Southend 1-0 Exeter City 

Substitute Graeme Jones scored the only goal of the game as Southend beat Exeter at Roots Hall.

Within eight minutes of arriving as a 35th-minute substitute for the injured Mark Rawle, he smashed the ball into the net from close range following a left-wing cross from Tes Bramble.

Jones had found himself on the bench having failed to score in his previous 10 matches.

It was just as well he did find the target on this occasion because his colleagues squandered chance after chance against an Exeter outfit that rarely posed a threat.

Bramble even missed a 19th-minute penalty, firing wide after he had been upended by Neil Whitworth.

Kwame Ampadu had a first-half effort charged down by Jay Smith, but that was the only occasion that the Southend defence came under real pressure.

Home goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan was not tested by a shot-shy visiting attack in the entire 90 minutes.

Southend: Flahavan, Beard, Jenkins, Cort, Broad, Whelan, Maher, Smith, Selley, Bramble, Rawle. Subs: Gay, Searle, Thurgood, Clark, Jones.

Exeter: Miller, Hiley, Power, Simpkins, Whitworth, Coppinger, Roscoe, Ampadu, Walker, Goodman, Flack. Subs: Fraser, Breslan, McConnell, Moor, Cronin.

Referee: P Prosser (Gloucestershire).

Att. 3364