07/04/2008 - Crewe Alex 1, Southend United 3
Crewe 1, Southend 3
Gwyn Griffiths reports from the Alexandra Stadium
Steve Holland will perhaps be casting his eye nervously down the Yeovil, Cheltenham and Bournemouth team sheets in the coming weeks for the names of Simon Church, Damian Spencer and Sam Vokes.
His relegation-threatened side have now been haunted twice by former loan strikers. If the above trio - who include a pre-Christmas loanee and two January transfer window targets - repeat Lee Barnard's feat then League Two football will be a certainty.
And it will be anyway if his back four defend as they did in the opening half of another comprehensive home defeat as both Holland and assistant manager Neil Baker acknowledged afterwards.
First-team coach Holland offered his own apologies to long-suffering fans for failing to prepare his players adequately to deal with the threat of a Southend team in a rich vein of form.
"I accept full responsibility for the start of the game and quite clearly I haven't done my job properly. It was abysmal," he admitted after watching Barnard capitalise on appalling defending to score after just 70 seconds.
In fairness, no manager can legislate for the sort of defensive slackness which let in, first the former Tottenham reserve, then James Walker for the second Shrimpers goal.
Sports psychologists would perhaps point to a notable weak mental resolve in the players, as Holland's side-kick was also quick to do.
Baker transferred the blame squarely onto the shoulders of Crewe's under-performing players.
"That's the manager talking there and he is defending his players, which they don't deserve," pointed out the assistant.
"I see him work day in and day out and he prepares that team as well as anyone in this League, but a lot of those players have let Steve down. The back four were all weak mentally and three of them are our most experienced players.
"They have to do better than that if we're going to survive and they need to know that. There's no use patting them on the shoulder."
Whereas they may have underestimated Chris Dickson's ability to take a goal when the Charlton youngster re-emerged to score twice for Gillingham last December, Crewe's defence would have been very wary of the threat Barnard posed.
While his three-month loan spell at the Alexandra Stadium was marred by injuries, the three goals he did score were all about predatory instinct.
Not the sort of player then to leave one-v-one with the keeper with the action barely warmed up.
Yet when George Abbey failed to clear Walker's cross, Barnard had room to ruthlessly poke home the opener from close range.
With Southend streaming in behind at regular intervals in the opening half, Chris McCready conspired to kick the ball against Alan McCormack, who duly slipped in Walker, another of Charlton's emerging youngsters, for the second.
Ben Williams managed to get a glove to the striker's shot, but it trickled in and his side were left with it all to do with just 18 minutes on the clock.
They were, however, gifted a potential 33rd-minute lifeline when Nicky Maynard's darting run across the box was upended by the boot of Peter Clarke.
But Gary Roberts ruined his 100 per cent penalty record when his kick, while firmly struck, was hit at the right height for the agile Darryl Flahavan to beat away.
Crewe had previously been awarded just two kicks all season and in their ranks they had Roberts and Kenny Lunt, usually reliable executors.
Yet Lunt later produced another unconvincing effort as his side's improved second-half showing appeared to have set up an interesting finale.
After the determined Joe Anyinsah - Crewe's best player on a dreadful afternoon - was hacked down by Simon Francis, Flahavan guessed right again and found Lunt's 73rd-minute penalty even easier to push away.
Fortunately, Southend, impregnable in the first half, were wobbling sufficiently to allow another dead-ball opportunity within yards of their goal a minute later.
This time Lunt was unerring with his accuracy and landed the free-kick on Maynard's head for the striker's 10th of the season, which he looped into the bottom corner.
While Holland opted to drop Roberts back into defence after Danny Woodards was stretchered off following a feisty challenge from Simon Francis, the introduction of youngster Mark Carrington pepped up a mediocre engine room.
Maynard, Morgan and Anyinsah at last saw some service and before Maynard's strike, Morgan had come close with a deflected effort over.
But Barnard looked a far more effective outlet than he had been at Crewe in a side used to winning games and he forced Williams to keep out his snapshot before applying the coup de grace 10 minutes from time.
He raced on to McCormack's pass and drilled a confident finish across Williams into the far corner to ensure there was to be no Alex fightback.
When the forward cleverly slipped in Nicky Bailey for what should have been the fourth in stoppage time - the midfielder blasted over from eight yards - the Alex faithful will have been wondering why their club were not in the reckoning back in January when Spurs boss Juande Ramos released him for a cut price £25,000 fee.
But Baker pointed out: "There was no chance of getting Lee back. He's a London boy and they are probably paying him as much as he was getting at Spurs.
"He looked a very good striker today and I think that comes with playing in a winning team. His second-goal was a terrific finish."
Sportingly, Barnard, left, who still keeps in touch with several of his former team-mates wasn't slow in passing on his support for what could now be the tensest of relegation battles ahead.
"There's good and bad about scoring against your old club," admitted the striker. "I'd like to see Crewe stay up, but obviously today was about the three points and I wasn't about to deliver any favours.
"Crewe are a good side and I knew it was going to be a tough game. We were a bit lucky as they missed two penalties and a few chances, so it wasn't as easy as the scoreline suggests."
MATCH STATS
CREWE ALEX 1
(Maynard 74)
SOUTHEND 3
(Barnard 2, 80; Walker 18)
GOAL ATTEMPTS
Crewe: 11 (4 on target)
Southend: 17 (11 on target)
THE REFEREE
Mr A Haines: 7
CARD WATCH
YELLOW - Crewe: Maynard 28 (foul). Southend: Mulgrew 38 (foul), Francis 71 (foul).?
RED - None.
MATCH RATING
Entertainment: 7
THE CROWD
Attendance: 4,895
PLAYER RATINGS
WILLIAMS: Couldn't do anything about any of the goals 6
ABBEY: Poor for the first goal and below his recent standard 5
WOODARDS: Retired with injury in second half, but had not looked comfortable 5
BAUDET: Compromised for first and third goals 6
McCREADY: Kicked the ball against McCormack, who then set up second 5
LUNT: Kept going, but penalty miss blotted copybook 6
SCHUMACHER: Wasn't able to get things rolling on his return 5
ROBERTS: Struggled to get a foothold in middle of the park before dropping back to right-back 6
ANYINSAH: Arguably the best game of his loan, offered some real determination 8
MAYNARD: Took his header well, but didn't have much of a sniff otherwise 6
MORGAN: Up-and-down. Did some good things, but was very poor at times 6
SUBSTITUTES
CARRINGTON (Woodards, 55): Got involved after replacing injured Woodards 6
O?DONNELL (Baudet, 90): Replaced injured Baudet in stoppage-time.
Not used: Miller, Moore, Owain Fon Williams.
SOUTHEND: 1 Flahavan, 2 Francis, 18 Mulgrew, 6 Barrett, 5 Clarke, 17 Black (22 Moussa, 84), 16 McCormack, 23 Bailey, 7 Gower (25 Grant, 84), 28 Walker (10 McDonald, 85), 19 Barnard. Not used: 11 Revell 13 Collis.