Brown hails Southend patience

Phil Brown admitted his Southend side made hard work of seeing off 10-man Cheltenham as they picked up their second win in four days.

Substitute Conor Clifford beat Trevor Carson with a rasping drive from 25 yards which flew into the bottom left corner in the 52nd minute. Cheltenham had lost midfielder Jason Taylor to a straight red in the 37th minute for his reaction to a challenge from Clifford, who had only been on the pitch for two minutes. "We had to work a lot harder than I thought we should have done," Brown said "The message at half time was to be patient and keep moving the ball because when we do that we are a half-decent team. "Maybe some of my lads didn't think it was a red card, but I thought there was some sort of movement of the arm from their lads it was shown, end of story and we know what that feels like this season. "We knew if we kept possession a goal would come and I thought we could kill the game off and then start working towards Saturday's game. "But we didn't get the second goal to give us a breather, but that was because of Cheltenham's endeavour we had to keep working hard and my two centre-halves were magnificent. "It was a fine goal from Conor Clifford, who has been looking for a home since leaving Chelsea and I think he has found one now." Cheltenham boss Mark Yates was incensed by some of the decisions made by referee James Linington, who was jeered and booed off by the home crowd after the final whistle. "The match was ruined by the official and I don't want to say too much more than that," Yates said. "Our supporters are probably the most mild-mannered in the world and for them to give the referee the abuse they did at the end and throughout the game summed it up for me. "I watched the replay of the red card at half time and I thought it was very harsh, but Jason has given the referee the chance to send him off. "There is nothing we can do because he has said there was an elbow. I thought it was a good game until then, but Southend showed in the second half what a decent passing side they are. "We could have caved in and lost two or three nil, but the workrate was there and I am pleased we didn't concede more than one." Taylor's dismissal was the first red card shown to a Cheltenham player since October 2012 and Southend began to make their extra man count immediately after half time. Carson made a fine one-handed save to deny Myles Weston and Kevan Hurst smashed an effort against the bar in the 72nd minute.