PHIL Brown will become just the 10th manager in Southend United’s league history to celebrate a fourth year in charge when the Shrimpers take on AFC Wimbledon tomorrow.

Brown took over at Blues in March 2013 when they were sitting ninth in League Two.

And the former Hull City chief has been pleased with the progress made during his time in charge.

“I think the thing that has pleased me the most is that we’ve made solid progress in incremental fashion rather than trying to do things too quickly and things falling down,” said Brown.

“I think you can look at the squad we have now and see how far we have come on compared to the squad we had when I first came here.

“If you look at our goalscorers on Saturday - Nile Ranger, Anton Ferdinand and Simon Cox - it shows just how far we have come in these four years.

“On top of that we have the goal-getting qualities of Stephen McLaughlin and Anthony Wordsworth and this is definitely the best squad I’ve had since I’ve been here.

“We have a lot more quality players now and a lot more players who have played at a higher level which is great.

“We’ve definitely improved and it’s great to be moving forwards.

“Getting promotion remains the high point for me and hopefully we can secure another one this season.

“But I have a great backroom team here and the chairman has really backed me too so the progress that’s being made is down to a large number of people, not just me.”

Brown replaced Paul Sturrock in charge at Roots Hall and can vividly remember his bizarre start to life with Blues.

“We had two games in four days and then went off to Wembley which was all very surreal,” said the 57-year-old.

“The chairman rang just as I was about to fly out to South Africa to do coaching for the LMA.

“But instead of ending up in South Africa I went to Southend and it’s gone from feeling very surreal to very real indeed now.”

The Shrimpers boss is now keen to help the club get back into the Championship and feels an improvement in his strike-force can help make that happen.

“When I first came in I had Barry Corr and Freddy Eastwood who were big strikers for League Two but I always wanted more firepower and I have that now,” said Brown.

“We have five or six top strikers now and it’s great to have those kind of options.”

But Brown is also keen for Blues to grow off the pitch and remains disappointed that building work for a new stadium has yet to get underway.

“The only real disappointment in my four years here is that the building work for a new stadium hasn’t begun,” said Brown.

“That was one of the reasons why I came here.”