STEVE Tilson's lucky pre-match shirt looks set to get a whole lot filthier.

The Southend United manager will not wash his top until his side lose again at Roots Hall but on current form that looks unlikely to happen in the near future.

In fact, last night the only thing that was nearly taken to the cleaners was Brighton as Blues easily brushed them aside with first half goals from Mark Gower and Adam Barrett, in the space of six minutes, securing a crucial 2-0 win.

That made it 11 games unbeaten for the fourth-placed Shrimpers who started brightly and almost netted with two minutes on the clock when Lee Barnard headed over a left wing cross from Mark Gower.

The deadlock was broken on 24 minutes with a moment of magic from Gower.

The Shrimpers winger collected the ball from Simon Francis deep inside his own half, before advancing down the right flank and cutting inside past two Seagulls defenders.

The 29-year-old continued to run across the outside of the penalty area and unleashed a fantastic left foot shot from 20 yards into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Gower then fired over from edge of the area and with the home side still on top an inswinging right wing free-kick from Charlie Mulgrew then almost led to Southend doubling their advantage.

But keeper Michel Kuipers pulled off a stunning double save to deny his own defender Tom Elphick before also blocking Barnard's follow up effort with his legs.

But the Dutch custodian was left grasping thin air on the half hour mark as Gower teed up skipper Barrett to unleash a superb 20 yard shot, from the left hand side of the penalty area, into the roof of the net for his seventh goal of the season.