Southend kicked off and started brightly pushing Rovers into their own box.
But the Rovers, with a good move involving Thornton and Coppinger, forced a couple of corners, the second of which Lee headed over the bar. The match quickly settled down to an even contest although the Rovers seemed to be spending more time in their opponents half.
Past the 20 minute mark and each side swopped corner kicks . Following Southend's corner the ball came out of defence to Guy halfway in the home half on the left. He beat Jupp and was clear on goal but as the home defenders came across to challenge he tried to curl the ball from the angle of the area to the far corner of the net but was inches over the bar.
Minutes later and Goater found himself with space up front but instead of catching Blayney off his line he hung on to the ball and was tackled and robbed by McDaid. Then Goater again picked up on a punch out by Blayney but fired wide of an open goal.
Continuing the attack by the home team, Eastwood had a go at goal but fired over from 30 yards. Passing the half hour mark, Coppinger got the ball on the centre line, ran down the middle but got his foot under the ball and lifted it into the top tier of the stand behind the goal.
The match developed into end to end play, with Eastwood threatening at the visiting end and shooting wide and Guy claiming a penalty but only getting a corner. Then Gutteridge was well wide of the mark at the Rovers and the Rovers won another corner but it was cleared. The half-time interval came following a Southend corner, with the scoreline the same as before the kick-off. But it had been an entertaining game in the first half. May it continue in the second period.
The second half began with a bang - for the Rovers. A Rovers move down the left gave Lewis Guy the chance to get to the byline, cut the ball back to Coppinger in the middle, 10 yards out. All COPPINGER had to do was hit it into the roof of the net for the opening goal of the game.
Southend hit back with an attack that was defended well before Gower got a shot in that deflected straight into Blayney's arms. On 53 minutes, Guy had the ball in the net again but the linesman had seen a handball so the referee chalked it off. Southend went down to the Rovers end and won a corner on their right. The ball came out to Thornton on the Rovers right. A long run of fully 70 yards to the Southend byline before he put a low cross to Marples, who had run alongside him but his sidefoot was saved by Flahavan. Southend increased the tempo of their game and began to put the Rovers defence under severe pressure.
A good 1-2 by Southend put Eastwood in but his first touch let him down, the ball running to Blayney. On 70 minutes, Rovers counter attacked, following a Southend free kick, with Thornton together with Guy and Coppinger on the right and Fortune-West on the left against two defenders. Thornton went to the left, to Fortune-West, who turned inside but his right foot shot was screwed wide.
Both sides made changes as Southend went on all-out attack but the Rovers defence, with Lee and Roberts outstanding in the middle, defended very well. Eastwood, Goater and Gray were kept in check and any shots that got through were well handled by Blayney. The occasional counter attack by the Rovers fizzled out but relieved the pressure if only for a few seconds on the hard worked defence.
Time ran out for Southend and the whistle went for a well merited win for the Rovers. Instead of being the sacrificial lamb they turned out to be the party-poopers and completed the double over the leaders.