Thursday 19 March 2015 11:00, UK
Phil Brown ruled Southend out of the race for an automatic promotion spot after their 2-1 loss to 10-man Burton at the Pirelli Stadium.
Burton battled back from a goal down and a man down to give themselves a five-point cushion at the summit, leaving Southend six points adrift of a coveted top-three position. After failing from the penalty spot, Barry Corr gave the visitors the lead and Albion looked to be in deep trouble when midfielder Robbie Weir was sent off shortly before half-time. But Matty Palmer scored for the second game running and fellow substitute Nasser El Khayati grabbed a 89th-minute winner for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's men. A downcast Brown said: "We were looking at finishing in the top three but I think that's gone now. "In the first half we applied ourselves in the right manner but there were no excuses for the second-half performance - none whatsoever. "I can't legislate for why we dropped off and I can't legislate for why we didn't go in the face of the opposition as we did in the first half. "Burton ran out worthy winners to be fair, but I'm not here to applaud them. I'm here to decry what we did. It simply wasn't good enough. "If there's any pressure on my players, I'm taking if off them by saying we've got no chance of automatic promotion. "Our only chance of going up is via the play-offs again unfortunately and we've got to fight hard in the last nine games to get that." Corr's penalty, awarded for a holding offence by John Mousinho, bounced wide after being pushed onto a post by John McLaughlin in the 22nd minute. But the striker swept in Joe Pigott's low ball into the box and was then on the receiving end of an apparent as Weir was shown a straight red card. Burton came out fighting in the second half and a brilliant counter-attack was finished off in style by Palmer from the edge of the area in the 56th minute. And with a minute of normal time remaining, the hosts broke again with El Khayati cutting inside and sending a shot into the far corner of the net. Jubilant Burton boss Hasselbaink said: "I'm immensely proud of my boys and their never-say-die attitude. "We had setbacks in the first half, but I must say we came out and looked like we had 100 men out on that pitch. "Everybody did the job of 10 men. We were organised, we were hard to beat , we tackled and when we had the ball we passed it in a way they could not touch. "It was always going to be a counter-attacking game for us in the second half and we did it really well. "I'm very convinced that we deserved to win the game because of the way we played in the second half. "We showed character, willingness and know-how. We are a very honest group who refuse to lay down even with ten men and it's a pleasure to be their manager."
