SOUTHEND United fought back to record an entertaining 4-1 win against Aldershot Town at Roots Hall this afternoon.

The Shots led at the break after Josh Stokes netted the only goal of the first half.

But, after Town had Rollin Menayse sent off three minutes into the second half, the Shrimpers took control with Harry Cardwell, Ollie Kensdale, Jack Wood and Marcus Dackers all on target as Kevin Maher’s side made it back to back victories.

Before the drama started to unfold, Noor Husin saw an early effort pushed away by Aldershot goalkeeper Jordi Van Stappershoeff before the visitors hit back to break the deadlock in the 18th minute of the match.

The counter attack was started by James Morton giving the ball away in the centre of the park and resulted in Tyler Frost delivering a dangerous low cross from the right hand side.

Loret Tolaj saw his shot blocked by Adam Crowther before Josh Stokes fired the resulting rebound into the right hand side of the net from close range.

The visitors soon came close to doubling their lead after again winning the ball back high up the pitch.

James Daly rolled a pass into the path of Tolaj who slammed a powerful left footed shot against the underside of the crossbar with Stikes slicing the rebound wide of the right post.

In reply, Danny Waldron sent a header from Jason Demetriou’s right wing cross straight at Van Stappershoeff who then also gathered a low, 25 yard shot from the Blues striker.

However, Aldershot ended the half on top with Tolaj having a low 20 yard shot tipped wide of the right post before Daly saw an effort from a similar distance tipped over by Andeng Ndi.

At the start of the second half, Shots saw penalty shouts waved away after Tolaj’s shot struck an arm of the close-by Miley before the game exploded into life with the visitors reduced to 10 men in the 49th minute.

Blues striker Waldron was pulled down by Menayese on the edge of the box and, after taking his time, referee David Richardson opted to show the defender a red card.

The Shrimpers immediately made the most of their extra man by drawing back level from the resulting free-kick as Jack Bridge’s low effort was fumbled by Van Stappershoef, enabling Cardwell to tap home the rebound from close range for his 13th goal of the season.

Four minutes later, Blues went in front as Morton’s left wing cross dropped into the path of Kensdale who brought the ball under control before scoring with a powerful left footed shot on his 100th appearance for the club.

Shortly after going in front, Blues made their first change of the afternoon with Wood taking the place of Morton before Van Stappershoef rushed off his line to stop an effort from Waldron.

The Shots custodian then did well to keep out Nathan Ralph’s header from the resulting Bridge corner before Bridge fired wide of the left post from 20 yards.

With Blues continuing to push for a third goal, Kensdale headed Bridge’s right wing corner against the crossbar as the defender came within a whisker of his second goal of the game.

The Shrimpers soon made a second change with Dackers taking the place of Cardwell in attack before the visitors came close to drawing back level with Tolaj heading just wide of the left post.

Blues defender Kensdale suffered a nasty whack when attempting to stop the striker and, after a spell of treatment, he was ushered off with blood streaming down his face.

Wes Fonguck took the place of Kensdale before the Shrimpers ran riot in stoppage time to seal their win.

Two minutes into added on time, Wood collected a pass from Dackers before cutting in from the right flank and firing a calm shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

However, the Shrimpers were still not finished and, in the 96th minute, Dackers raced onto Wood’s through ball and slammed home a powerful shot via the underside of the crossbar.