A second-half rampage earned us a convincing victory over Southend United.
Having gone a goal down against the run of play to a scrappy Sam Dalby finish, Cal Roberts sent us into the break level with a composed equaliser.
Two fine Kyle Wootton finishes followed before Kyle Cameron added deserved gloss to the scoreline with a late header.
Ian Burchnall handed a debut to new signing Jayden Richardson, with fellow loanee Connor Parsons having to settle for a place on the bench.
And we started the game brightly, Wootton seeing his header from Frank Vincent's cross well saved.
A bolt out of the blue was to come on 11 minutes, however, when the ball ran nicely for Dalby to give the Shrimpers a surprise lead.
And they had a glimpse at a second when Rhys Murphy was played into the area but he couldn't hit the target from a tight angle.
We quickly regained control of the game, though, and after Rodrigues, Vincent and Wootton had all fired off-target, the latter had a huge role to play in our equaliser when he and Vincent combined to rob an opponent inside his own area before laying the ball off for Roberts to control and finish brilliantly from six yards.
Cameron and Wootton both missed headers before the break but we kept up our pressure after the restart with Roberts and Richardson both drawing saves from Steve Arnold.
We were given a scare just before the hour mark when Richardson did well to keep the ball out of our net amid a scramble in the area, with a Southend player firing straight at Slocombe on the follow-up.
But we were comfortably the dominant side and responded with an excellent move resulting in Rodrigues seeing a shot blocked and Roberts forcing a corner.
A minute later, outstanding pressure from Richardson saw the keeper's clearance ricochet off him and narrowly wide.
And we only had to wait until the 64th minute to deservedly go ahead when Vincent weighted the perfect pass for the marauding Richardson to slide the ball across goal for Wootton to finish.
Connor Parsons, on for Joel Taylor, then produced a blistering run down the left followed a low cross which was fired over by Ruben Rodrigues, who moments later weaved past a number of opponents before pulling a left-footed shot wide from the edge of the area.
Our incessant pressure told once again on 72 minutes when Wootton smashed the ball past Arnold at his near post. Seven minutes later Arnold, who had earlier received treatment, had to be substituted and, with no keeper on the bench, Southend's James Demitriou had to go between the sticks.
The 'keeper' was called into action with five minutes to play when he pushed Parsons' shot wide but there was nothing he could do in the dying moments of normal time when Ed Francis, on for Roberts, produced a sublime cross for Cameron to head home.
STARTING XI: Slocombe; Cameron, Lacey, Brindley; Taylor (Parsons 57'), Richardson; Palmer, Roberts (Francis 86'), Vincent (O'Brien 77'); Rodrigues, Wootton
UNUSED SUBS: Chicksen, Mitchell
BOOKINGS: Rodrigues 44', Francis 90'