SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown is astounded none of his promotion pushing side were voted in to the PFA League Two team of the season.

Daniel Bentley, Ryan Leonard, Ben Coker and Kevan Hurst were all overlooked by their fellow professionals.

And Brown feels how voting is done risks making it a worthless exercise.

“It absolutely astounded me that we didn’t have a single representative in the team and I think in the lower two leagues the players just vote for their mates,” said the Blues boss.

“In the Premier League and the Championship I think you often get the right teams because of the extra exposure the games get.

“But in League One and League Two you just get friends voting for friends and it almost makes it worthless.

“I’m not knocking anyone’s opinion but we have been up towards the top of the league for most of the season.

“And if this team was a true reflection of the best 11 in our league then we would definitely have one or two in it.

“Last year we had two and we finished 11th so it doesn’t really seem to make sense.”

The PFA awards were held on Sunday and saw table topping Chesterfield have four players in the team of the year.

Second placed Rochdale had three, bizarrely followed by 21st placed Bristol Rovers who had two representatives.

And Brown also felt the age of his players may have worked against them.

“The likes of Dan and Lenny are young players and are perhaps going under the radar a little bit,” said the Shrimpers chief.

“Someone like John-Joe O’Toole probably gets more of the attention and, to be honest, I’m not how they can do the voting any other way, so I think this kind of situation will keep on happening.”

League Two team of the year: GK: Tommy Lee (Chesterfield), RB: Michael Smith (Bristol Rovers), CB: Ian Evatt (Chesterfield), CB: Liam Cooper (Chesterfield), LB: Michael Rose (Rochdale), RW: Antoni Sarcevic (Fleetwood), CM: John Joe O’Toole (Bristol Rovers), CM Gary Roberts (Chesterfield), LW: Ian Henderson (Rochdale), CF: Sam Winnall (Scunthorpe), Scott Hogan (Rochdale)