Following Saturday's impressive victory over
For the second matchday of the season the sun again frazzled everyone in it's path and the heat on the underground was unbearable, but still many of the travelling support were in good spirits as they left either
Many had crammed into the Wetherspoons by quarter to six – or at least yours truly, his old man and TLG writer Matt Donohue certainly had – as many had the spirit that we might not be here next season, so we WILL enjoy it.
Some two hours later, and ‘enjoy' wasn't quite the term of which many of the 1,717 Southend fans would have described as how they felt when Freddy Eastwood shook both the home faithful and the upright on the ball's journey into the back of the net. ‘Ecstatic' was how I would describe it.
A similar feeling could have been felt right at the beginning of the match, as Lee Bradbury went agonisingly close to opening the scoring, just 30 seconds after match referee Keith Hill had blown his whistle to begin the game. 
It could have been a nightmare start for Steve Tilson's team five minutes in as former Manchester United forward Jonathan Macken thought he had scored – only to see his goalbound effort blocked by Adam Barrett.
Lee Bradbury then went close against his former employers, who paid 1.5m for his services back in 1997. Luke Guttridge's shot was almost turned in by the 31-year-old, but Gabor Kiraly smartly smothered the ball at Bradbury's feet.
With 35 minutes on the clock, Palace's new midfield signing Mark Kennedy from Wolves rifled a long range shot towards goal, and forced Darryl Flahavan into a diving save – pushing the ball round the post.
However, it was Southend United that took a deserved lead. Mark Gower did well out wide following a Jamal Campbell-Ryce's pass, and former Tottenham trainee Gower played a low cross into the penalty
which Freddy Eastwood swooped on – turning with his to goal in an instant before firing his shot off of Kiraly's left post and into the opposite corner of the net. 
Pandemonium in the away end was evident, whilst the home fans must have wondered what could have been some three months ago when they were beaten by
After a brief team talk however, Southends joy was short-lived – it took longer to get a half time pie than it did for the Eagles to snatch three goals.
The nine-minute spell of pressure on the Shrimpers goal began with one of their own. Leon Cort, who made well over 100 appearances for the Blues during a three-year spell at the hall had been given a great ovation by the Southend faithful before the game. Chants of ‘
However, the 26-year-old was not so popular with the away fans at all on 52 minutes, after he tore through the middle of the Southend defence to head past his former team-mate Flahavan following an impressive delivery from Kennedy.
A second goal came three minutes later, as Kennedy again provided the pass, this time a three-yards-at-least-offside Dougie Freedman somehow managed not to be flagged by the referee's assistant and duly lobbed the ball over the top of the on-rushing Darryl Flahavan.
Nine minutes after Flahavan was beaten by Leon Cort's header, Mark Hudson also beat the reliable custodian. Yet another pin-point corner from Mark Kennedy was met by a thumping header from Hudson, who had lost his marker, in an almost identical fashion to how Leon Cort had given the Londoners the lead. 
From then on in, Southend attempted to be brave and in fact started to re-apply the pressure felt in the first-half. However, it was clear for all to see that confidence, morale and fatigue had all been zapped by the three goals in such a short space of time, and this made any comeback attempt difficult.
There were chances though, Jamal Campbell-Ryce smashed a 25-yard shot just inches too high of the bar before Kevin Maher sent a shot just wide of the post.
Billy Paynter nearly grabbed his first goal for the club having come on as a substitute, but his cheeky backheel from Maher's cross was cleared away from danger by the Palace backline.
All-in-all, it wasn't a result that anybody wanted, but that was not at all really in doubt. But at least Steve Tilson's men ground in and totally outplayed Peter Taylor's side, who will be towards the top end of the table at the end of the season. Southend will travel to QPR on Saturday looking for their first away points of the season.
By Adam Duffill
www.thelittlegazette.com