SOUTHEND United cruised to their first cup success in 22 months tonight, brushing aside Crawley Town 3-0 in the second round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

The Shrimpers headed to West Sussex without a win in the cup since beating Millwall 4-1 in January 2014.

But Phil Brown’s side were rarely troubled at the Broadfield Stadium as a brace from Joe Pigott and Myles Weston’s first goal in 13 months saw them secure a comfortable triumph in the second round of the competition.

Blues completely bossed a one-sided first half and, with six minutes on the clock, Anthony Wordsworth came close to opening the scoring against his former side when his curling 20 yard shot was tipped wide of the right post by Crawley goalkeeper Callum Preston.

Moments later, Weston also threatened when he collected a fine-cross field pass from Wordsworth before cutting in off the right flank and unleashing a well struck 25 yard shot which Preston tipped over the crossbar.

With Blues remaining on top, Wordsworth then volleyed just wide of the left post after being teed up by Jack Payne.

Having survived the scares, Crawley replied with Luke Rooney seeing his deflected volley from 12 yards smartly smothered by Shrimpers goalkeeper Daniel Bentley.

But Southend were soon back on top and, in the 26th minute, they opened the scoring, with Weston on target for the first time since scoring a penalty at York City in September 2014.

The speedy striker broke the offside trap to race onto a fine through ball from Wordsworth before he held his nerve to roll a controlled finish into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Blues continued to pile on the pressure and, in the 39th minute, they doubled their lead with Pigott on target for the third time this season.

The on loan Charlton Athletic striker collected a pass from Ben Coker before turning neatly in the left hand side of the penalty area and unleashing a curling shot which was heavily deflected into the right hand side of the net.

In reply, former Blues striker Lee Barnard then fired over following a rare Crawley foray forward and, immediately after half-time, the front-runner had an effort ruled out for offside after a bright burst down the right flank by substitute Lewis Young.

With the home-side starting to provide ore a threat, Shrimpers full-back Ben Coker did well to scramble the ball off the goal-line to stop team-mate Gary Deegan scoring an unfortunate own goal.

Southend boss Phil Brown responded by making his first change of the night as Michael Timlin replaced Wordsworth in midfield with 58 minutes on the clock.

Crawley soon also made a change of their own with another former Shrimpers striker – Gavin Tomlin – replacing Barnard in attack.

With the substitutions continuing, David Mooney took the place of Jack Payne in the 75th minute before David Worrall came on for Weston eight minutes from time.

And the new look Shrimpers completed the scoring in the 87th minute as Pigott cut in from the right hand side of the penalty area before crashing home a powerful left footed shot, via the underside of the crossbar, to seal Southend’s passage into the third round.