SOUTHEND United’s winless streak against Morecambe continued at Roots Hall this afternoon as they sunk to a disappointing 3-1 defeat.

Kevan Hurst fired the Shrimpers ahead midway through the first half but the visitors hit back with a trio of strikes.

And, despite having substitute Robbie Threlfall sent off in the 70th minute, Morecambe still managed to make it seven games without defeat against their hosts.

Blues have therefore yet to beat the Shrimps but Phil Brown’s team were initially on top in their latest meeting between the two teams, with Freddy Eastwood sending a fifth minute header against the left post.

After that opportunity, the game went quiet before Hurst brought it back to life by firing the Shrimpers ahead of the half hour mark.

The winger, who was making his first start of the season after recovering from a knee injury, collected a deep left wing cross from Ben Coker before cutting in off the right flank and firing a low, left footed shot in to the bottom left hand corner of the net from 16 yards.

But the Shrimpers were ahead for only minutes as they failed to clear the ball on the edge of their own penalty area and Andrew Fleming guided a left footed shot in to the bottom left hand corner of the net.

The visitors then went ahead just 17 seconds after the half-time break when an error from Luke Prosser enabled Padraig Amond to race clean through on goal.

His effort was saved by Daniel Bentley before Fleming was on hand to fire the resulting rebound in to the back of the North Bank net.

Morecambe remained on top with Amond heading Fleming’s right wing corner against the crossbar but the Shrimps were not to be denied and made it 3-1 in the 56th minute, with former Blues loanee Jack Sampson on target.

The forward collected the ball on the edge of the penalty area after a loose period of play and fired a deflected effort high in to the left hand side of the goal.

Southend almost got back in to the game when Cauley Woodrow’s header from Coker’s right wing cross was brilliantly saved low down to his left hand side by Morecambe goalkeeper Barry Roche.

That proved to be Woodrow’s last involvement in the game as he was replaced by Barry Corr on the hour mark as part of a double substitution which also saw Will Atkinson coming on for Michael Timlin.

Threlfall was also brought in to the action by the visitors but, just seven minutes after his arrival, the left-back was sent off for a poorly timed challenge on Anthony Straker.