Manager Paul Sturrock was happy with the way 'Plan B' came together at Rushden and Diamonds last night.
The Blues boss tested out a new formation against the Conference side during the 0-0 pre-season draw on Wednesday evening.
United lined-up in a 4-3-3 formation when in possession whilst reverting to a 4-5-1 when defending.
"The formation worked quite well for a first attempt and caused a lot of problems for the other team," Sturrock told Blues Player after the match.
"We managed to create three or four half chances so all in all it was pleasing.
"The one thing we did lack was someone to put the ball into the back of the net and there is a lot of work to be done in that area.
"You have got to have a couple of systems of play in case things are not going well.
"We did about 30 minutes of work on this system the other day in training and some of the personnel involved then weren't even at this game.
"But people adapted quite well and it might even suit a couple of the players like Louie Soares and Ryan Hall."
Blues included a number of new trialists in their side for the match against Rushden.
Those included midfielder Josh Simpson, defenders Mark Phillips and Luke Prosser as well as Latvian forward Vitalijs Zils.
But it was former Arsenal youngster Ben Gill who caught the Southend managers' eye.
"The boy Ben Gill who came on in the second half looked as though he had a semblance of what we are looking for," he said.
"Luke Prosser did very well also in defence after playing a lot in the Conference in the past but I am not going to rush into signing people for the sake of it so it is important that I deliberate over the next couple of days."
And with a trip to Eastbourne this weekend representing Southend's final pre-season fixture Sturrock admitted it will be hard for him to play his starting line-up that will kick-off the new npower League Two season in just over a week's time.
"It is going to be very difficult to play my starting side against Eastbourne on Saturday as we have quite a few injuries at present that probably would have had a chance of starting the game," he added.
