Barry Hunter put struggling Southend on the way to their first win in six games with two goals in the space of six minutes.

The former Northern Ireland centre half celebrated his home debut on-loan from Reading by heading in Scott Houghton's 18th minute corner.

Hunter, making only his second appearance in two years after a serious knee injury, did exactly the same from another Houghton corner on 24 minutes to punish more bad marking by the Seagulls.

Hopes of a second half recovery by Jeff Wood's men evaporated on 66 minutes when Kevin Rapley finished a loan spell from Brentford with his fourth goal in three games.

The hardworking Gary Hart came close to a consolation with an 88th minute shot from a Richard Barker cross which crashed off the crossbar.

Amiserable afternoon for Albion and their army of fans in a crowd of 6,066 at Roots Hall was made even worse when the fit-again Stuart Storer collected his fifth booking of the season towards the end.

Hart, Ian Culverhouse and Paul Sturgess are already banned from next Saturday's home match against Leyton Orient and Storer now misses the trip to Scunthorpe a week later.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.