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But with only one point from their last three games, the Shrimpers went off the boil at the worst possible time.
Grimsby's Blundell Park has never been a good ground for Southend, and it started to go wrong for them 15 seconds into the match that was happening a hundred miles away. News quickly filtered through that promotion rivals Swansea had scored at Bury.
Southend survived a scare when Martin Gritton's third minute goal was ruled out. Steve Tilson's boys gradually sorted themselves out, however, and in a strong spell towards half time Carl Pettefer blazed over.
Grimsby did well to keep it level at half time, but when they struck after 56 minutes things looked blank for Southend. Good work down the left set up striker Michael Reddy, and he hooked the ball into corner of the net.
Southend hit back and leading scorer Freddy Eastwood forced home his 22nd goal of the season from skipper Kevin Maher's corner. Just before this, Mark Bentley had crashed a shot against the Grimsby bar as Southend pressed desperately for a goal.
The equaliser opened up the game and it could have gone either way.
Just before the end, great celebrations broke out amongst the 2,000-plus Southend fans who wrongly heard that Bury had equalised against Swansea. A draw there would have sent Southend up, and the match at Grimsby ended bizzarely when the referee blew for full-time as Grimsby fans encroached on the touch-line ready to invade the pitch.