Dodgy keeper. It'd be tempting to say that the mistakes of one keeper and the brilliance of the other conspired to award City the three points yesterday. But in truth that would not be entirely fair. While it was perhaps not the most convincing performance we will see this season at the KC, nevertheless the Tigers showed us their impressive attacking credentials. They also demonstrated a depth of team spirit and will-to-win that now characterises our squad, a situation absent from the City roster for ten years or more and a strong reason for the club's decline over that period. On another day we might have won 6-2, but instead we made hard work of it. The referee didn't exactly help.

Lining up in searing September heat, with a view to repeating Monday's televised defendathon were:

Kuipers

Hinds Whittle Delaney Dawson

Price Green Ashbee Elliott

Burgess Allsopp

Boy was it hot in the East Stand! But the atmosphere soon cooled as Southend opened their account within three minutes. The ball was lumped into City's box from the left and a poorly executed Whittle clearance span upwards wildly before landing at the feet of the surprised Shrimp striker Constantine. He wafted a lazy boot at the ball and it found its agonising way through a forest of legs in the six yard box before arriving near Kuipers right foot. Alas the unsighted Dutchman could only claw the ball into the side netting and Southend scored their first away goal since Andy Polycarpou's offside effort at Workington in 1973. Something like that, anyway.

Oh dear. It didn't get any better straight away. Elliott made a hash of an attempted header after Price was fouled, but soon the dreadlocked welsh wizard was seeing yellow after he lunged at Maher who, despite no obvious injury, stayed down long enough to convince the pliable referee that a terrible crime had been committed. Moments later Price himself was fouled and went to ground with little persuasion and the whistle-happy and card-even-happier ref noted the details of left back McSweeney - a noteworthy act later on in the match.

It was never especially fluent, but City now ground their way through the gears with minimum use of the clutch, and carved out a succession of chances to equalise as Southend rocked back on their heels, amazed that they should ever lead an away match again I suspect. A Dawson free kick was skied by Burgess. A sweet move released Allsopp in space centrally but his low shot was not difficult for keeper Robinson to save. A Dawson corner (great dead balls from our left back by the way) was fired in under the crossbar and palmed out to Elliott who shot over wastefully from six yards. A superb 60 yard dribble by Allsopp after a dreadful Southend throw-in led to Elliott being released down the inside left channel unmarked, but his shot was screwed wide form 20 yards. While it was fairly ugly at times, you couldn't deny that City had the game by the scruff of the neck and looked ready to score at any time.

Then two setbacks. Price danced through two markers near the goalline before being crudely felled in the box by a Shrimp assailant. As part of his descent Price had clumped the ball off for a goal kick. The referee jibbed on making a penalty decision and instead invoked that great unwritten law for officials who can't make up their minds but feel that a 50:50 outcome would be fair - the penalty corner. From the corner Dawson's expert delivery found Delaney at the back post and a meaty header from the Irishman ping-ponged around the box before plopping into the keepers' arms when a goal seemed inevitable. Soon after another corner was won by Elliott and it was the Ulsterman who connected with the resulting cross, only for another header to land apologetically in the Southend netminder's midriff.

We were half an hour in and City had made half a dozen really good chances - and spurned them all. This appeared to lead to a short spell of lethargy, and Southend briefly assumed the upper hand with some slick passing in midfield - but no product up the field to speak of. Their only chance came when Hinds' ill-judged lunge at Constantine left the striker with the entire left hand half of the City box to himself. He advanced on goal before rolling a nice reverse ball to the lumpen elbow-flailing Broughton whose mishit shot was saved comfortably by Kuipers.

With five minutes to go dozing City fanatics roused themselves for a big push up to half time, and the sulky Tigers did something similar. A nodded-on Kuipers clearance found the electric Elliott in loads of space behind the Shrimp defence - this was Elliott's best game this season by some margin, even though he missed a hatful of chances - and the pacy Christian rolled a tasty ball across the face of the goal to the onrushing Price. From four yards out it was inconceivable that Price could lose his balance, over-stretch for the ball and sky it horridly over the bar. But he did.

Moments later a ball streaking through the left channel without the ushering of Elliott causes more problems than we dared imagine. A hoofed clearance arrived at the right-most extremity of the box and the young keeper Ryan Robinson had only to flop on the ball to deny any sniff of a chance to the lurking Allsopp. Alas the young fella let the ball out of his grasp - perhaps because he felt he was going to transport the ball out of the area as his slide continued - and it was presented on a plate to the ravenous Aussie. A touch to assume control, a feint to shake off the grasping keeper, then a languid roll into the net from a narrow angle that just eluded the lunging defenders - and another Allsopp goal streak was up and running. A total gift moments before half time. City? Lucky? Well, not before time.

In the closing seconds of the half, left midfielder Corbett was booked for a pointless trip on Price at halfway. The resulting free kick against caused much flapping and screaming in the Southend box as Price mishit his shot and Allsopp fired over wastefully. The half-time entertainment was delivered by local light-on-their-feet dance combo Icehouse, who were duly frozen out. Even a large-breasted unbrassiered female backing singer couldn't engage the KC crowd, and the gloomy band trudged off accompanied by the local army cadet marching drum team. Strange times indeed.

On with the show. The game was largely formless on the restart but it was the visitors who made the notable chances as Constantine found space for a shot that Kuipers saved well, then Maher found more space before hitting a feeble shot wide. When Whittle hoofed a clearance, the nervous looking Shrimp keeper failed to catch the ball and clearly handled outside the box to deny the chasing Elliott, a red card seemed inevitable. Quite incredibly the referee, hitherto whistle happy, failed to see the blatant offence and waved on. Unabashed the Tigers had latched onto the keeper's achilles heel and soon exploited it once more.

First though Burgess and Ashbee combined well on the right and the big striker moved infield with purpose twenty yards from goal. He was tripped just to the right of centre and from the free kick Dawson celebrated his KC debut with a sweetly struck swerving shot that swept into the top corner of the net. 2-1 - not deserved on the second half performance perhaps, but a reasonable scoreline to reflect all 58 elapsed minutes. Southend reacted to this setback by introducing as subs two players that I understood to be their star performers - powerful striker Bramble and pacy ex-Villa midfielder Jay Smith, who rocketed a goal past us at Roots Hall last season. They also started to exploit ref's gullibility a bit more, as Jupp dived theatrically a good 10 yards after any contact had been made with the tackling-back Elliott, and the former blonde was booked. Bramble's skills bore immediate fruit as he beat Hinds easily on the left and lifted a cross onto Broughton's bonce, his looping header was scooped wide by the impressive Kuipers.

But was City who scored again next. A replica Whittle hoof was launched into the City box for Elliott to chase down. The last time Robinson played a touch of basketball outside the box, this time he got in a dreadful tangle as he jumped with Elliott and ended up with his back to the ball and unable to complete his catch. Whether Elliott fouled him or not I couldn't tell from halfway, but the gleeful Northern Ireland international was not in the mood to refuse an entirely open goal from 12 yards out. It was 3-1 and, we imagined, game over.

But no. Elliott was immediately withdrawn for Holt while the struggling Hinds was replaced by Melton - not everyone's choice at right back it must be said, although I suspect the Southend management were not complaining. Whether Elliott was spared a second yellow and Hinds was injured I know not - these were the post-match reasons offered for the changes - but the fact is that the balance and flow of the City side were fatally upset. Bramble was soon set clear after Whittle failed uncharacteristically to deal with a cross, but Kuipers saved his shot superbly. But with 8 minutes to go a good run by Gower forced a corner and after a return cross by Maher, Bramble rose majestically to nod home an unchallenged header for 3-2. Good player Bramble - too good for Southend's bench, that's for sure.

With five left City were content to shield the ball down near the opposition corner flag. Price did this expertly before McSweeney came over and knocked the ball away for a throw. The young Shrimp clearly felt that it was Price who got the last touch and he booted the ball away petulantly. "Oooo", thought the ref, "ungentlemenly conduct, that'll impress the assessors" and a second yellow was brandished followed by a red. A stupid act by McSweeney, no doubt, but still a harsh way to get your marching orders. City now made further chances as Allsopp found acres of space before shooting over, when taking on the nervous wreck of a keeper may well have been the safer bet. Then Green blasted over after a cross from the right by Allsopp. But as the ninety minutes and four minutes of added approached, so Southend decided to throw caution to the wind and they pushed the tired Tigers back into their own box. Cort fired a powerful shot straight at Kuipers after strong aerial work by Broughton, then two minutes into stoppage time the defining moment of the game. A cross came into the City box and as the clearance was hacked away the ref blew his whistle. "What's this, a free kick for us, what's the point?" Err no, a penalty. Possibly handball. Possibly pushing. Possibly overtightening a spark plug during a recent service. Possibly looking at the ref in a funny way. The referee's reasoning was unclear, but the outcome was crystal. Bramble versus Kuipers, three rounds, keep it clean, no low blows. A weak penalty to Kuipers left saw the Dutchman take the first round. The ball fell to Bramble's feet and Kuipers smothered his shot quite wonderfully, round two to the ex-Marine. A third shot was then deflected over by Delaney. Kuipers wins the bout!! Three points to City.