SOUTHEND United manager Chris Powell felt the Shrimpers produced their best performance of the season to win 4-0 at Bradford City on Saturday.

Two goals from striker Stephen Humphrys on his debut saw Blues bag an emphatic victory at Valley Parade.

And Powell was full of praise for his side’s performance.

“I’m ecstatic,” said the Shrimpers boss.

“When you lose games you take it personally and when we lose I always feel like I’ve let everyone down.

“But we scored four goals of real quality and it was our best performance of the season, no doubt.”

Blues raced into a two goal lead with Simon Cox and Sam Mantom firing home in the first half.

But it was Humphrys who stole the show in the second half as he scored two well-taken goals, much to the delight of Powell.

“I only got confirmation on Saturday morning that Stephen could play,” said Powell.

“I couldn’t have asked any more from him on his debut.

“I actually thought his first goal was better than his second because he had a lot to do still.

“He took both of them well and I’m sure he wanted to stay on to try and get a hat-trick but the I thought the intensity of the game might catch up with him and wanted to make sure we had him for Saturday’s game with Luton.”

Humphrys will now be bidding for more of the same against the Hatters.

And Powell felt the 21-year-old gave the Shrimpers exactly what they had been missing in the final third.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to any player because they’re my players and I trust them all but sometimes you’re asking them to do a job they can’t do,” said Powell.

“They will manfully try but we needed a presence and bringing Stephen in has given us that.

“It gave us all a lift and I thought he was magnificent.

However, Powell was also keen to point out a key moment at the other end of the pitch when saw Blues goalkeeper Nathan Bishop make an impressive save to stop George Miller scoring at the start of the second half.

“The real pivotal moment was Nathan Bishop’s save at 2-0,” said Powell.

“We knew Bradford would come out and react at the start of the second half.

“David (Hopkin) would have wanted his team to get going and get the crowd on their side so it was good from Bish to keep them out and we got our third goal quite quickly after.”