Three minutes later Simon Francis scored from a curling free-kick, making it 2-0 at half-time.
Lee Barnard then made it three four minutes into the second half with a penalty after a handball offence was spotted by the referee.
Finally, Francis Laurent headed in from a Johnny Herd corner.
Three trailist's turned out for the Blues. The two starting were expected, Dutch left-back De Vriers and Estonian centre-back Stepanov, who sadly only lasted 35 minutes before picking up an injury to be replaced by the third, Juan.
Shrimpers at the game were pleased to see fit-again Alex Revell and Dougie Freedman take part in the action.
However, another sign of the small squad at the club was seen when kit-man Steve Parmenter came on for Lee Barnard just after the hour mark.
Tilly told to the Echo after the game: "I didn't really want anyone playing much longer than 45 minutes what with us also having a game tomorrow at Witham so that's why Parms came on. Basically it was him or me and I wanted to have more of a look at a few things so it was him who went on."
Other than the Stepanov injury Tilly was satisfied with his teams performance: "I'm certainly very happy with that and what pleased me most was the attitude of the players. They kept the ball well, looked nice and bright and scored four goals so you can't really have asked for much more in a first game. I didn't really want anyone playing much longer than 45 minutes what with us also having a game tomorrow at Witham."
Southend United: Mildenhall (Joyce h-t), Francis (Sankofa h-t), Stepanov (Juan 35), Barrett (Reynolds h-t), De Vires (Herd h-t), Betsy (Laurent h-t), Christophe (Grant h-t), O'Keefe (McCormack 46), Moussa (James-Lewis h-t), Revell (Freedman h-t), Barnard (Parmenter 64).
For a full report including details of a handbags at dawn incident that actually saw Grant getting booked go here:
www.southendunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~1719526,00.html