SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown slammed his side’s defending and a red card shown to Jerome Binnom-Williams after suffering the heaviest league defeat of his Shrimpers’ tenure at table-topping Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

The Shrimpers sunk to a depressing 4-1 defeat at Adams Park.

And Brown was angered by the manner of the goals Blues gave away, as well as the decision to dismiss Binnom-Williams just past the hour mark for a strong challenge on Chairboys midfielder Josh Scowen.

“Jerome’s gone in in committed fashion and for me it’s just not a red card in the game of football,” fumed Brown.

“I want my players to be whole-hearted and committed and I don’t want to take that away from Jerome’s game.

“Referees are almost over protective nowadays but their player wasn’t injured and was able to continue.

“If you want to penalise Jerome for showing aggression then maybe show a yellow card.

“But it didn’t warrant a red and it was disappointing to see, along with the bad goals we gave away.”

The Shrimpers, who had gone in to the game on the back of four successive league victories, opened the scoring after just two minutes when top scorer Jack Payne fired home.

However, Wycombe then made Blues pay for some shocking defending which infuriated Brown.

“We lost the game because we didn’t deal with set pieces, which isn’t like us,” said the former Hull City chief.

“We gave three away from set pieces and that’s just not good enough.

“It stopped us building on our lead and we just didn’t seem to relax after going in front either.

“It really was the perfect start but it went horribly wrong after that.”

The defeat saw the Shrimpers slip to eighth in the League Two table.

And Brown, who has been in charge of the club since March 2013, hopes Blues’ supporters will remain right behind the team.

“It’s frustrating because when we took 1,200 fans to Luton we didn’t perform and with a similar following here we’ve done the same again,” said Brown.

“The fans were great though and I hope they stick by us for the away games we have coming up and also our game with Burton at Roots Hall on Friday.”