SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown wants his future to overtake his past as he attempts to guide the Shrimpers to play-off success.

Brown is desperate to lead Blues out of the basement division, and beyond, to help the Roots Hall club realise their potential.

And the 55-year-old is also eager to help make that happen in order for his true characteristics to be realised in the game.

“I’m incredibly driven and settled at Southend and I want to be the one to take this club back through the leagues,” said Brown.

“What I’ve done before is in the past and I guess it does annoy me when people keep bringing things up.

“Only last week, I had a reporter from a national newspaper in my office ahead of the first game against Stevenage and all he wanted to talk about was the alleged incident with the suicidal woman on Humber Bridge.

“But that was six years ago now and I don’t get why people want to keep on bringing these things up.

“If it’s not that, then it’s doing the team talk on the pitch or singing. I do think it means people have a certain perception of me.

“When I was out of work before coming to Southend, I was told by chairmen I was viewed to be arrogant and abrasive.

“But people who sit down for a chat with me, often walk out with a different idea of me to the one they walked in with.

“I understand perception is nine tenths of the law, but the only real way to change that is to be successful and that’s why I’m at Southend.

“I look at clubs like Swansea, Bournemouth and Brentford and I can’t see why Southend can’t go and do what they’ve done. That’s certainly my ambition, but it all begins with trying to get out of League Two which we all know is going to be tough.”

Blues head into the second leg of their play-off semi-final against Stevenage locked level after a hard-fought 1-1 draw in the first meeting between the two teams.

The clash came after the Shrimpers failed to win automatic promotion on the final day of the season, suffering a 3-1 defeat at Morecambe.

However, that setback and the subsequent chants of Stevenage’s supporters on Sunday, have only made Brown more determined to succeed.

“I heard all of the chants at the weekend saying we bottled it, but that’s not the case and we’re not a team that do that,” said Brown.

“The truth of the matter is after winning seven games in a row, I guess we were due to lose one and we maybe had run out of steam.

“But those chants saying we mucked it up, or something that maybe rhymes with that, fired us up and we’re determined to make the most of this second chance now.”

Brown is also keen to make the most of his latest opportunity after having to wait 15 months to get back into the game, following his dismissal from Preston North End.

But, had it not been for Bruce Rioch’s intervention at Bolton Wanderers, Brown may never have become a manager at all.

“I previously ran an electrical business and was helping to run restaurants and nightclubs, which is what I thought I was going to go into after football, until Bruce had a word with me,” said Brown.

“He said I had too many qualities to leave football, so I did my coaching badges and it all went from there really.

“But up until that conversation with Bruce, management and coaching wasn’t something I had ever really thought about to tell you the truth.”

Coaching spells with Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers followed, where Brown worked with close friend Sam Allardyce for six years, before he was given his first manager’s job, in charge of Derby County in June 2005.

But it was not the introduction to management Brown had been hoping for.

“Derby was the third job I went for after just missing out on positions at West Bromwich Albion and Burnley. It was a real steep learning curve for me,” said Brown.

“It was a fantastic opportunity because it’s a fabulous club, but I was only there for eight and a half months and I feared that was it for me.

“I knew 75 per cent of managers didn’t get another job after failing in their first job, so I was worried it was going to happen to me.”

However, Brown was soon back involved in football as part of Phil Parkinson’s managerial team at Hull City in October 2006.

After Parkinson’s dismissal just two months later, Brown was put in charge of the Tigers. He performed heroics to help keep them in the Championship, before leading them to promotion the following season.

Brown kept them up during their first ever season in the Premier League, but remains frustrated to have been placed on gardening leave the following year.

“It was a real difficult one for me to have to swallow,” said Brown.

“I think I would’ve kept Hull up if I had stayed that season.

“It was made even worse by the fact Steve Bruce was recently awarded a new three-year deal, when he only had two more points than I did when I got sacked.

“It was an acrimonious departure, but there are no regrets from me.

“It’s in the past and whenever I go back now, I receive a very warm welcome and I wish Hull all the very best.”

After leaving the KC Stadium in March 2010, Brown was snapped up by Preston North End the following January. However, he lasted less than a year at Deepdale after a personality clash with chairman Peter Ridsdale.

After that, Brown become a well respected member of the media, before being appointed Southend manager in March 2013.

It is a role he remains determined to make the most of.

“Ron Martin approached me at just the right time and maybe it was written in the stars for me to come to Southend,” said Brown.

“It’s a long way from home and a long way from where my children are, but the potential here is huge.

“My new contract is 95 per cent agreed, so I’ll be staying beyond this season.

“I want to be able to emulate what Steve Tilson did here with back-to-back promotions.

“Maybe then people might even want to talk to me about being a football manager!”