SOUTHEND United finally ended their Morecambe hoodoo by beating the Shrimps 3-0 at the Globe Arena in the first round of the FA Cup this afternoon.

Blues had fail to beat Jim Bentley’s men in the seven previous meetings between the two teams.

But an early brace from Anthony Straker and an injury time effort from Ryan Leonard finally saw the Shrimpers came out on top.

Straker’s first goal came in the seventh minute and was a carbon copy to his effort against Mansfield Town last Friday.

The winger was again picked out by a fantastic right wing cross from Kevan Hurst and chested the ball in to the back of the net from close range.

Two minutes later Straker was celebrating again as his right foot shot from 25 yards took a deflection before nestling in the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Straker then almost made it a hat-trick when he sped past three men and had a close range shot tipped around the right post by Morecambe goalkeeper Barry Roche.

The Shrimps improved after the break with Blues goalkeeper Daniel Bentley to tip a dangerous Ryan Williams corner over the crossbar before Shrimps centre-back Chris McCready somehow fired over from six yards.

Having survived those scares, Southend then made sure of the win in stoppage time when Leonard charged forward and drilled a low, 25 yard shot in to the bottom left hand corner of the net.