Bristol Rovers took all three points in a seven goal thriller at the Memorial Stadium this afternoon.

Rovers beat Southend 4-3 despite giving themselves an early mountain to climb.

The home side were 2-0 down within the first 15 minutes, but went in level at half time thanks to a strike by Jo Kuffour and a penalty from Jeff Hughes.

Rovers found themselves in the lead for the first time just after the break when Hughes scored his second, but Southend were soon on level terms again.

The game was settled in the dying minutes when Anthony Grant got on the end of a Stuart Campbell corner and scored an own goal to give Rovers the win.

Manager Paul Trollope named an unchanged side for the fifth successive game this afternoon. And it was an entertaining encounter, which included two penalties and a sending off.

Southend dominated the opening stages of the game, and punished Rovers for some defensive errors early on. The Shrimpers were camped out in the Rovers' half, and a mistake from goalkeeper Mikkel Andersen led to their first goal after just five minutes.

Andersen came out to the edge of his box and brought down Southend striker Scott Vernon earning the visitors a penalty and getting a kick in the head in the process.

After some treatment the big Dane was back on his feet, but Vernon sent him the wrong way and opened the scoring.

Things continued to go badly for Rovers and they soon found themselves 2-0 down thanks to a goal from Scott Spencer. Rovers gave the ball away in midfield and Spencer got past Steve Elliott and shot into the net from a tight angle.

Rovers needed to pull something out of the bag to keep the game alive, and they nearly did so when Daniel Jones hit a ball into the box which found the head of Chris Lines, but his downward header went straight into the hands of Southend keeper Steve Mildenhall.

The Shrimpers continued to put Rovers under pressure, but the home side got a foot back in the game when Jo Kuffour managed to get past former Rovers loan player Pat Baldwin and chip the ball high over Mildenhall.

The goal helped Rovers to start pushing forward and the home side were level four minutes later thanks to another penalty.

This time Jo Kuffour and Chris Lines both had shots blocked in a crowded penalty area, before Lines was brought down by Alan McCormack.

Hughes stepped up and snuck the ball under the diving Mildenhall in the bottom right hand corner.

Rovers went in front for the first time seven minutes into the second half, when Hughes claimed his second goal of the game.

Kuffour turned provider for this one, in a move that started with Andersen in the Rovers' goal. Kuffour found Hughes who cut in from the left and hit a low shot past the keeper.

Southend had a chance to equalise straight away when McCormack's shot hit the post. The ball fell to Frank Moussa, but Danny Coles was on hand to make a goal line clearance.

It was real end to end stuff and Andersen then made a great save to deny Anthony Grant.

But the visitors were on equal terms once again moments later. Vernon scored his second of the game when he somehow managed to get the ball through a crowd of players and into the back of the net.

Southend were reduced to 10 men on 65 minutes when Moussa was shown a straight red for kicking Byron Anthony in an off the ball incident. The Rovers defender earned himself a caution for his part in the incident.

Andy Williams then came on for Rovers as they looked for that winning goal, but it was Southend who nearly took the lead - thankfully Andersen was able to stop Spencer putting the visitors ahead.

It was not until stoppage time that the result of this entertaining and unpredictable game was finally reached. Anthony Grant deflected a Stuart Campbell corner into the back of his own net to give Rovers all three points.

Rovers will now go into the two fixtures over Easter just seven points off the play off positions in eight place.

Bristol Rovers: Mikkel Andersen, Byron Anthony (Carl Regan), Danny Coles, Steve Elliott, Daniel Jones, Dominic Blizzard (Andy Williams), Chris Lines, Stuart Campbell, Jeff Hughes, Paul Heffernan, Jo Kuffour

Substitutes: Mark Wright, Charlie Reece, Ben Swallow, Eliot Richards, Rhys Evans

Southend United: Steve Mildenhall, Simon Francis, Pat Baldwin, Adam Barrett, Johnny Herd, Anthony Grant, Alan McCormack, Jean-Francois Christophe, Frank Moussa, Scott Vernon, Scott Spencer.

Substitutes: Dan Bentley, Scott Malone, Matt Patterson, Osei Sankofa, Jean-Yves M'voto, Stuart O'Keefe, Francis Laurent.