Southend United suffered a heart-breaking 2-1 defeat at Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers tonight.

Blues heroically matched their hosts in the second round of the Carling Cup at Molineux with Craig Easton cancelling out Ronald Milijas's first half penalty to take the tie to extra time.

But, with only seconds of the additional 30 minutes remaining, skipper Richard Stearman steered the ball home to secure victory for a Wolves side 83 places higher than Southend in the league standings.

Blues had earlier started brightly with captain Easton firing over from 20 yards after a deep free-kick from Chris Barker had been nodded down in to his path by Barry Corr.

Corr was one of four changes made by manager Paul Sturrock as Bilel Mohsni and Peter Gilbert both made their debuts in the back four at the expense of Luke Prosser and Graham Coughlan.

Further forward, Josh Simpson replaced Louie Soares in the midfield and Corr took Matt Paterson's place in attack.

And it was Southend, with those alterations, who remained on top with Sofiene Zaaboub curling a 25 yard free-kick wide of the left post.

A similar effort from Anthony Grant then deflected over the crossbar but, in the 27th minute, it was Wolves who opened the scoring.

A slip from Bilel Mohsni enabled Sam Winnall to charge towards goal but the young striker's run was halted by a mis-timed challenge from makeshift centre-back Barker inside the penalty area and referee Colin Webster immediately pointed to the penalty spot.

That enabled Milijas to step forward and fire the resulting penalty in to the left hand side of the goal, despite Glenn Morris diving in the right direction.

Blues should have drawn back level in the 31st minute but Mohsni could only head Gilbert's inviting free-kick wide of the left post from six yards when he should have scored.

Mohsni made no mistake just moments later as he nodded home a Zaaboub free-kick but the effort was ruled out for offside.

In the 39th minute, Southend right back Sean Clohessy then fired a low 20 yard shot straight at Wolves goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy and, just before the break, Simpson shot only inches over from a similar distance.

At the start of the second half, Corr also forced Hennessy in to action with a low, left footed shot but, as play switched back to the other end of the field, only a superbly timed last ditch challenge from Mohsni stopped Adlene Guedioura racing clean through on goal.

Winnall then volleyed a right wing cross from Ashley Hemmings just past the right post but in the 67th minute Blues came agonisingly close to drawing back level when Blair Sturrock saw a 20 yard shot tipped on to the top of the crossbar by Hennessey.

In a bid to create further chances, Southend made a double change in the 71st minute with both Louie Soares and Ryan Hall entering the action in place of Corr and Zaaboub.

And it did the trick too as just nine minutes later Blues equalised as a fine move down the right hand side resulted in Simpson delivering an excellent cross which was headed home by a diving Easton.

The shell shocked Wolves thought they had immediately regained the lead when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake converted a right wing cross from Ronald Zubar but the close range finish was ruled out for offside.

Blues replied late on with Soares prodding a close range effort in to Hennessey's gloves but neither side could conjure up a late winner as the tie went to extra time.

At the start of the additional 30 minutes, a deflected Milijas effort hit the left post, with Blake's follow up effort again being disallowed for offside.

Southend then almost won it when Soares cut the ball back in to the path of Simpson whose side footed shot was smothered by Hennessey.

But, in the dying seconds, Wolves finally killed off Paul Sturrock's side as Zubar's cross was converted from close range by Stearman.