Three of the back four were making their Southend debut with John White, one of the Colchester two, being asked to play makeshift centre half for the whole game.
Was this as near to the starting eleven against Huddersfield on August 8 that Tilly wants?
If so, he's obviously counting on Barrett being fit, as we all are!
Stevenage started strongly and nearly opened the scoring after 11 minutes.
On 13 they did.
Former Canvey forward Lee Boylan had a shot pushed out by Blues keeper Steve Mildenhall for Joel Byrom to smash home off the underside of the bar. 1-0.
Big Steve was back in the action four minutes later, but in a bad way. A low, hard shot from Darren Murphy should have been saved without too much difficulty but the Blues No.1 could only turn and see it roll agonisingly into the back of the net. 2-0.
Memories of early Steve from last season that we believed had been banished, probably not helped by having three complete strangers in front of him.
The first half couldn't end quickly enough for the away side and it nearly entered nightmare territory two minutes from the break when Borough left-back Scott Baird saw a 30 yard screamer smash the underside of the crossbar and rebound to safety.
The second 45 had to be better and was, a traditional 'game of two halves'.
Revell and Walker may be Tilly's central two of choice if Barnard has a problem again, how many goals could we rely on there?
For the record Alex had a couple of chances he maybe should have taken at least one. Heading over early in the half, then wasting a good set-up by Laurent near the end.
James Walker on the other hand didn't have a clear sight of goal in the whole match but at least placed the ball nicely for Moussa to hit home with a low left foot strike on 69 minutes in line with the penalty spot. 2-1.
In fact, the Moose from midfield looked our most likely striker when fourteen minutes before his goal Franck also hit the outside of the left post after a nice pass by skipper for the night Alan McCormack.
Another non forward, full-back Simon Francis, was left trying a long range effort that went just wide.
And that was that. Eight pre-season friendlies; five won, three lost and a mystery game at Harlow Saturday which only Brushy seems to know about at the moment!
Of the three new boys Gilbert was the best, comfortable on the ball, defended well, looks OK going forward, not quite Harding but could save Tilly's bacon in a problem position.
White did as well as could be expected being thrown in at centre back at such short notice, felt sure Tilly would give Francis some time there, and would be a big error to start there next Saturday, Tills must be confident of Captain Adam's fitness.
Heath certainly looked out of sorts, especially in an error filled first period. Certainly tall enough!
Still, they have a week's more training to hopefully gel together more successfully for next week's opener, Brushy has told us they only had an hour before Stevenage.
Don't panic. 'It's all about fitness'. (Except for the one's that are injured.)
Southend United: Mildenhall, Francis, Heath, White, Gilbert, Laurent, McCormack, Grant, Moussa, Revell, Walker
Subs not used: Calver, Betsy, Freedman, Christophe, Herd and Freedman
Brushy stays positive though, and likes Gilbert, read his thoughts here:
www.southendunited-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=455410