PHIL Brown celebrated his fourth year in charge of Southend United with a comfortable 2-0 win at AFC Wimbledon this afternoon.

Goals from Nile Ranger and Simon Cox saw the Shrimpers stay sixth in the League One standings.

And, with Millwall losing at Swindon Town, Blues now sit three points clear of the seventh placed Lions.

The win was also Southend’s third in succession and they came close to taking the lead after just 10 minutes when midfielder Anthony Wordsworth saw a low, left footed shot tipped wide of the left post by Wimbledon goalkeeper James Shea.

But, after the fine save, came a scrappy period of play before the Shrimpers opened the scoring in the 35th minute, with Ranger on attack for the fourth time in five games.

The in-form striker picked up the ball in the left hand side of the penalty area and impressively worked his way past a cluster of defenders before sending a low, right footed shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net from eight yards.

Moments later, Shrimpers right-back Jason Demetriou saw a swerving long range shot gathered by Shea at the second attempt.

After the interval, Dons striker Tom Elliott sent a left footed shot flying just wide of the right post before Simon Cox went close to scoring at the other end of the field as his powerful effort was tipped wide of the target by Shea.

However, Cox was not to be denied for long as he doubled the Shrimpers’ lead with a powerful effort in the 64th minute.

The striker had gone nine away games without netting but, after some scrappy build up sent him through on goal, Cox sent a rising shot high into the top right hand corner of the net.

Cox then made way for Theo Robinson in Blues’ first change of the game in the 75th minute and the substitute soon wasted a golden chance to score as he raced clean through on goal only to send his shot against the outside of the right post.

But the miss was not to prove important as the Shrimpers comfortably saw out the closing stages of the game.