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Devante Rodney hit two first-half goals to help Port Vale secure a 5-1 thumping over struggling Southend United.

Rodney struck a stunning opener just 55 seconds in as League Two's bottom team made a nightmare start to the game and never recovered.

His first-time finish from Kurtis Guthrie's downward header began a first-half rout as the rampant Valiants hit four before the break.

Southend defender Tyler Cordner turned David Worrall's effort into his own goal and Nathan Smith then pounced to poke in Vale's third from a goalmouth scramble.

The Shrimpers offered precious little in attack and conceded again just before half-time when Rodney collected Tom Conlon's through ball to roll in for his 10th of the season after rounding goalkeeper Mark Oxley.

Southend did at least pull one back five minutes from the end when Nathan Ferguson thumped the ball home from long range.

But that was only a consolation on a dire afternoon for them as managerless Vale, who had won just one of their previous 11 matches, completed the rout when Manny Oyeleke drove in the fifth.

Report supplied by PA Media

Port Vale interim boss Danny Pugh:

"That first goal in the first minute lifted all the tension. We'd come out intending to start well and obviously we couldn't have wished for any more from Devante.

"He is such a threat. He's technically good, he's quick, he's strong, he's still young and there's still a lot more to come from him. He showed a couple of glimpses of how good a player he can be.

"We know he can score the outstanding goals, the 35-yarders, we know he's got that in his locker, but we want him to score the scrappy goals and the tap-ins, the glancing headers. That's what he needs to add to his game and he's done that. He put in a really good performance.

Southend manager Mark Molesley:

"It was the worst performance we've had since I've been here in that first half and we finished the game with 10 men. It was a bad afternoon for us, definitely.

"We need to get reinforcements in, and quickly, but we need to convince those reinforcements to come and a performance like that doesn't help anything.

"We need to make sure that is a one-off. We cannot see a repeat of any of that ever again. We have to see some people come in, we've been very active and had some irons in fires so we need to see how they go on in the coming days."