A TRIO of first half goals saw Southend United slump to a 3-0 defeat against Premier League newcomers Brighton & Hove Albion tonight.

Solly March bagged a brace for the Seagulls at Roots Hall while Glenn Murray also netted as Blues suffered their first setback in pre-season.

On a game played on a tricky looking pitch, Brighton started brightly with Pascal Gross firing a low, long range shot at Ted Smith before Blues hit back with Dru Yearwood teeing up Marc-Antoine Fortune whose low shot was smothered by Seagulls goalkeeper Niki Maenpaa.

The visitors soon hit back with Steve Sidwell having a close range effort smartly blocked by Smith before Chris Hughton’s side had strong shouts for a penalty waved away when Murray appeared to be brought down by Jason Demetriou.

However, Brighton were not to be denied for long and they opened the scoring in the 34th minute when March collected a right wing cross from Liam Rosenior before firing a rising shot into the top left hand corner of the net.

Six minutes later, Brighton doubled their lead with March again on target as he stroked a low 20 yard shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Blues hit back with Yearwood firing inches wide of the right post from long range before Brighton extended their lead on the stroke of half-time with Murray heading home a fine left wing cross from Markus Suttner.

The second half started slowly before the Shrimpers made two changes in the 68th minute with Jermaine McGlashan and Theo Robinson both entering the action.

Nine minutes later, trialist striker Amadou Ba was also brought on but it was still Brighton who came closest to scoring late on when James Tilly was denied by Smith.

Southend United: Smith, Demetriou, White, Ferdinand, Hendrie, Leonard, Yearwood (McGlashan 68), Timlin, Kightly, Cox (Ba 77), Fortune (Robinson 68)