Bradford City boss McCall happy after '˜fantastic' away win

Eleven other teams had gone to Roots Hall and left without even a sniff of three points so far this term. But McCall’s men dealt the 10-man Shrimpers a hammer blow with Charlie Wyke’s last-ditch penalty.

Dominic Poleon had earlier opened the scoring, before Stephen McLaughin’s leveller.

McCall said: “This is a fantastic three-point haul for us.

“We knew how tough it would be to come here.

“Southend have a really good group of players, and we knew they would be fired up.

“They were unbeaten at home going into the game, but we started the game well and created some early opportunities.”

Poleon came back to haunt his former club after just nine minutes as he converted Nicky Law’s cross, while Bantams goalkeeper Rouvan Sattelmaier safely negotiated a tame header from Anthony Wordsworth later in the half.

The hosts had their chances to level after the break, but struggled to force Sattelmaier into a meaningful stop.

However, with 15 minutes to go he was beaten when McLaughlin got on the end of Jermaine McGlashan’s cross.

But, in the closing moments, United’s boss Phil Brown was sent to the stands for protesting at a free-kick, before Ryan Leonard was shown red for hauling down Law in the box, Wyke stepping up to fire home his 11th of the season.

Southend United: Oxley, Demetriou, White, Turner, Coker, Wright, Leonard, Timlin (McGlashan 69), McLaughlin, Ranger (Ba 86), Wordworth (Fortune 63). Unused substitutes: Bishop, Wabo, Kyprianou, Yearwood.

Bradford City: Sattelmaier, McMahon, Knight-Percivel (Thompson 59), Kilgallon, Robinson, Gilliead, Vincelot, Law, Taylor (Reeves 45), Poleon (McCartan 77), Wyke. Unused substitutes: Raeder, Hendrie, Dieng, Patrick.

Referee: Keith Stroud.