SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown has defended his recruitment policy this season.

The Shrimpers’ 14 signings during the campaign have endured mixed success and 10 of Tuesday night’s starting line-up against Oldham Athletic were with the club at the end of last season.

However, Brown was quick to defend his record in the transfer market this term.

“If you go back to last summer then I think we got the best of the free transfers that were available for this level,” said the Blues boss.

“David Mooney, Anthony Wordsworth and Noel Hunt have done well in this league and above and were good signings for us.

“Stephen McLaughlin was another one who has played higher and that’s why we wanted to sign them.”

But Brown has now turned his sights towards next season and making sure he builds a squad which is able to challenge towards the top of the table.

“We’re already looking at transfer targets and who we want to bring in,” confirmed Brown.

“We will look very closely at the mentality of the players as well because we need to get back to what we had last season.

“Last year we got something like 23 clean sheets and this season it’s 11 or 12 so I’ll be working very hard on our defensive play.

“At the other end I’ll also be looking for a consistent goalscorer and it might well be that we have to spend a bit of money to get that little bit of quality we need in the final third.

“But we’re after some good players and I’ll be showing the list to the likes of David Worrall and Jack Payne who we are in contract talks with to show we mean business next season.”

Blues will also have longer to prepare for the new campaign after failing to reach the play-offs.

And Brown believes a longer break may also be an advantage for his players.

“Don’t get me wrong I’m very disappointed not to be in the play-offs this season but it does give us more of a break,” said the Shrimpers chief.

“The last two years have been non stop for these players because we got in the play-offs in successive seasons.

“We’re not in them this year though and maybe that might be an advantage for us going into next season.

“We’ll be having a proper break but we will be working hard on signings and I want them to be in place for the start of pre-season training too.”