BLUES winger Damien Scannell shone on his return for the reserves at Luton Town yesterday.
But the former Eastleigh flankster was unable to stop his side suffering a 3-1 defeat against the Hatters.
The 22-year-old has been sidelined for nearly a month with a groin strain and earned praise from second string boss Dean Austin.
"Damian played the full 90 minutes and was our best player," said Austin.
"He looked really sharp after a lay-off and it was good to see."
And, despite the result, Austin was also pleased with the performance of his side which again included strikers Charlie MacDonald and Alex Revell.
"We played well and have certainly been worse than that and won this season," he said.
"We had plenty of chances and could have won the game 7-3 but we didn't put them away and that's what cost us in the end.
"We had long spells of possession but also gave away some bad goals which didn't help."
That ultimately swung the match in Luton's favour as three trialists worked their way onto the scoresheet.
Andre McCollin broke the deadlock on the half hour mark and Gavin Tomlin made it 2-0 in the 54th minute of the match.
Just seconds later, Brett Johnson increased Town's lead but Blues did manage a consolation 15 minutes from the end as defender Zoltan Liptak, who caused the hosts plenty of problems from set piece situations, rose to head home a corner from left back Johnny Herd.
But the effort came too late to spark a Shrimpers comeback.
Southend: Collis, Grant, Liptak, Obaze, Herd, Revell, Moussa, Lokando, Scannell, Harrold, MacDonald.
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