Brown admits selection error

Southend boss Phil Brown admitted he made a mistake with his team selection as the Shrimpers were beaten 2-0 by Luton.

Brown, who was named the League Two manager of the month this week, dropped midfielder Jack Payne to the bench, before bringing him on at the start of the second half with his side already 2-0 down. Luton went in front after 17 minutes when Alex Lawless cut into the box and curled a lovely effort beyond Shrimpers 'keeper Daniel Bentley. The second came in the 34th minute when Andy Drury picked up the loose ball and fed Mark Cullen, who netted his fourth goal of the season. Brown said: "I think I made a mistake not playing Jack Payne. We brought him on at half time, yes, he looked the danger man, yes, he looked like the one who was going to get a goal for us, but the damage was done. "You've got to give great credit to Luton, they're up there on merit. That's four on the bounce they've won, so they're in the vein of form that we've been in. "We know what that feels like, we've lost back-to-back games now and we didn't deserve anything today. "The manner in which we played in the first half. I think one or two of them weren't prepared for what Luton were throwing at us. "And that's a 9,000 crowd, hostile, good atmosphere. If you ask me the type that you'd like to play in, but we didn't have enough nous and experience out there." Hatters boss John Still added: "I was very pleased, we played really, really well. We got into a groove and played some good football, got a fantastic goal and a little bit of help with the goal. "In games against the best teams, they hinge on moments of magic, moments of poor play. We benefited with both, but I don't think anybody would say we didn't deserve to win, we deserved to win comfortably against a really good side., "It was very pleasing when you play against the best teams and get a favourable result. If I'm being honest, I thought we deserved one or two more in the second period too."