Southend United's reserves suffered a last minute 1-0 defeat at home to Norwich City this afternoon.
Having conceded a heavy amount of goals in recent reserve outings, this was certainly a marked improvement for the team in a game of few chances until Danny Kelly converted the only goal in the dying seconds.
Anthony Grant did play an hour of the match, having recently recovered from the ankle injury he suffered against Swindon Town back in January, but goalkeeper Kelvin Jack had to limp out of action with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.
After a quiet start, Scott Spencer flicked a close range shot straight at Declan Rudd before the striker wasted a great chance to score when he fired wide of the right-hand post from six yards.
Spencer then tried to tee up his strike partner Harry Crawford in a two-on-one situation, but his pass went just behind the youth team forward and the momentum was lost.
At the start of the second half, Spencer curled a 20 yard free kick straight at Rudd before Grant was replaced by Jamie Dennis in the 60th minute.
Jack's replacement Daniel Bentley did well to deny Paul McVeigh from close range, but he was beaten in injury time.
McVeigh worked his way past Johnny Herd and delivered a low cross for Kelly to convert from six yards and secure a 1-0 victory for Norwich.
Southend: Jack (Bentley 71), Osifuwa, Sankofa, Whittaker, Herd, Milner, Kerr, Grant (Dennis 60), Okai (Hazell 80), Spencer, Crawford.
