Albion in horror start

The 19-year-old, signed for £100,000 from Bristol Rovers on Wednesday, resumed his prolific partnership last season with Gary Hart.

Zamora, who scored six goals in six games during a month on-loan, was wearing a light plaster cast to protect a broken bone in his right wrist.

Manager Micky Adams solved his striker conundrum by leaving summer signing Lee Steele on the bench, along with double hernia victim Darren Freeman.

Michel Kuipers and Richard Carpenter came in for their League debuts for the club. Dutchman Kuipers was preferred to on-loan Wrexham goalkeeper Mark Cartwright, while Carpenter joined Charlie Oatway and captain Paul Rogers in midfield.

Darren Carr partnered Andy Crosby at the heart of the defence and Kerry Mayo continued at leftback, with Danny Cullip and Southend old boy Nathan Jones both suspended.

There were no surprises in the Southend line-up, loan signing Andy Woodman getting the nod over Melvin Capleton in goal.

The 3,500 Albion fans packed behind the goal defended by Southend in the first half were in excellent voice.

'Bring on the champions' was the confident, if somewhat premature, cry a full 10 minutes before kick-off.

Southend were the first to threaten, a long throw from Roget leading to a burst of pressure. Crosby made an important challenge on the edge of his own box before a long range effort from Morley gave Kuipers a comfortable early feel of the ball.

Albion responded with a cross from the right by Watson which was just too deep for Zamora to make anything of.

The Seagulls were stunned as they fell behind in the fifth minute to a goal created by two of Southend's summer signings and finished off by their topscorer last season.

Lee, signed from Spurs, played a corner short to Searle, Jones's successor in the leftback role.

The former Carlisle man whipped over a dangerous cross which Carruthers, sneaking in behind a couple of defenders, converted with an emphatic downward header.

It left Kuipers helpless and provided Carruthers, 28 last Monday, with the perfect late birthday present following his 19 goals last term.

Play was temporarily interrupted when a spectator wearing an Albion home shirt ran on to the pitch to put the ball in the Southend net as Woodman lined up a goal-kick.

It was hardly a helpful diversion, with Albion still trying to find some rhythm.

Carr got away with a mis-kick in the middle of his own area from Booty's centre, with no Southend player close enough to capitalise.

Albion's back four were struggling to work together as a unit, the Southend frontmen escaping claims for offside on more than one occasion.

In one such instance, Carruthers cut in from the left flank past Crosby before curling an ambitious effort wide of the far post.

When Crosby briefly required treatment, the rest of the players ran to the dugouts for their water bottles.

Neither team were lacking the thirst for a battle in red hot conditions and the ever-combative Oatway was among those spoken to by referee Furnandiz.

Albion began to enjoy more possession approaching the half-hour, but they were tending to over-elaborate on the edge of the Southend box.

Brooker, playing on the right flank rather than the left, was starting to weave the odd bit of magic and Oatway was displaying impressive industry.

Southend's five-man defence was proving tough to crack, however, and Woodman had no trouble with a rather tame shot on the turn from Hart.

Carruthers and the rampaging Booty were linking up well together for the hosts. Booty's cross from a nicely timed pass by Carruthers gave Watson no option other than to concede Southend's third corner of the contest, with Houghton lurking behind him.

The flow of the match was being punctuated by a number of fouls, the majority awarded against Albion.

Maher had a shot from long range charged down by Oatway following a Southend corner in the closing stages of the half.

Booty's enthusiasm in getting forward from the right side of the Southend defence was posing Albion problems, so Brooker ended the opening 45 minutes in his more customary role on the left. On the stroke of half-time, both Morley and Roget blocked shots in swift succession from Rogers, which emphasised that Southend were not going to relinquish their lead easily.

Carruthers equalised in the second half of the corresponding fixture last season, which Southend went on to win with a goal in injury time by Jones The challenge for Albion now was to produce a similar comeback.

Adams made two intriguing substitutions at the break.

The introduction of Freeman on the right was no surprise, although it came at the expense of skipper Rogers.

Of more interest was Cartwright replacing Kuipers between the posts.

Kuipers had no chance with Carruthers' goal and he had little else to do in the first 45 minutes, but Adams is concerned that the Dutchman does not talk to his defenders enough.

Freeman, who has delayed surgery on his hernia problem, produced two crosses from the right within seconds of the restart.

Little had been seen so far of Carpenter, Albion's summer capture from Cardiff, but he shot narrowly wide from 20 yards on 50 minutes after Zamora rolled the ball into his path.

A brilliant save by Cartwright stopped Southend doubling the deficit a minute later.

Houghton, breaking clear down the left, found Tolson unmarked inside the box, his rasping right-foot drive was bound for the roof of the net until the diving Cartwright deflected it over the bar for a corner.

Cartwright's accomplished performance in the second half of last Saturday's friendly victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Withdean persuaded Adams to take him on-loan.

The much travelled keeper's first contribution was a crucial one, keeping alive Albion's hopes of taking something from the game.

Hart came to life on 54 minutes with a sharp angled shot which Woodman parried behind at the expense of the Seagulls' first corner.

Cartwright came to the rescue again on the hour.

He did exceptionally well to keep out Booty's low shot through a crowd of players, then Freeman of all people was back to scramble the ball of the line with Tolson poised to pounce.

Albion were left short at the back with Watson lying injured as Southend launched another rapid raid. Houghton took too long to make the most of the opportunity, enabling Crosby to block at the expense of another corner. The hosts had optimistic appeals for a penalty rejected when Carruthers went down under a challenge from Cartwright.

Adams made another substitution on 67 minutes, Steele replacing Hart upfront.

Lee doubled Southend's lead after Carpenter had given the ball away with seven minutes left, beating Cartwright with a delightful curler from 25 yards.