Southend United made it a hat-trick of pre-season wins at Jewson League Bury Town on Monday night.

Strikes from Blues hitman Tes Bramble and midfielder Danny Kerrigan made it three out of three warm-up victories for the Shrimpers.

But home forward Gary Newman grabbed the goal of the game with a blistering 20-yard effort.

And Seasiders boss David Webb, who rested his senior players, admitted there was still room for improvement.

"I felt that we could have done things a lot quicker against Bury," he said. "We wanted too many touches on the ball when we really needed to up the tempo and cash in on our openings.

"But we've only been back at work for just over a week and there is plenty of time to work on this part of our game."

Poor finishing saw Blues make hard work of their non-League hosts as they allowed a glut of goalscoring opportunities to go begging.

Left-back Shane Wardley warmed Bury goalkeeper Andy Hill's hands with a fierce 20-yard drive after four minutes.

Blues strikers Jason Harris and Bramble also both went close, with impressive Bury winger Alan North replying with free-kick which was deflected past the left-post.

But the minnows went one better after 22 minutes when Bury forward Newman took advantage of a back-pedalling Southend rearguard to blast home a long-range shot via the inside of the left post.

Blues were back on level terms within ten minutes however, as Bramble headed Harris' left-wing cross into the bottom right-hand corner of the Bury net.

But Bramble missed an open goal after charging down a clearance from Hill and Ben Smith hit a low drive against the foot of the left post for Blues just before the interval.

After the break, Smith was also guilty of a nightmare miss, when Hill miscued, but the midfielder's efforts to guide the ball into an empty net were equally awful.

And within the space of a minute, Blues substitute Gareth Risbridger steered a free header wide before missing the target again after being put through on goal by Daniel Webb.

But Southend finally got their winner 11 minutes from time when a skidding right-wing centre from trialist full-back Allan McLeod evaded Webb, but found Kerrigan who slid the ball into the net from six yards.

Southend: Gay (Capleton), McSweeney (McLeod), Wardley, Johnson (Kerrigan), Cort, Broad, Smith (Hunter), Thurgood, Bramble (Risbridger), Harris (Webb), Sodje (Pitts).

Both midfielder Scott Forbes (leg) and striker Mark Rawle (knee) missed last night's (Monday's) game with minor injuries.

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