Southend United 0-0 Bristol Rovers (League Two)

A goalless draw ensured Rovers left Roots Hall on Saturday with a fortunate point after failing to trouble Southend goalkeeper Dan Bentley over the course of 90 minutes. Both clubs, situated in mid-table, clearly lacked purpose given their play-off dreams faded a few days earlier and the game always looked destined to end 0-0, even though the home side looked the more threatening.

Clayton McDonald retained a spot in the centre of defence

Rovers were buoyed by the return of Oumare Tounkara and Tom Parkes to the starting line-up and the latter was used as a central midfielder for the first time under John Ward. He didn't enjoy a successful spell in the middle under Mark McGhee but was deployed there by Ward given our lack of midfield options and the impressive displays of loan signing Clayton McDonald alongside Mark McChrystal. To accommodate Tounkara's selection up front, Tom Hitchcock who had scored 2 in his previous two games moved to a right wing position. The changes didn't instigate an improvement in our attacking but it did serve to strengthen our backline after they had shipped 4 goals on Tuesday evening against Bradford City.

Phil Brown, who has not been warmly received by Southend supporters so far, clearly asked for his team to hit the ball long towards strikers Barry Corr and Britt Assombalonga but neither were proving to be effective early on. Shrimpers favourite Freddy Eastwood was moved to a flank position in order to tease Lee Brown at left back but he had little joy and the now portly attacker decided to cut inside whenever possible. When he did he fired a couple of hopeful long-range shots well over Steve Mildenhall's crossbar. Still, that didn't stop Southend supporters from affectionately applauding him every time he received the ball. The first half genuinely saw next to no Rovers threat going forward. A couple of crosses were played in from the ineffective Fabian Broghammer on the left but home goalie Bentley wasn't forced in to anything meaningful. The opening period from a Gas perspective was epitomised by a pot shot from teenager Ryan Brunt that bent out for a throw-in. The general consensus after an abysmal first half was that things could only get better as far as entertainment was concerned. It did, very slightly, but only after Ryan Cresswell's header skimmed Mildenhall's post minutes before half-time. It was a let-off and we remained on level terms at the interval.

The improvement was only minor though and despite Rovers attacking the 300 or so Gasheads behind the goal, they didn't muster much for us to cheer. We had a bit more of the ball in the final third but as has been evident for a number of years we seemed incapable of delivering a cross to one of our own players. Another thing that was painfully obvious is our lack of genuine quality wingers. Broghammer, Hitchcock and latterly Joe Anyinsah were very weak and provided no outlet and little threat to the home defence. On the odd occasion we did win a corner or a free-kick our delivery was abysmal, with Ollie Norburn and Broghammer the culprits. This is certainly something Ward will need to rectify over the summer because it will limit the number of goals we score in the future if we can't rely on set-pieces on good crossing.

Parkes just managed to guide his forehead to a delivery in to the box to register a Rovers' shot off target but that was all that got us excited. At the other end though Southend could easily have scored if Corr and Assombalonga could direct an effort on target. The former headed wide when well positioned in the centre of the penalty area whilst the latter, on loan from Watford, saw an effort sail past the post. He looked a lot livelier than he had done in the first half and forced a tremendous double save from Mildenhall to keep our point in tact. Phil Brown will rue the missed opportunities as it could have kickstarted his Shrimpers managerial career but it wasn't to be and his wait for a win continues.

For Ward the focus will be on registering 6 points in our final two matches against Accrington Stanley at the Mem this Saturday and Torquay United at Plainmoor on the final day. We've not won since the AFC Wimbledon game two Saturdays ago so a home win to boost our points total this weekend would be most welcome. Plus, it would be a fitting end to a wonderful second half of the season. Thoughts have been on retaining players and signing new ones for a number of weeks now and hopefully as the summer approaches we'll hear some concrete news on the futures of those out of contract. If we can sign players early in the summer, as opposed to very late like last year, we give ourselves much more time to prepare for August's 2013-2014 kick-off. I really dislike the close-season but if the club can get it right then we give ourselves a good chance of enjoying a successful new campaign.