Following on from a dreadful 3-1 defeat at Yeovil last week, United flew out of the traps with Kevan Hurst and Matty Robson looking dangerous on either flank. On six minutes Graham Kavanagh, from a well worked Carlisle set-piece, had a shot blocked by Anthony Grant, Tom Taiwo also seeing his follow-up effort blocked by a defender. Evan Horwood then hitting a long-range drive over the top as the home side upped the pressure.
United did take the lead on 11 minutes though when Scott Dobie got away well down the right and sent in a cross to the near-post, Vincent Pericard getting to it first eight yards out to flick a volley across Steve Mildenhall and into the far corner of the net. Kavanagh then had another shot from a free-kick blocked, Hurst though picking up the rebound and sticking a ball in which Dobie headed too high and into a sparsely populated Warwick Road End.
Simon Francis then made an excellent last-ditch tackle on the marauding Dobie, before up at the other end Franck Moussa's shot was cleared by the Carlisle defence. A goalkeeper was called into action soon up though when Mildenhall made a good stop from a Robson strike, a Francis Laurent snap-shot then forcing Lenny Pidgeley into action for Carlisle as he palmed the ball away from danger.
The home side should really have gone 2-0 up when Ian Harte, just six yards out, could only crash a header from a Kavanagh free-kick back off the face of the visitors crossbar. And that failure to double the lead hurt United on 43 minutes when Pidgeley made a mess of punching away Johnny Herd's long throw-in, the ball only dropping straight to the feet of Laurent who was able to smack a shot into the Carlisle net from close range.
The vast majority of the second-half were like watching paint dry in all honesty and the only chance in the opening 25 minutes came when an Alan McCormack shot from distance flew just inches wide of the home woodwork. Moussa then firing over the top, as did Jean-Francois Christophe, as Carlisle provided nothing going forward and the visitors sat back soaking up what little United pressure there was.
That was changed in the 80th minute though when a Pericard flicked header found Joe Anyinsah in right-hand of the Southend box, Anyinsah finding the bottom corner of the net with a perfectly placed low shot across the body of Mildenhall. The Shrimpers only having a Francis effort deflected over the top to show for their efforts to find an equaliser in the closing stages.