ON the weekend of the Grand National, Southend United remained in the race for a play-off place with a 2-0 win against Dagenham & Redbridge at Roots Hall.

The Shrimpers sit ninth in the National League standings, three points behind the top seven with just three games to go.

But Kevin Maher’s side are coming up on the rails after taking 10 points from the last 12 on offer.

Saturday’s success was another step in the right direction and was secured by two Jack Bridge penalties in quick succession.

The first came just six minutes into the second half and showed Bridge’s new found confidence in front of goal this season.

The 27-year-old’s undoubted ability had not always been backed up by his scoring statistics in past campaigns.

But, nowadays, Bridge is going for goal far more often himself and making the most of the talent he possesses.

That saw him step up on Saturday to take the first of his spot-kicks, when he could easily have shied away from taking responsibility in front of goal.

Bridge saw his previous penalty saved in a painful 1-0 defeat at Boreham Wood last month.

But he confidently stepped forward to fire Blues in front and then doubled his afternoon’s tally with another clinical spot-kick just moments later.

Bridge now has 12 goals for the season, four times more than his previous best return in front of goal.

And he is helping the Shrimpers stay in contention for the play-offs.

Of course, Blues are still underdogs and continue to play catch up after a seven match losing streak in March.

But the Shrimpers have shown good character to come back from that poor run and will have felt like they owed Dagenham one at the weekend too.

Last season, Dagenham beat Blues in Maher’s first game in charge before also knocking them out of the FA Trophy and ending Southend’s 13 match unbeaten run with a comprehensive 3-0 win at Roots Hall last March.

The two teams also drew 1-1 at Victoria Road earlier on in the season so the majority of Saturday’s excellent crowd of 7,345 would have thoroughly enjoyed the effort on show from Blues and of course the final score-line.

Blues are still outsiders for the play-offs but deserve credit for even being in contention at this stage, given just how much continues to be thrown their way.

And nothing is changing where that is concerned right now.

Staff behind the scenes remain unpaid for March while on the eve on Saturday’s match PG Site Services confirmed they would be ending their sponsorship with the club due to the breakdown of their relationship with chairman Ron Martin.

If that is indeed the case then it creates more drama and more problems for Blues.

For, while PG Site Services, may be something of an acquired taste on social media, they have helped the Shrimpers survive this season with their level of support and funding.

Blues will obviously start searching for new sponsorship and are lucky their excellent staff off the field continue to stand by them despite waiting for their wages.

But there are issues, longer term, on the pitch as well, as Blues are unable to begin contract talks with any of their players while still under the transfer embargo which has been in place since September due to money owed to HMRC.

Saturday’s match-winner Bridge is out of contract at the end of the season along with key defender Shaun Hobson, skipper Nathan Ralph and exciting young striker Henry Sandat who again played well at the weekend.

Goalkeeper Steve Arnold, defender Jason Demetriou and forward Rhys Murphy are also up but none can be spoken to about new contracts as things stand.

After making such progress this season, the last thing the Shrimpers want is to begin another rebuilding phase.

But it again comes down to the fact Blues cannot properly push on until a stable owner is in place to provide the sustainability needed for sustained success.

For now, Southend will continue to give their all in the remaining three matches of the season and will show the battling characteristics typified by the tenacious and influential display from Harry Taylor on Saturday.

However, everything is still being achieved against the odds.

And, until that changes right at the very top, Blues will have continue to have more hurdles to overcome than anyone in action at Aintree on Saturday.

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