SOUTHEND United’s under-18 side were beaten 8-4 by Fulham in their opening pre-season friendly of the summer.

Charlie Kelman, Matt Rush, Tundai Quamina and Jon Benton were all on target for Blues.

But Shrimpers coach Dave Huzzey was not too downbeat at the final whistle.

“I’m disappointed with the result and the amount of goals Fulham scored but there were some positives to take out of the game, especially the first half performance,” said Huzzey.

“After the first five minutes we had a good 25 minutes in the first half where we played some really positive stuff and there are some things to build on.

“If this was the last game before the season we’d have a problem, if this was during the season then we’d have a problem, but this was the first game.

“We also used 24 players and that’s the most we’ve ever used in a pre-season friendly.”

Blues head to Reading this weekend for their second warm-up clash.