Southend United came unstuck on the road at League One leaders Leicester City, as a Matty Fryatt hat trick helped secure a 3-0 victory for the hosts.
The Blues fell behind as early as the seventh minute and while there were periods where they looked capable of holding their own, a lack of a cutting edge up front and the striking qualities of Fryatt proved their undoing in heading back to Essex empty-handed.
Leicester provided the first serious threat when former Southend loanee Kerrea Gilbert delivered a right wing cross for an onrushing and unmarked Matt Oakley to head wide of the left-hand post.
But from their next attack Leicester were not as wasteful, with Matty Fryatt receiving the ball down the right, shifting past Adam Barrett and arrowing a sublime finish beyond Steve Mildenhall in the seventh minute.
Southend looked to respond and an impressive cross down the right from Simon Francis presented Alex Revell with a golden chance at the near post, but he got under the ball and scooped it just over the crossbar.
Unfortunately, it was to prove a rare moment for Southend to really test their opponents in the first half, as they were forced to deal with a hefty amount of pressure from Leicester.
Fryatt was allowed to chest the ball into the box, but perhaps unaware of just how much space had been afforded to him, he struck a tame effort straight at Mildenhall.
Junior Stanislas was having an eye-catching league debut for Southend and came close to scoring after the interval.
The on-loan winger switched to the right and jinxed his way through the defence before drilling a low shot, which goalkeeper David Martin was able to palm to safety despite Revell challenging for possession.
Steve Howard found space inside the box from Fryatt's flick-on, but under pressure from Barrett, he rifled a left-foot strike up and over.
Mildenhall was then called into action to make a fine save with his legs to deny Mark Davies increasing Leicester's advantage from 12 yards out.
The home side continued to remain on top and Fryatt took the chance to try his luck from long range, with a forceful effort from 25 yards sailing narrowly over the top.
James Walker entered the fray with just over quarter of an hour to play and was instantly involved in attack when sending a 15 yard strike past Martin's right-hand post.
Yet the second goal of the game soon arrived and it was Leicester celebrating, as Fryatt was again gifted too much time to send a composed finish beyond the outstretched glove of Mildenhall.
Worse was to follow when Peter Clarke was adjudged to have handled the ball from Fryatt's shot inside the box and with the referee awarding a penalty, the Leicester striker duly put the ball on the spot to send Mildenhall the wrong way and secure his hat trick.
Stanislas fizzed a late shot just wide of the target, but overall, Southend experienced a disappointing afternoon and will need to react at home to Huddersfield next weekend to get back towards the top six of the table.
Southend: Mildenhall, Francis, Clarke, Barrett, Harding, Betsy (Feeney 80), McCormack, Milsom, Stanislas, Revell, Laurent (Walker 72).
Leicester: Martin, Gilbert, Tunchev (Morrison 74), Hobbs, Powell, Oakley, Berner (Davies 60), King, Dyer, Fryatt (Dickov 85), Howard.