A not full strength Southend United fell out of the FA Trophy at the 4th round this afternoon following a 2-0 defeat away at local rivals Dagenham & Redbridge.
Kevin Maher made 5 changes to the side that won at home to Yeovil Town on Tuesday night which was to be expected as The Shrimpers rested big names such as Lopata but did give a full debut to Ollie Kensdale.
Southend started the match the brighter of the two sides and went close to opening the scoring on more than one occasion with Daggers going close and getting a foothold in the game the longer things went on but neither side managed to break the deadlock until after half-time.
Mo Sagaf fired the home side in front on the 56th minute and eight minutes later the Daggers went 2-0 up via Junior Morias.
From that point on Southend didn’t look like getting anything back from this one and so Kevin Mahers Southend bow out of this year’s FA Trophy at the 4th round.
All eyes now turn to concentrate on the league campaign as the Shrimpers look to escape a relegation battle starting next Friday at home to Kings Lynn.
Southend XI: Arnold, Ralph, Hobson, Coulson, Dalby, Ferguson, Gard, Rush, Demetriou, Dennis, Kensdale
Subs: Andeng Ndi, Howard, Egbri, Clifford, Walsh, Lopata, Kinali
