Brown: Chester worthy winners

Phil Brown had no complaints at Southend being dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league club Chester, who were 2-1 winners at Roots Hall.

Barry Corr had cancelled out Ben Heneghan's opener from the penalty spot, but the visitors secured their place in the second round thanks to Craig Mahon's individual effort. And Brown admitted the visitors fully deserved their scalp. "I can have no qualms about this result, Chester beat us fair and square," said the Shrimpers boss. "Chester were the better team and you have to give them credit. "They defended better than us and their number nine held the ball up better than we did. "I'm hurt and disappointed and listening to their changing room with them singing and celebrating was hard to take. "The last time a team did that was Burton when we lost in the play-offs. "I was always going to get flak after a result like that because we've lost at home to a non-league team so I understand that. "But we have to put this right in the league now." Chester, who are 14th in their division, started brightly and took the lead when Peter Wing's inswinging free-kick from the right flank was headed home by Heneghan. The Shrimpers hit back to equalise in the 31st minute, with Corr bagging his 50th goal for the club after John White had been brought down in the box by John Rooney. However, Chester were not to be denied and, in the 51st minute, they bagged the winning goal when Mahon cut in off the right flank and sent a low drive in to the bottom right-hand corner of the net. Chester boss Steve Burr felt was full of praise for his players and match winner Mahon, whose partner gave birth to twin boys on Friday. "Congratulations go to him and his family and it's been a great couple of days for him with him getting to Southend to get the winning goal," said Burr. "We were delighted his kids were born on Friday and his other half has been our best player this week now. "I felt it was a deserved victory too. "We knew it was going to be difficult coming here to play Southend and I was delighted with the character we showed. "I was pleased with the football we played and we created a number of chances too. "I'm really pleased for the lads and the travelling fans that we were able to get through to the next round."