SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown is urging the club’s supporters to take over Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium for Sunday’s play-off clash.

The club have teamed up with the Shrimpers Trust to cut coach travel to the first leg of the semi-final to just £5.

And Brown hopes that can lead to Blues selling out their entire 1,780 ticket allocation.

“It will put a real marker down if we can sell out and would show how big we are as a football club if we can take that sort of travelling support,” said the 54-year-old.

“It will feel as though we’ve got that 12th man on the road too.

“Their attendances have averaged around 3,000 this season so if we could take 1,700 fans it would be a real statement of intent from our supporters and the club.

“It’s a great opportunity to get an advantage in the first-leg ahead of returning to Roots Hall looking to book our place in the final at Wembley.

“I had a conversation with the chairman and we agreed that we should look to do something to make sure we have as close to 1,700 supporters at the Pirelli Stadium as possible.

“I’m grateful that the club have agreed this and hope that supporters take it up and come and support us on Sunday.”

Brown believes Blues’ fans have played a huge part in his team finishing fifth in the League Two table.

An average attendance of 5,959 has seen an 18 per cent on the previous season.

And Brown now wants the Shrimpers faithful to remain right behind his players.

“We’ve hopefully got three more games left and we must continue to stick together,” said the Blues boss.

“We’ve had our highs and lows this year and the low was obviously going 12 games without a win.

“But we all stuck together and we’ve come through it now.

“All season everyone has been together as one and that has helped us make sure we were in the play-offs, even with that bad run.

“We had a great three games to start the season in the league.

“Now we want three great ones to end it on a huge high as well.”

Bookings for the coach travel can be made online on the Trust website - www.shrimperstrust.co.uk or by calling the main club switchboard on 01702 304050 and pressing 0 for reception.