Played on a terrible pitch and in bitterly cold conditions, Southend United lost out in the local derby at Colchester United 2-0.
A goal in each half from Anthony Wordsworth settled the League One contest on Tuesday night, handing Colchester the three points and leaving the Blues without a win in five games ahead of Saturday's clash at home to Tranmere Rovers.
Southend found themselves a goal behind inside just three minutes, with the state of the pitch coming to the fore in allowing Wordsworth to score.
Clive Platt capitalised on Jean Yves-M'Voto's slip inside the box to deliver a cross for Wordsworth at the far post.
In turn, his low shot rolled past Steve Mildenhall but looked set to be cleared away by Adam Barrett, only for the defender to kick the sand-covered surface surrounding the goalmouth as the ball crossed the line in slow motion.
The Blues looked to respond with Francis Laurent connecting with Damian Scannell's in-swinging cross from the right flank, but his header was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Ben Williams.
At the other end, Mildenhall was twice called into action to block a low shot from Kayode Odekayi before crawling away Marc Tierney's cross from the left flank as it looked set to reach the lurking John-Joe O'Toole.
Scott Spencer had a half chance when Scannell's low cross from the right arrived at the striker's feet inside the box, but he scuffed his shot straight into the gloves of Williams.
Another opportunity soon arrived for Laurent, as he collected Spencer's pass to race towards goal, but after getting the better of John White, he could only drill the ball into the side netting.
Within the opening minute of the second half, O'Toole had a sight of goal when he volleyed over from 10 yards out before Southend began to up the tempo in their favour.
Good work from Scannell saw his cross bounce around in the box before being cleared and Spencer had a shot charged down from a tight angle.
But disaster struck in the 62nd minute, with Wordsworth offered a simple route to scoring his second goal of the night.
David Prutton's corner was headed down at the far post by Odejayi and Wordsworth reacted quickest to tap the ball in from in front of goal.
Some neat football in the final third handed substitute Matt Paterson a great chance to reduce the arrears, but his low strike was kept out by Williams.
Moments later, a switch of play saw Mildenhall pressed into action to make a smart save to deny Steven Gillespie as we entered the final 10 minutes of the match.
Southend were giving as good as they got, with Williams pushing a Franck Moussa shot behind the goal before Barrett had the ball in the back of the net from the resultant corner, only for the goal to be controversially ruled out for a foul.
Southend: Mildenhall, Francis, M'Voto, Barrett, Malone, Scannell, Christophe, Moussa, Watt, Laurent, Spencer (Paterson 73).
Colchester: Williams, Okuonghale, O'Toole (Ifil 50), Platt, Odejayi (Gillespie78), Wordsworth (Henderson 86), Tierney, White, Prutton, Heath.
