Southend manager Steve Tilson admitted his team had come up short this season after their relegation from the Coca-Cola Championship was confirmed by a 3-1 defeat at home to already-doomed Luton.

The Shrimpers slipped through the net back to League One after just one season courtesy of goals from Calvin Andrew, Matthew Spring and Besian Idrizaj for the rock-bottom Hatters. Lee Bradbury pulled one back but Southend, who started without top scorers Freddy Eastwood and Mark Gower and lost captain Kevin Maher to injury early on, struggled in front of goal once more.

"It wasn't about today, our last three or four home games have cost us," said Tilson.

"Today was just the final nail in our coffin, and even if we had won it turns out it wouldn't have made any difference.

"In the first half they had three shots and scored two, and we had three shots and scored none. We got back into it, but then we pushed forward and were hit on the counter-attack. We already had a lot of goals missing from the side, and then we lost Kevin. We've only got a small squad and a few more goals over the season would have been nice."

Southend needed a win to maintain any realistic chance of avoiding the drop, although Hull's victory at Cardiff rendered their efforts academic. Andrew's 20th-minute strike, when he superbly brought down David Bell's long cross before tucking the ball past Darryl Flahavan, left them with a mountain to climb, and Spring doubled Luton's lead shortly before the break with a fine volley.

Bradbury pulled one back from close range in the second half, but Idrizaj crushed any hopes of a great escape when he broke clear late on to bring the curtain down on Southend's Championship stint.

"We're disappointed, but we'll try to start well next year and bounce back," added Tilson.

"We need some fresh faces, and I will be bringing some in. Myself and the players have learned a lot from this season."

Luton were confined to the drop last week, but manager Kevin Blackwell was relieved to finally get his first win since taking over, as he too looks to build a team capable of bouncing straight back.

"It was a good professional performance," said Blackwell.

"This win has been coming, although we'd have liked it sooner. It's a learning curve for these young lads, and they will learn from games like that.

"I've been looking towards next season since day one really. The last time I had a team as young as this was Huddersfield's youth team, but that can only be good for the future of Luton.

"It's very rare that teams who go down come straight back up, and I don't know why that is. We need to bring some experience in to help these kids, but it's not a good proposition when you drop down a level. But hopefully we can attract one or two."