Opposition view: Defiant Brown blames Sixfields defeat on '˜silly mistakes'

Phil Brown has come under mounting pressure this season. Picture by Sharon Lucey

United succumbed to their seventh defeat in eight games across all competitions at Sixfields on Saturday when they were beaten 3-1 by Northampton, who themselves claimed only a second league win in 10.

Jason Demetriou did have the visitors on level terms after John-Joe O’Toole’s opener as Southend shaded a low-quality first-half, however they were thoroughly second best in the second and deservedly slumped to a limp defeat, handed to them by goals from Matt Grimes and Alex Revell.

The result leaves United just four points above the Sky Bet League One relegation zone with the pressure mounting on Brown, something that was demonstrated by the constantly negative chanting ringing out from the unsatisfied away end on Saturday.

“It was a battle in the first-half, which we expected to be, but then strange decisions and silly mistakes made by our defenders cost us in the second-half,” said Brown afterwards.

“We didn’t clear our lines when we should have done, consequently they got a penalty and that put us on the back foot just after half-time and we were fighting for our lives again.

“It wasn’t just level-pegging in the first-half, it was a good performance away from home. We played them at their own game and we battled against them.

“But we gave a stupid penalty away and we’re getting punished. It’s about getting a foothold in the game, like we did, and then hanging onto it, but they got their noses in front and had something to protect.

“We get out of this by bringing in players in the transfer window.

“We’re just not riding our luck at the right moments and they’re not learning from past mistakes. We need to learn how we win games.

“The pressure mounts the longer you go without winning. My message to the fans is to stick with it. We can turn it around and there’s plenty of time to go and plenty of games to go.

“The transfer window is still open and with the kind of mentality coming into the camp, we’ll get ourselves out of this situation.”