SOUTHEND United prepared for the upcoming EFL Youth Alliance Merit League campaign with a 5-0 friendly win over Gillingham at Boots & Laces.

In keeping with the agreement clubs have made for the Merit League, both sides were made up principally of first-year scholars and schoolboys, although it was Tendi Quamina - a second-year who has missed two years through injury - that stole the show with a brace of goals on his start since returning to action.

And his performance earned praise from Blues coach Danny Heath.

“Tendi’s been out for two years, but his application and his professionalism to get back to where he is now has been second-to-none,” said Heath.

“He has always come in with a smile on his face and he’s shown a positive attitude throughout. He’s never walked around with his head down and he’s always been upright and had his chest out.”

“He has pushed himself in whatever he has been able to do. If he’s been set 10  squats, he’s been doing twelve.

"Even when he came back to full contact training with the group, it was like he hadn’t been away. With his natural ability in terms of his first touch, his hold-up play and his finishing, it’s as though he’s not been out for two years. I’m over the moon for him to get the two goals.”

Quamina was lively from the outset, firing over following an Omari Williams corner in the 11th minute before holding off a defender to draw a save from the Gillingham goalkeeper 60 seconds later. 

The opening goal arrived on 23 minutes from schoolboy winger Williams.

A tricky wide-man, he drifted inside from the left flank before using a defender as a shield to arrow his precise 16-yard finish in off the inside of the right-hand post.

Six minutes later, Quamina’s fairytale return was complete as he doubled the advantage.

The forward, who has enjoyed a phased comeback with substitute appearances against Gillingham, Ipswich Town and AFC Wimbledon in the last three matches, collected Callum Burkey’s pass before clinically dispatching his strike inside the left-hand upright.

Burkey, who skippered the side for the first 45 minutes before being withdrawn, read the play superbly and organised those around him to ensure Southend had a strong defensive base. That propelled the likes of Jacob Bland and Brian Garzon forwards, and the latter was denied by a fine save on 37 minutes.

In a rare foray forwards, Burkey also went close, cutting slightly across a fierce 25-yard attempt on 43 minutes and sending it marginally wide before Quamina made it 3-0 six minutes later.

He latched onto a cross-field pass before sending a deflected finish beyond the visitors’ substitute shotstopper from six yards out.

Blues made a raft of changes on 45 and 60 minutes to make use of the full squad, and it was one of the replacements who created the fourth goal shortly after the hour mark when Sam Ratcliff did brilliantly to keep the ball in and his hanging cross was met by Jaden Crowhurst, who leapt highest among a sea of red shirts to plant his header into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

Ratcliff almost contributed a second assist after exchanging passes with Henry Sandat on the edge of the penalty area, but this time Kenny Coker’s volley was superbly clawed away before the first-year forward added a fifth goal with a Panenka penalty on 73 minutes having been brought down inside the area.

Southend United U18s: Andeng Ndi, Clayden, Kamara, Burkey (Crowhurst 46),  Droney (Bolarinwa 75), Bolarinwa (Taylor 60), Adedoja (K Coker 46), Bland (Williams 60), Quamina (Ratcliff 60), Garzon (Sandat 60), Williams (Shenouda 46).