IN one of my very first Echo interviews as manager of Southend United I spoke about how a target of mine was to play in front of a packed Roots Hall.

And I hope I get to sample that when we host Luton Town on Saturday.

It promises to be quite an occasion with Luton bringing 2,500 of their own fans so hopefully we can have 8,000 or 9,000 of our supporters in attendance for what is another massive game.

We’ve worked our way into a great position on the back of a superb run of form, winning six games in a row.

The last two of them have been hard fought 1-0 wins away from home and I would like to thank the fans for their support in both of those.

To have more than 400 at Exeter and then more than 500 on a Tuesday night at Bury is just absolutely incredible.

We’ve had at least 10 per cent of our fan base travelling to all of our away games this season wherever we’ve been playing and they have certainly had to do some miles.

It must have cost them a fortune to get to all of these places but hopefully we can repay them in the final two matches of the season by hopefully winning promotion.

GREAT NIGHT AT BURY

EVER since our original game at Bury was abandoned after just six minutes I had been struggling to work out just why it happened and I think we found that out when we went back on Tuesday.

Without getting too over the top, it really was an act of god for their pitch to be suddenly turned into a lake but it eventually set it all up nicely for the game when it finally did go ahead.

It was a great gesture from Bury’s chairman to make it free for fans to watch and I think they were rewarded with their biggest crowd in 18 years.

That was great for them in the first half and, being honest, I’ll never know just how we got to half-time with the score staying 0-0.

But we shut the door of the dressing room at half-time and developed a real siege mentality which certainly helped us in the second half.

I think the substitutes who came on made a difference too, none more so David Worrall who got the winning goal.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take a free-kick before but it almost seemed it was his moment, coming back to score against his former team.

Dave has been through the mill in the last few weeks with his son being born prematurely and dying after just 45 minutes.

Every single one of us has given him all the support we can and he’s a very popular member of the dressing room.

We will continue to help him and do all we can but the character he showed on Tuesday night was just phenomenal and you have to take your hat off to him.

THIS TEAM HAS FOUND ITS VOICE

I’VE always been a fan of self management in teams and this side we have now is the most vocal I’ve known during my time here.

Michael Timlin and Barry Corr have also spoken up but Adam Barrett has added to that and the likes of Dan Bentley and Cian Bolger have also found their voice now.

Obviously if people start talking rubbish then you have to step in as a manager but there is a lot of sense being spoken in our dressing room right now.

It’s a great time to be associated with the club and for us to have kept seven clean sheets in a row is incredible.

You couldn’t have predicted the events that unfolded with Luke Prosser suffering concussion and Adam Thompson dislocating his shoulder.

But Cian Bolger and Adam Barrett have gone in there and been first class.

I don’t think Cian missed a single header at Bury and Adam has been brilliant too so long may that continue!

LONDON MARATHON THIS WEEKEND

I’M running the London Marathon this weekend but I’ve had a major setback with a hip injury in the last few weeks.

I’ve had to change the way I’ve trained but hopefully it will all be OK for Sunday.

The organisation that goes into this Marathon is incredible and I’ve been told the atmosphere will be too so hopefully that can get me round!

I’m also running to raise money for two great charities, Sparks and the Amy May Trust.

I’ve been lucky enough to have had lots of support already but if anybody else wants to sponsor me they can do so by visiting www.virginmoneygiving.com/philbrown10