Ex-Rotherham United and Cardiff City man ends 18-month search for a club and scores on dream debut

Handed a month-long deal by Southend, the 36-year-old climbed off the bench in the 64th minute of their League Two encounter with Grimsby on Tuesday night.

Then, 11 minutes later, he scored to seal a 3-1 victory for Mark Molesley’s strugglers.

After training with Southend, he was given a short-term deal on Tuesday, once the Shrimpers finally had their registration embargo lifted.

Halford made 19 Championship appearances for Brighton during the Seagulls’ 2014/15 season.

He told the Southend Echo: "It’s been a long time since I played the game so I’m really looking forward to getting some games under my belt and showing that I can still do it.

“First of all, from a selfish point of view, it’s minutes, games and just playing football but in the grand scheme of things it’s about helping the manager out, helping the team out and we’ll see where it goes after that.

‘”I came down and watched the game on Saturday and you could see Macca (Alan McCormack) pretty much coaching everyone on the pitch, winning the tactical free kicks and slowing the game down.

“Hopefully I can do the same sort of thing and guide the young players.

“The position we’re in at the minute, we have to be able to grind out results and 1-0 wins are the best wins. Hopefully with my experience coming into the team I can help in that aspect of game management.”