Brown praise for attackers

Phil Brown wants Southend's 2-0 win against Portsmouth to kick-start their season.

The Shrimpers had been without a victory in five games, but second-half goals from Barry Corr and Shaq Coulthirst saw them get back to winning ways at Roots Hall. And Brown now wants his side to build on the triumph. "Hopefully this can kick-start our season now," said the Shrimpers boss. "I don't actually think we have been playing that badly but we hadn't been getting the results. "We've got the win now though and it was a pleasing afternoon for us. "I could go through the whole team and single them out for praise but the front three played a big part and that's pleasing for us because we hadn't been getting the goals. "I'm delighted for Barry Corr and Shaq Coulthirst to get off the mark for the season and hopefully it can be a turning point for them too." Both teams struggled to create chances in an uneventful first half and the best opportunity fell to Southend's on-loan left-back Jerome Binnom-Williams whose powerful first half header from Kevan Hurst's corner was parried to safety by Portsmouth goalkeeper Paul Jones. In reply, Portsmouth's Miles Storey had a powerful effort blocked at his near post by Daniel Bentley at the start of the second half. But the Shrimpers hit back and opened the scoring when Hurst's left wing corner rebounded into the path of Corr and the striker gleefully headed home his first goal of the season from inside the six-yard box. Southend then made sure of the points in the 90th minute when substitute Coulthirst collected the ball 10 yards inside Portsmouth's half before charging forward and netting a controlled finish with his left foot. That made sure of a fourth defeat in five games for Portsmouth. And their manager Andy Awford was disappointed by how his side reacted to going behind. "It was so disappointing how we reacted to them scoring," said Awford. "If you go behind then you have to dig in and we just didn't do that. "We didn't do enough to gain another foothold in the game and only really created a couple of half chances after they went in front. "There wasn't really a lot between the two teams in the first half and both playing 4-3-3 I think we cancelled each other out. "The first goal was always going to be important and unfortunately it went to Southend. "It came from a set piece which was also disappointing from our point of view and after that we didn't look like coming back which frustrates me."