SOUTHEND United youngster Sewa Marah bagged four goals against Millwall on Saturday but was still unable to stop the Shrimpers suffering a 5-4 defeat.

The powerful striker enjoyed a fruitful 90 minutes in Blues’ latest pre-season friendly.

And Southend coach Dave Huzzey was full of praise for Marah’s performance.

“Sewa was unplayable on Saturday,” said Huzzey.

“He scored four but he should have scored more and I’ve had that conversation with him too.

“He missed two or three clear cut chances you would expect him to score but he’s been working hard since coming back in and his attitude has been first class.

“That’s something we’ve always had to work on with him but he’s been excellent and it’s no coincidence he’s getting his rewards.

“He’s got seven goals in three games and we’ve been really pleased with him.”

However, Huzzey was less impressed by his side’s display at the other end of the field as the Shrimpers’ defence was breached five times by the Lions.

“The boys did really well to get back in the game but defensively we need to sharpen up and be more compact,” said Huzzey.

“Going forward we were really good but we need to improve at the back and we know that.

“We always seem to have one of these high scoring games in pre-season and it was always going to be after going 2-0 down inside five minutes.

“But there were still positives for us.”

Despite that, Blues started slowly and found themselves 2-0 down inside the first four minutes of the match.

However, Marah - who was captaining the Shrimpers - soon bagged his first goal of the game when he rounded the goalkeeper to fire home.

Moments later, Marah fired home his second before Millwall went back in front in the 21st minute.

Marah completed his hat-trick to make it 3-3 in the 35th minuute and netted with a volley at the start of the second half to put Blues in front but two goals in three minutes saw the match sway back in Millwall’s favour.

Blues: Seaden, Hutchings, Farah (Osmieh 46), Stewart (Cuthbert 71), Knock (Mitchell-Nelson 46), Pianim, Sanke (Hawkes 57), Benton, Marah, Rush, Egbri.