And once again plenty of possession was not rewarded with a goal, chief culprit being loanee striker Jabo Ibehre who missed a couple of sitters while inbetween Adam Stansfield showed Southend how to do it by planting a cracker over Steve Mildenhall into the net.
To rub salt into the wound, Ibehre then got sent off in the second half, hopefully getting changed and planted in a taxi back to stadium:mk, not one of Tilly's most successful loan deals.
As expected Tilly brought Francis back as right-back allowing Anthony Grant to stay in midfield as Christophe found himself on the bench.
The first chance was the easiest on 12 minutes. Good work down the left between the Moose and the other loanee, left back Scott Malone, or 'Bugsy' as eveyone was calling him in the stand, saw the Wolves teenager put over the perfect cross, there was Ibehre, totally unmarked in the area, to place the ball past City keeper Paul Jones, and at least two yards wide. Incredible.
Five minutes later with the home side looking a touch one dimensional, a lot of high balls, route one style for the big blokes up front, but showing lots of effort even after four successive defeats, launched another ball forward, this one wide.
Malone was out of position after being involved in taking a free-kick over on the right, there was Stansfield, who volleyed the ball past Mildenhall and into the net off the inside of the post.
Some may blame the Shrimpers keeper being caught in two minds, I just think he was left with little defensive cover and the boy caught it perfectly, give him some credit, it was a great finish, something our own strikers could learn from.
Then the second Ibehre miss following an equally poor finish by Ryan Harley for the Grecians, again another super cross by Malone, again another header wide of the post. Oh dear!
The half time break did not provide the Hartlepool effect as Barney decided to join in by missing a chance early on, Francis the provider this time, but the Shrimpers top scorer at least found the target, sadly for the fans huddled together in the cold in the open terrace, the target was keeper Jones.
It was all Yellows now yet there was never a real decent chance created after the previous ones, Macca broke through but you just don't expect him to score this season, and he didn't.
A bit of excitement just after the hour when Barry Coor was given a straight red for hacking down Grant leaving the Devon side with ten men.
Though an unmarked Harley nearly grabbed City another it did wake Tilly up to making a double substitution, with Damian Scannell and James Walker replacing Malone and a poor Macca allowing the Moose to go into the middle as the Blues boss choose to attack the weakened Grecians.
Thanks to something going on between Ibehre and Richard Duffy as they ran back after a goal kick was about to be taken, which saw Duffy fall into a heap and a red card for the MK Dons man after the referee consulted his linesman, Tilly had to do a very quick rethink with 12 minutes left and now both teams having lost a player.
It was still the Shrimpers dominating the closing stages as they looked for an equaliser, how many times have we made the home side play like an away one hanging on to their lead, but there was just shots from Walker and Moussa, which Jones dealt with comfortably enough, to show for it.
In fact, as they pressed forward having lost the man advantage Southend were always liable to be hit on the break and from one such attack, a slipping Scott Morrison allowed Stansfield to go one on one with Mildy, and when in a perfect position to close the game out, he hit the ball wide.
Didn't matter, as once again the Shrimpers failed to find the net away from Roots Hall and punish a team from the lower reaches of the league.
Everytime we gain a good result at home we can't follow it up and allow the teams at the bottom to close in, very frustrating, especially as the Farmers on Boxing Day will not just gift wrap us the points.
Southend Player Markings: Mildenhall - 6, Francis - 6, Morrison - 6, Barrett - 6, Malone - 6 (Walker - 6), Laurent - 6, Grant - 7, McCormack - 5 (Scannell - 5), Moussa - 6, Ibehre - 4, Barnard - 6.
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