SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown faces a defensive headache for tomorrow’s clash at Exeter City, but he is keen for that to continue.

Brown has Mark Phillips available again after he completed a three match suspension for his red card against Dagenham & Redbridge.

The centre-back will now challenge Luke Prosser and Rob Kiernan for a place in the side against the Grecians.

But Brown wants to maintain the intense competition for places and is already looking in to extending Kiernan’s loan spell from Wigan Athletic and Adam Thompson’s stint from Watford beyond January.

“We’re in constant talks with Wigan and Watford about how Rob and Adam are doing and we’ve made it known we’d like to extend both of their loans if possible,” said Brown.

“They’re with us until January at the moment but the way things stand at the moment I would like to keep them both here beyond that.”

Kiernan has impressed at the heart of the back four since arriving from the Latics but Thompson’s loan stint has been disrupted by a calf injury and call ups to Northern Ireland’s under 21 squad.

The youngster is again unavailable this weekend due to being on international duty.

But Brown still has a tough decision to make at the back.

“Mark came through 90 minutes in the game we had at Charlton and put himself back in to contention,” said the Blues boss.

“Luke and Rob have done well in the last few games though so there’s certainly plenty for me to be thinking about back there.”

Blues head to Grecian Park boasting the second best defensive record in League Two.

However, Brown expects his back four to be in for a tough test against an Exeter side who sit sixth in the standings.

“We’ve had Exeter watched and they sometimes witch formations two or three times in a game so we’ll have to be very alert,” said Brown.

“They like to play good football so it should make for a good game but confidence is brimming here at the moment and hopefully that will help us come out on top.”

The Shrimpers have no new injury concerns but will again be without top goalscorer Freddy Eastwood (knee), midfielder Conor Clifford (suspended) and defender Julian Bennett (cruciate ligaments).