Southend United suffered a 2-0 defeat at Dagenham & Redbridge in their latest pre-season friendly this weekend.

Having suffered a defeat to Ipswich on Wednesday night by the same scoreline, two goals from Paul Benson did the damage to secure the win for the League Two outfit.

In pleasant conditions at the Victoria Road stadium in Dagenham it was a pretty even start with the Blues forcing the first save of the game after five minutes.

Maceo Rigters shot from 30 yards, with an effort which was comfortably saved by Dagenham's goalkeeper.

In a change to the predicted line up, trialist Harry Worley lined up alongside Saah at centre back, as Jean-Francois took up his more familiar role in centre-midfield, with both players making a solid start to the game.

Dagenham's first real chance came on 10 minutes, with a deep corner finding the head of their left back Scott Griffiths who headed wide when he really should have done better.

It was a sign of things to come as the Daggers enjoyed a decent spell of possession, carving out some decent chances without really looking like scoring until the 19^th minute where an aimless cross into the Southend box wasn't cleared properly and dropped to left midfielder Graeme Montgomery on the penalty spot.

He controlled the ball and took aim towards Ian Joyce's top left hand corner. The ball flew past the keeper's outstretched arms, only to find Worley to be well positioned to head the danger off the line.

Southend's first decent chance came on 33 minutes when a fast breakaway saw James Walker run at the Dagenham defence and he slid the ball to Lee Sawyer on the left hand side of the area.

Sawyer took a touch to put it on his right foot and looked to curl it into the far corner of the goal, but it never really worked the goalkeeper as it curled a few yards wide of the post.

This effort was then matched by a Franck Moussa drive from 25 yards a minute later, which the keeper managed to push around the post. Nothing came from the ensuing corner, but the Blues were beginning to up the quality of their possession.

The first half ended exactly as it had begun, with nothing between the teams and a few half chances carved out, but with both goals under no real danger of being breached.

As the players emerged from the dressing rooms, manager Steve Tilson made one change by bringing on winger Damian Scannell for James Walker, leaving Alex Revell to take up his usual position up front.

After a first half where both team's struggled to create chances, Dagenham scored from the first attack in the 46^th minute.

The ball was whipped in from the left hand side evading all the Blues defenders and local lad Paul Benson was left with an easy finish, as he slotted past Joyce.

Scannell was beginning to get some joy on the right hand side as he had the beating of his full back on two occasions, resulting in crosses in to the box which was unable to find the feet of a Blues striker each time. This provided some encouragement as Southend looked to get back in the game.

A harmless looking free kick on the right hand side of midfield was whipped in again from Dagenham's left back aiming for the far post, where an unmarked Benton stooped to head in his second goal of the game, leaving Joyce with no chance of getting anything to it in the 66^th minute.

It could have been 3-0, as Dagenham grew in confidence and a cross from the left hand side caused a medley in the Southend penalty box where one of three players could have scored until Joyce pulled off a nice double save, leaving Herd to clear in the end.

The incident seemed to spark a period of more urgency from the Blues players as they looked to get in behind the Daggers' full backs. They carved out a few more half chances, but again with no real conviction.

After the final substitutions, the game rather fizzled out with only one more chance for Dagenham bringing out a good save from Joyce.

In summary, it was a pretty evenly matched contest, with Dagenham creating two clear cut chances which Southend boy Benson duly took.

Southend: Joyce, Pearson, Saah, Christophe (McCormack 63), Herd, Revell (Barnard 63), Sawyer (Grant 63), Worley (Francis 63), Moussa (Laurent 63), Walker (Scannell 46, Calver 69), Rigters.