Chesterfield could not feel 'sorry' for Southend United as Spireites hit four past Shrimpers and Phil Brown is sacked

Danny Rowe scored a hat-trick as Chesterfield thrashed Southend United 4-0 on an emotional afternoon at Roots Hall.
Southend fans ran on the pitch in the second half as Chesterfield ran out 4-0 winners.Southend fans ran on the pitch in the second half as Chesterfield ran out 4-0 winners.
Southend fans ran on the pitch in the second half as Chesterfield ran out 4-0 winners.

With the Spireites having hit four goals through Rowe and Saidou Khan, the second-half was interrupted for several minutes when Shrimpers fans invaded the pitch to protest against club owner Ron Martin.

The home fans ran onto the turf again after the full-time whistle before it emerged that Southend manager Phil Brown had been sacked.

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The travelling Chesterfield fans showed their support for Southend’s protests throughout the game.

Town’s first-team coach Danny Webb said Chesterfield could not afford to feel ‘sorry’ for Southend and had to get the job done.

"It was a fantastic performance,” Webb explained.

"It is nice to score four, get a clean sheet and the three points.

"I thought the general play was excellent and we did the horrible stuff well.

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"It was an all-round performance and a very pleasing result.

"We knew that this place was on the edge a bit in terms of their fans and what they are going through at the moment. We thought that could work in our favour if we got that first goal.

"It was a great first goal from Rowey and after that it was one-way traffic.

"It would have been easy at 2-0, 3-0 and definitely 4-0 to take the foot off the gas and the gaffer’s main point at half-time was to kick-on and not sit in. We did exactly that and it was a very good day at the office.

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"We got the third and fourth goal and it could have been five or six.”

Webb played for Southend himself and his dad David managed the club.

"It is a sad situation which Southend are in but we can’t come here and feel sorry for people and the players did that today,” he said.

"There are some good people at Southend and to be fair to their fans when they did come on the pitch they did not give our players any grief.

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"They (Chesterfield fans) can probably relate to a lot of things they are going through and there was some solidarity there.

"To go up you need to put these teams to the sword and that is now one defeat in 11, 22 points, so that is two points a game, it has been a really good start.”

Rowe scored two classy goals before grabbing his treble from the penalty spot.

"He showed his quality, even his penalty is unbelievable in terms of how hard he hits it,” Webb said.

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“Away from his goals he won headers, he worked back, tackled and he sprinted. That is the stuff you need to win promotions, you need all your players to be doing that.

"The attention will rightly be on his hat-trick but the stuff he did off the ball was excellent.”

The only downside of the afternoon from a Chesterfield point of view was injuries to Fraser Kerr, Saidou Khan and Curtis Weston who all had to come off.

"I imagine they will be assessed on Monday and we will know more in the week – it is too early to tell,” Webb added.