SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown felt the ‘Ferguson effect’ contributed to his side’s disappointing 4-1 defeat at Doncaster Rovers this afternoon.

Brown was angered by the performance of referee Darren Handley.

And the Blues boss insisted Rovers boss Darren Ferguson – who is the son of legendary former Manchester United boss Sir Alex – was able to influence the official’s display.

“The Ferguson effect is still around but it’s not Sir Alex it’s Darren now,” said Brown.

“Darren had a direct pop at the ref at half-time and he crumbled under pressure.

“They were angry Woody (Anthony Wordsworth) wasn’t sent off but if the ref thought it was a red card he should have sent him off and kept it level.

“But he didn’t send him off and having looked at it again he probably felt it was a red card and I couldn’t disagree with that.

“If we went down to 10 men we would have got a more honest display so the ref didn’t do us any favours.”

Wordsworth – who bagged Blues’ goal – was shown a yellow card for kicking Rovers midfielder Jordan Houghton.

And Brown said he would not have argued if the midfielder had been dismissed.

“Woody went for the ball but heir lad has crouched over it and it looks like he’s kicked him so it could have been a red card,” said the Shrimpers chief.

“But anything that could go wrong did go wrong and the mentality of the group in the second half just wasn’t right.

“The players have been crying out for a surface like that after regularly slagging off the Roots Hall pitch but maybe it’s time to get back there.

“To go a goal up and lose 4-1 stinks of something being wrong in the changing room and I’ve got to get to the bottom of that.

“I could stand here all night and slaughter the referee but it wasn’t anything to with him.

“Our second half performance wasn’t worthy of anything especially in the first 10 or 15 minutes. “