Phil Brown: Sheffield United victory shows how far Southend have come

The triumph moved Brown's side up to eighth in the Sky Bet League One table, six points below the play-off positions.

And the former Hull boss felt it showed the progress his players have made since winning promotion last season.

"It's a landmark win for me here because Sheffield United are a big, big club with a big history and tradition," said Brown.

"It shows how far we've come and I've just asked the Sky Sports cameras if they can come to our game at Blackpool on Saturday too because we seem to save our best form for them.

"We had that resilience and desire out there tonight that I've been asking for all season.

"The concentration was there as well but there are fine margins between winning and losing and we saw that here. Again.

"But if we keep on playing like this and stay on the front foot then I have no idea where it can take us."

Brown previously ruled his side out of finishing in the play-offs when they were thrashed 4-1 at Rochdale on Good Friday.

But they were back to their best against the Blades.

Southend went in front after 28 minutes when Tyrone Barnett poked the ball home from close range after visiting goalkeeper George Long failed to keep hold of Adam Thompson's downward header.

The Blades hit back six minutes later when poor defending from the hosts enabled an unmarked Dean Hammond to head home Matt Done's free-kick.

The visitors then wasted two great chances at the start of the second half with Che Adams and Billy Sharp firing over.

And the missed opportunities came back to haunt the Blades as David Worrall cut in off the right flank and netted with an excellent finish on the hour mark before t he impressive Payne completed scoring in the last minute when he brilliantly beat Done before beating Long with a chipped finish.

Blades boss Nigel Adkins rued his side's lack of ruthlessness in front of goal as the Yorkshire club slipped into the bottom half of the table, nine points adrift of the play-off positions.

Adkins said: "We created the chances to have won the game and we passed the ball brightly too, b ut we didn't win the game and we needed to win.

"We've got to get ourselves ready to go again though, show that desire and belief.

"You will never ever wear me down and I won't give up.

"We'll get ready for the next game and that attitude will continue all the way through my tenure at Sheffield United.

"We want to get out of this division and we want to do it now but we've gone and made it a little bit more difficult for ourselves."