Sol Campbell’s reign as Southend manager begun with a 3-1 defeat at home to high-flying Ipswich.

The former England defender took over the League One strugglers on Tuesday and watched his new side humiliated 7-1 against Doncaster at Roots Hall.

Southend owner Ron Martin stressed the importance of Campbell needing to ‘hit the ground running’ in an interview with talkSPORT earlier this week.

Martin said: “I really like Sol, I really like all of them actually. He’s not difficult to get on with, I like him. There’s an immediate affinity there.

“They have to hit the ground running and they know that.”

But Campbell was unable to make an immediate impact as he took to the dugout with Ipswich good value for their win as they returned to the top of the League One table.

The Shrimpers did have an early Rob Kiernan header ruled out for offside but Paul Lambert’s side soon hit their stride.

Ipswich opened the scoring in the eighth minute when James Norwood latched onto Kayden Jackson’s through ball to fire home with Southend goalkeeper Mark Oxley rooted to his line.

Norwood grabbed his second to double the lead in the 70th minute when Jackson’s left-wing cross picked out the striker who sent a low, left-footed shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net from 12 yards.

Six minutes later, Ipswich made it 3-0 with Jackson firing home after Jon Nolan’s effort had been parried out by Oxley.

The Shrimpers netted a consolation effort in the 83rd minute with substitute Emile Acquah scoring from close range.

This leaves Southend second from bottom in League One with five points from 15 games.

They are eight points from safety.

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