LEE Barnard shot Southend United into the League One play-offs on Saturday and then fired out a warning to the rest of their promotion rivals.

The in-form striker headed home a last-minute winner to secure a 2-1 victory for the Shrimpers at high-flying Carlisle United.

And Barnard now believes no-one should be looking forward to facing his side in the end of season showdowns.

"None of the other teams in there should want to play us at this stage," said the forward, who has bagged nine goals in 11 starts since signing for the Seasiders during the January transfer window.

"We're just so confident and we're on a great run of form. We're unbeaten in 13 games and have lost just one of the last 17 and that's superb.

"That has made sure of our place in the play-offs now and we want to keep the run going.

"People keep asking me who we want to play and all those kinds of things but we will just concentrate on what we're doing.

"There are some big clubs in there with us but we will worry about ourselves because they certainly won't be looking forward to playing us."

Barnard bagged the winning goal at Brunton Park with just seconds remaining after full-back Charlie Mulgrew had earlier fired the Shrimpers into the lead.

The Foxes equalised through Simon Hackney, but a red card for Carlisle defender David Raven in the 67th minute helped Southend's cause.

And the win kept them fifth in the table and means they cannot be caught by any side outside the top-six, much to the delight of Barnard.

"It's great that it's finally been confirmed," he said.

"It's a superb result to do it with as well because not many teams come to Carlisle and get anything.

"They have a brilliant home record but we played well and in the end we got the reward."

Barnard's late header proved decisive and came just two minutes after he struck the inside of the post with another instinctive effort.

"I thought the first one was in and was gutted to see it come out," said the forward.

"I had already started to celebrate and I being that late on I didn't think it was going to be my day.

"But thankfully Mark Gower picked me out right at the end with a great cross and Iwas able to finish it off."

That meant manager Steve Tilson was smiling at the final whistle and he was chuffedwith the way his side battled to pick up three more valuable points.

"It's another fantastic win for us," he said.

"We've made sure of our place in the play-offs which is brilliant and I thought we played ever so well in the first half.

"We had to deal with more pressure after the break but we got there in the end and maybe now we could rest a few in our remaining two league games.

"I'm not sure if we will but it is something we will think about."