Bullock for a double dose of dissent after just 17 minutes.

"We did make it hard for ourselves, but we didn't really get going and were a bit lucky to come away with the win we did in the end," said the Shrimpers chief.

"I don't think the goalkeeper going off did us any favours - if anything it made it more frustrating.

"I think the players thought it was going to be a bit easier after he got sent-off and we played a bit too tippy-tappy for my liking.

"But I changed things around in the second-half and we pummelled their box which turned things around for us.

"However, I do think Macclesfield deserve some credit because they played very well,"Webb added.

"But I've been on the receiving end of defeats like this when my teams have put on a good performances in the past, so I haven't got too much sympathy for them."

l Blues' reserves tackle Oxford United at Roots Hall tomorrow. The match kicks-off 2pm.

Stunning home debut - Ben Abbey hopes to keep the goal-scoring habit for Southend

Picture: LUAN MARSHALL

By Bernie Friend

Reporter's e-mail: bernie.friend@notes.newsquest.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.