Southend United manager Phil Brown felt his side's performance in their 3-1 win over Coventry City showed plenty of character and quality.
Brown told the Press Association: "I'm very proud of our performance but I wish Mark all the very best because he's a great character who I'm happy to see still in the game.
"It must have been about 1979 when he was my boot-boy at Hartlepool and it's brilliant that we're both still involved in football all these years later.
"He has a tough job on his hands with what's going on off the pitch at Coventry but we can't be concerned by that.
"We had to focus on ourselves and I thought our performance was full of character and quality.
"It was far more fluent than against Oxford on Tuesday and we were more solid at the back as well.
"The only real disappointment was that we let a goal in right at the end and we didn't get a clean sheet but we're on a good run and long may it continue.
"Keeping our big players fit is the key and if we keep getting them out there then we'll keep doing well."
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