Southend United made it a hat-trick of failures against Torquay as they failed to beat a side from the depths of the Third Division's bottom six for the third game running.

The Shrimpers have now taken just one point from a trio of teams - Shrewsbury, Carlisle and now Torquay - which can only be described as three of the worst teams in England.

It is also a category that Southend are in grave danger of falling into themselves.

On Saturday both Southend and Torquay looked just what they are - two very poor teams - and there was never any real danger of either set of fans dropping their hot dogs in excitement as they jumped up in delight to celebrate a goal.

In fact the only person inside Roots Hall who had anything to smile about was Torquay's 40-year-old veteran keeper Neville Southall, who failed to earn a win bonus in nine outings during a loan spell with the Shrimpers last season as they crashed out of Division Two.

The former Everton and Wales legend returned to haunt his old team-mates as he denied the Seasiders' forwards on the rare occasions they tested his bulky frame to record his second clean sheet against the Blues this season.

In fact it is hard to see where Southend's next goal is going to come from. The Shrimpers have only found the target three times in five outings this year and have drawn a blank in their last home games. They have now gone 230 minutes without a goal.

Earlier in the season Southend were murdering teams like Cambridge, Chester and Halifax without taking advantage, but now the goal-scoring opportunities have dried up and the Seasiders look demoralised as an attacking force.

Southend boss Alvin Martin gave the same 11 players who were so disappointing in last weekend's 1-0 Roots Hall defeat against Carlisle another chance to redeem themselves against Torquay.

Although their work rate could not be faulted, they put on another poor performance.

Southend's midfield pairing of Mick Gooding and Kevin Maher again proved they were incapable of playing a killer pass and when the ball was knocked forward it cleared the heads of Torquay's grateful defence and dribbled safely into the arms of Southall.

Forwards Neil Campbell and Kevin Rapley once more showed their eagerness to end Blues' goal drought, but wide men Adrian Clarke and Scott Houghton again failed to deliver quality crosses into the heart of the opposition box for the strikers to capitalise on.

However, in defence Blues were rarely stretched and skipper Simon Coleman and company were rarely tested.

The visitors' hopes of a victory were not helped by the loss of 15-goal top scorer Scott Partridge, who was stretchered off with a knee injury on 17 minutes after a challenge from Southend defender Rob Newman.

Campbell registered the first goal-worthy effort of the afternoon after 34 minutes when he showed excellent technique to chest down a cross from right-back Mark Beard before hitting a stinging volley from the edge of the box which Southall held onto.

However, the recent £15,000 acquisition from Scarborough squandered a gilt-edged chance to give the home side the lead two minutes before the break when he ran onto Rapley's clever through ball only to shoot straight into the arms of a grounded Southall.

The last time Torquay visited Roots Hall for a competitive fixture was back in 1991 in the Leyland Daf Cup and the half-time scoreline that night was also goalless.

Blues smashed seven second-half strikes past the hapless Gulls on that occasion and although there was never any danger of a repeat performance this time round, oh how Southend must have prayed for a single goal on Saturday.

However, Torquay were the quicker team out of the blocks four minutes after the interval and Southend keeper Martyn Margetson was forced into a breathtaking save.

He palmed away a long range shot from Torquay captain Brian McGorry which had taken a wicked deflection off of McFarlane's knee in the six-yard box and looked destined for the top right hand corner of his net.

Campbell was forced out of the action with a groin injury and was replaced by David Whyte who conjured up a golden opportunity for Rapley after 65 minutes.

Whyte fooled the visitors' flat-footed back-four with an intelligent flick of his boot which left Rapley with only Southall to beat, but the big keeper denied the young striker with a point-blank diving save.

With time running out for both sides, Torquay's Wayne Thomas had a goalbound shot blocked and Southend responded with a couple of miscued overhead efforts from Rapley and Whyte which left Blues to continue rotting with the Third Division's deadwood.

Full stretch - Southend goalkeeper Martyn Margetson palms away Brian McGorry's shot to keep Alvin Martin's men in the game.

(Right) Winger Adrian Clarke tries to avoid the attention of Robbie Herrera

Top man - Mark Beard gave another classy display at the back for Southend

Pictures: ROBIN WOOSEY

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