CHAIRMAN Ron Martin’s led Southend United’s protests at the end of a sickening 1-1 draw for the Shrimpers against Cheltenham Town at Roots Hall on Saturday.

Southend seemed set for sixth successive victory and a place at the top of the League Two table when Kevan Hurst fired them in front just before the break.

But the Robins rescued a share of the spoils six minutes in to stoppage time when Matt Richards scored from the penalty spot after Anthony Straker had handled the ball in the area.

The spot kick being awarded clearly angered Martin who confronted referee Trevor Kettle on his way off the pitch.

And Blues boss Phil Brown did also not agree with the decision.

“I don’t think the penalty should have been given because Anthony Straker has been fouled and that’s why his arms have gone up like that, “said Brown.

“It’s a big decision for the officials to make and they have to be 100 per cent right because it’s one that’s changed the outcome of the game.

“I’m standing here as the manager of Southend though so I’m bound to say they got it wrong and it’s hard to take because we were 25 seconds away from going top of the league.

“However, if I’m being honest I think that if we had held on to win then it would’ve been a victory we had stolen.”

Cheltenham’s late equaliser kept Blues third in the League Two table, within a whisker of the two teams above them.

But their failure to edge out the Robins does at least mean manager Phil Brown is now able to shave off the moustache he had been growing to support the Movember charity scheme.

“Everyone has been telling me the moustache has been lucky and that I can’t get rid it off but at least I’ll be able to shave it off now,” joked Brown.

“I’ll also be getting to the bottom of this poor performance and maybe playing the last two games with 10 men took its toll on the lads and meant there wasn’t as much energy in the team today.

“We were disappointing but we’ve had a great November and we’re still on a great run so we can’t afford to let ourselves get too down about this.”