SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown believes the Shrimpers’ slow start to the season has been caused by their injury problems.

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Charlton Athletic made it seven games without a win for Blues.

And Brown fears the poor run of results could continue until his big players become available.

“Last season we turned it round when we cleared the treatment room out and that’s what we will need to do again,” said Brown.

“Unfortunately, I can’t just magic people fit and I’m still waiting for big players like Anthony Wordsworth, Rob Kiernan and Michael Turner to come out of the treatment room.

“But we are what we are at the moment, we’re half a team and until we become a full team we might find this is a difficult period.”

Blues - whose injury problems seemed to worsen with Michael Kightly suffering a hamstring problem late on at the weekend - have now taken just six points from their opening six games and sit 17th in the early League One standings.

And Brown was frustrated by their latest setback as Charlton scored twice in four second half minutes to condemn the Shrimpers to another defeat.

“We had a foothold in the game up until the 65th minute and had good opportunities to score, but the bottom line is we’ve been beaten 2-1 by a decent side,” said the 58-year-old.

“We got back into it by making it 2-1 and you would expect Ryan Leonard to burst the net with the opportunity he had late on.

“A point would have been fantastic but those fine lines are going against us at the moment in more ways than one both on and off the field of play.

“We need to turn it round quickly because last season we waited 12 games before we got going and I don’t want to be doing that again.”

However, Brown was at least boosted by seeing Nile Ranger play the full 90 minutes on his first start since being released from prison last month.

“Nile Ranger is a positive from the game, so was the goal and the way we played in the first half,” said Brown.

“But a clean sheet for 65 minutes isn’t enough and the mentality needs to change.”

Blues are back in action at League One leaders Shrewsbury Town tomorrow night.