Southend United suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home to Port Vale this afternoon.

Blues produced a below par performance at Roots Hall and were easily brushed aside by the visitors.

Vale took just five minutes to open the scoring with their opening attack of the afternoon as a fantastic right wing cross from skipper Marc Richards was met by the head of his namesake Justin who planted a firm header in to the bottom right hand corner of the net from eight yards.

The neatly taken effort was Richards' first for Vale in the league since signing in the summer and Vale were soon almost celebrating again just moments later as Sean Rigg unleashed a deflected 20 yard shot.

However, Blues goalkeeper Glenn Morris was equal to the task and impressively pushed the ball around the right post.

Blues replied with Sofiene Zaaboub curling a low 25 yard free-kick straight at Vale custodian Stuart Tomlinson but Morris was then called in to action at the other end of the field as he did well to keep out a snap shot from Mark Richards.

In reply, Graham Coughlan headed over a left wing corner from Louie Soares but in the 33rd minute, Vale should have made it 2-0 following an error from Luke Prosser.

The defender, who was facing his former side, was caught out by Marc Richards - enabling the striker to race clean through on goal.

But, with just Morris left to beat, Richards fired wide of the right post.

Richards was at it again just moments later when he again went through before dragging a woeful effort wide of the left upright in the closing action of the first half.

In a bid to become steadier at the back, Blues boss Paul Sturrock brought on Mark Phillips in place of Prosser at the heart of the defence

Within nine minutes of the restart though, Vale doubled their lead with a quickly constructed counter attack which eventually resulted in Rigg racing on to a through ball from Gary Roberts.

The midfielder found himself with just Morris to beat but a sliding challenge from the back-tracking Craig Easton pushed the ball away from the keeper, enabling Gareth Dodds to tap home despite the best efforts of Sean Clohessy on the goal-line.

Blues responded by immediately bringing on Barry Corr in place of Zaaboub and the Irish striker should have brought his side back in to the game in the 65th minute.

But he could only head Soares left wing corner over the crossbar from six yards.

In contrast Vale were far more clinical in front of goal and, just seven minutes from time, they made it 3-0 as a long range effort from Marc Richards fizzed in to the left hand side of the South Stand net.

Southend did reply late on with a deflected Soares free-kick which entered the back of the net off Vale defender Gareth Own, but by then the damage had been done for Blues.