SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown felt his side’s ‘magnificent’ 3-0 win against Chesterfield was the perfect way to warm up for Saturday’s FA Cup clash with Hull City.

The Shrimpers brushed aside their promotion rivals at Roots Hall with another dominant display.

And Brown will now enable his players to finally focus on causing a cup upset against the Tigers.

“This was a magnificent result and performance and it was the best way to warm up for the game against Hull,” said the Blues boss.

“There was a lot of excitement about the Hull game as soon as the draw was made and everyone has wanted to talk about it.

“But I told the players to just think about the league games and they’ve shown here that it’s exactly what they did.

“Now I’ll let them think about the Hull game and we’re certainly going in to it in good shape after a match like this.”

The victory moved Blues up to fourth in the League Two table and Brown feels the manner of the triumph will send a strong message out to the rest of their promotion rivals.

“People will definitely look at this result and take note,” said the Shrimpers chief.

“They might think that Chesterfield had a man sent off or that we had a bit of luck but that wasn’t the case at all.

“It was 11 against 11 and we were very much the better team against a side who I still feel will go on to win promotion this season.”

Goals from Kevan Hurst, Ryan Leonard and Barry Corr enabled the Shrimpers to come out on top.

But they were also thankful to some fantastic late saves from goalkeeper Daniel Bentley who did well to deny Chesterfield striker Marc Richards from the penalty spot.

“We had a goalkeeper in top form who was just not going to be beaten out there,” said Brown.

“He made some great saves and has the ability to go all the way in this game but I just hope that’s with me and not anybody else.”