PHIL Brown hopes to celebrate winning September’s League Two manager of the month award by sorting his new contract to stay with Southend United.

Brown, who guided the Shrimpers to four wins and a draw during a successful September, has been heavily linked with a switch to Bolton Wanderers since the departure of Dougie Freedman.

But Echosport can reveal Brown will meet with Blues chairman Ron Martin today.

And the Shrimpers boss is confident of finalising details of his new deal ahead of this weekend’s trip to Luton Town.

“I’m meeting with the chairman today and the contract is closer to being sorted out than it has ever been before,” said Brown.

“It’s certainly closer than it was at the start of the week and it’s really just a case of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.”

Brown, whose current contract expires at the end of the season, has been with Blues since taking over from Paul Sturrock in March 2013.

His side are currently fourth in the League Two table and, after losing to Morecambe 1-0 last weekend, Brown hopes to have already got rid of the curse which is often associated with winning manager of the month.

“It’s often said you lose the next game after getting manager of the month but hopefully that was the Morecambe was for us,” said Brown.

“It’s obviously nice to win the award but I think it should be called team of the month and not just manager of the month.

“It’s an award for everyone at the club, including obviously the players, but I would like to dedicate this award to my backroom team who really do work tirelessly here.

“The chairman has allowed me to bolster that even further with a full-time analyst and kit man and my staff meetings every Monday are certainly getting a bit bigger now.”

Brown previously won manager of the month for Blues in November 2013 and saw off Wycombe Wanderers’ Gareth Ainsworth, Bury’s Dave Flitcroft and Exeter City’s Paul Tisdale to win the latest award.

However, midfielder Jack Payne missed out on winning player of the month.

The youngster was selected on the four man shortlist after impressing for the Shrimpers.

But the judges eventually plumped for Luton Town defender Luke Wilkinson.