SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown insists his side are now fully focused on securing promotion via the play-offs to reward the club’s loyal supporters.

More than 2,200 Blues fans made the long trip to Morecambe on Saturday while queues to buy play-off tickets stretched across the Roots Hall car park yesterday.

And Brown is now keen to reward those fans by making sure the Shrimpers bounce back strongly from missing out on automatic promotion.

“I really have been swept off my feet by the support we get and we all want to reward that by getting promotion in the play-offs now,” said the 55-year-old.

“Saturday was a big disappointment and missing out on automatic promotion was tough to take but we still have another chance to go up and it’s one we’re fired up to take.

“The players were all back in yesterday, we had a long chat about everything and we’re all focused on these two games we have coming up against Stevenage now.

“We won’t forget what happened at Morecambe but we will learn from it. We’ve also reacted well to any setbacks we’ve had this season and we need to go and do the same again now.”

Brown spoke with the group of players for more than an hour at their Boots & Laces base yesterday and stressed the need to remain positive after finishing the season with 84 points.

“You have to say it’s some season we’ve had and you have to take your hats off to the teams above us because they’ve set some pace to deny us a top three finish,” said Brown.

“After we lost to Stevenage in the league we had a meeting and set ourselves some targets which we thought we have to reach for automatic promotion.

“It was actually 84 points we were aiming for and I really did think that was going to be enough but unfortunately for us that wasn’t the case.”

Blues will now be bidding to bounce back in the play-offs and all four of their on loan players – Joe Pigott, Jake Cassidy, Stephen McLaughlin and Jerome Binnom-Williams will be available for selection.

But full-back Binnom-Williams is currently a slight doubt after suffering a freak ankle injury.

“Jerome went over on his ankle while he was at a function on Sunday so he’s currently getting treatment from the physio,” said Brown.

“We are going to have to wait and see how he responds to treatment before deciding whether or not he can be involved.”