SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown’s believes his side’s recent wins on the road will be wasted unless the Shrimpers see off York City at Roots Hall tomorrow.

Blues have worked their way up to fifth in the League Two standings after winning at both Oxford United and Portsmouth.

But Brown is now desperate to follow that up with another victory against the Minstermen.

“The solid performances at Oxford and Portsmouth are to be admired but those games will be a waste of time, effort and energy if we don’t follow that up against York now,” said the Shrimpers chief.

“Getting the three points is what matters most but Saturday is also about putting on a show, playing good attractive open football and getting the goals that have been eluding us at Roots Hall lately.”

Blues have bagged just 11 goals in their 13 home league games so far this season, the third lowest total in the whole of the league.

The Shrimpers have also failed to score at Roots Hall since beating Northampton Town at the end of November.

And Brown believes 19th placed York will also be hard to break down.

“York are quite similar to how they were last season, even though they’ve changed their manager,” said the Blues boss.

“Russ Wilcox, who is in charge now, sets his teams up well and they are normally very difficult to play against and beat.

“He has a good steely, mentality which was shown when he won an award for his efforts at Scunthorpe when they went unbeaten for an incredible amount of time.

“It’s a difficult game but we need to put our best foot forward and pick up more points.

“It would be nice to get to 50 points as early as 18 games to go and that’s the target we’re facing this weekend.”

Blues have defender Cian Bolger and Gary Deegan available again after they both completed suspensions.

Centre-back Adam Barrett is back in contention after recovering from a calf problem while Lee Barnard is also pushing for a recall after forcing his way back to fitness after suffering an ankle injury while on loan at Stevenage.

But striker Barry Corr misses out with a one match ban following his red card at Portsmouth last weekend.