Saturday 9 November 2013 22:09, UK
Phil Brown has praised his Southend side as they cruised into the second round of the FA Cup with a convincing 3-0 win at Morecambe.
Two goals in the first nine minutes set the Shrimps up for their first-ever success over Morecambe at the seventh attempt. Both goals came from wide man Straker before Ryan Leonard added a third late on. Brown said: "I saw a fan when we set off for the game who told me she had put a bet on Anthony getting a hat-trick and I told him that if she had that confidence then he should too. "He scored last week and we have been telling him to have more confidence going forward and he did that here with two goals. "Unfortunately he didn't get his hat-trick and the fan didn't win the bet but I'm sure she would be happy that we won the game anyway." Brown added: "It was an excellent performance from us and after such a great start we didn't really look in trouble. "We got two early goals to give us a dream start and we then went on to answer any questions they asked of us. We are defending really well at the minute and we kept our shape all the way through. "We always looked forceful in the first half and although we lost our way a bit in the second half we went on to win the game comfortably."
