SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown felt his side’s shock FA Cup defeat at Yeovil Town came after his players failed to respect their opponents.

A first half penalty from Otis Khan saw the League Two team secure a 1-0 win against the Shrimpers at Huish Park.

And Brown - who has now suffered four successive first round exists in the competition - believes Blues’ attitude was to blame.

“We didn’t show them enough respect,” said Brown.

“I did but they(the players) didn’t.

“It’s bitterly disappointing and while you can say we were unlucky on a couple of occasions the attitude coming to Yeovil just wasn’t right.

“It wasn’t for the want of preparation because we prepared them properly all week.

“But what goes on between the ears is up to them and it looked like they weren’t right.”

The Shrimpers were particularly poor during the first half.

And Brown thought Yeovil showed more desire to win the FA Cup clash.

“The first half set the stall out and they looked like they wanted it more than us,” said Brown.

“I said to the players before the game that they could make this game as hard or as easy as they wanted it to be and we made it very hard.

“I got after them at half-time and we raised the level of performance in the second half but not enough to win a game.

“The second half we changed the attitude but it’s difficult to stop and start.

“We aren’t good enough to do that and we need to be at full tilt right the way through.

“We needed to be able to stand up to what Yeovil would throw at us and we didn’t.

“These players are playing for their shirts and not one of them can say they played for the shirt and kept it after that,”

However, Brown - who confessed he came close to making three changes at half-time - also felt the officials played a part in the defeat.

“I thought the penalty was actually a good tackle and I don’t see a foul for the disallowed goal,” said Brown.

“We would have taken the 1-1 draw and gone back to Roots Hall for the replay but we didn’t do enough.”

Blues will now be looking to bounce back against Colchester United in the Checkatrade Trophy at Roots Hall on Tuesday night.