Tom Pope bagged the 150th goal of his career as Port Vale secured their third win in the space of eight days, beating winless Southend 2-0.

Pope headed home twice in the second half at Roots Hall to push Vale up to fifth in the League Two table.

Vale should have opened the scoring inside the first minute but David Worrall saw his close range header well saved by Mark Oxley.

Tom Conlon then sent an effort against the foot of the left post for the visitors before Pope had a header tipped wide on the stroke of half-time.

But, with 48 minutes on the clock, Pope headed home a deep left wing cross from Worrall at the far post for his landmark goal.

Pope made it 2-0 in the 64th minute as he nodded a right cross from David Amoo into the right hand side of the net and he almost completed his hat-trick late on as he fired against the underside of the crossbar from 10 yards.