SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown felt his side's 3-0 victory against local rivals Colchester United was perfectly scripted at Roots Hall.

The Shrimpers scored three times in the last eight minutes to pile more misery on the bottom of the table U's.

And Brown was delighted by the identity of his goalscorers.

"There were three great stories for our goals and you couldn't have scripted it any better," said the 56-year-old.

"Anthony Wordsworth scored on his first game back after three months out against his former team before Mr Southend United Adam Barrett also gets a goal in the derby.

"Then to top it all off Sam McQueen gets our third goal on his 21st birthday so it's been a fantastic day."

The victory kept Blues seventh in the League One standings.

And Brown was pleased with the patience his players showed before making the late break-through.

Colchester were reduced to 10 men in the 36th minute when Alex Gilbey was dismissed for a shocking challenge on Ryan Leonard.

But the U's proved hard to break down.

"I told the players at half-time to stay patient and that's exactly what they did," said the 56-year-old.

"It's never easy to beat 10 men and we've proved that in our last two games which we won despite having been shown a red card.

"The dismissal seemed to galvanise Colchester but we had a lot of possession in the second half.

"I know there were one or two groans from the crowd but we stuck at it and we got our rewards at the end."