SOUTHEND United chief Phil Brown reckoned that failing to execute just ‘one per cent’ of their masterplan to blunt Swindon Town led to their defeat at the hands of Mark Cooper’s men this afternoon.

Through guile and hard work, the newly-promoted Shrimpers put the shackles on Town for long periods at Roots Hall but a Fabien Robert strike in the second period proved their undoing and sent Town back to the County Ground with a hard-fought three points in tow.

Former Hull City boss Brown saw no reason why his players couldn’t hold their heads high after their efforts against Swindon.

“Today, I can’t say that they let anybody down, apart from sticking the ball in the net – it’s the key part of the game and the most important part of the game,” said Brown.

“We’ve come up against one of the better teams in the division last year. They got into the play-offs and rightly so with the way they play.

“They’ve scored nine goals in four games before they came here and we’ve narrowed them down to huff and puff really in the first half.

“And then they got the goal and that changes the whole course of the game, the whole dynamic of the game.

“We had a game plan and executed the game plan almost 99 per cent of the way. The one per cent was the goal.

“To go in front opens the game up and you can possibly go on to win two or three-nil but it wasn’t meant to be.”