DELIGHTED Town manager Peter Jackson today hailed the return of young centre-back Nathan Clarke to the starting side as he set sights on a fifth successive victory at home to Torquay United on Saturday.
An 89th-minute strike by Danny Schofield, his first of the season, sealed a 2-1 win at Southend, where Andy Booth scored his fourth of the campaign in first-half stoppage time to cancel out Leke Odunsi's opener less than two minutes earlier.
The win, in front of 477 Town fans in an overall crowd of 4,205, was the first away from home in the League this season and the three-point haul put Jackson's side ninth in Division III, a point off the play-off zone.
Nineteen-year-old Clarke, making his first start since last February after battling his way back to fitness after a knee operation, played a major role as part of a three centre-back system, and Jackson said: "Clarkey was outstanding, and I'm delighted for him.
"That was only his fifth game since the end of the season before last, but he looked as though he had been playing every week. He's had a bad time with injury, but he's stuck to the task and worked hard in training and it's great to have him back."
While Efe Sodje, as expected, came in for the suspended Paul Scott, Clarke's return to the starting XI led to David Mirfin being switched from centre-back to right wing-back in place of Andy Holdsworth.
"Young Holdsworth has been doing extremely well, but we knew that on their own patch, Southend were going to be big, strong and direct," explained Jackson.
"We felt David Mirfin had the strength, size and pace to deal with the likes of Mark Gower, Leon Constantine and Tes Bramble, and that's why we made the change.
"We wanted a third straight clean sheet, and it was disappointing to concede a goal through what was basically a lack of concentration, but Andy Booth's equaliser coming so quickly gave us a real lift going back into the changing room at half-time.
"We can play better than we did on Saturday, because we never really managed to get the ball down on the deck and pass it, but the result was superb.
"Danny Schofield took his goal really well and the timing couldn't have been better," added Jackson.
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