Southend United vs Fleetwood Town
Southend United welcome Uwe Rosler’s Fleetwood Town to Roots Hall tomorrow afternoon with Blues desperate to end their miserable form having lost seven of their last eight outings.
Blues are now having to look over their shoulder at the relegation zone rather than up towards the play-off spots, but a win against The Cod Army would see them leap-frog Fleetwood in the table.
Rosler’s side will though no doubt want to keep their own play-off aspirations alive whilst also making up for Southend’s 4-2 win at Highbury Stadium back in September.
Fleetwood come to Roots Hall following successive cup matches and have a tantalising Emirates FA Cup replay against former Premier League champions Leicester City to look forward to next week.
Southend United: LLLWLL
Fleetwood Town: WDLWWL
23rd September 2017: Fleetwood Town (Bell, Cole) 2 vs 4 (Cox, McLaughlin, Ranger, McGlashan) Southend United
28th January 2017: Fleetwood Town (Ball) 1 vs 1 (Wordsworth) Southend United
27th August 2016: Southend United 0 vs 2 (Long, Hunter) Fleetwood Town
Blues will be boosted by the returns of John White, Michael Timlin and Anton Ferdinand for the visit of Fleetwood this weekend, although Anthony Wordsworth is set to miss out.
Timlin returned against Northampton last weekend but had been expected to be out for up to two months, whilst the return of White and the skipper Ferdinand will bolster Blues’ defensive options.
Wordsworth will be out due to a calf injury and he’ll be joined on the sidelines by fellow midfielder Josh Wright as well as defender Rob Kiernan and goalkeeper Ted Smith.
Fleetwood have three new signings lined up to make their debuts for the Cod Army this weekend with Toumani Diagouraga, Gethin Jones and Paddy Madden all available for selection.
Midfielder Bobby Grant is also back in contention for Fleetwood having scored for Uwe Rosler’s side in their Checkatrade win over Bury in midweek.
Phil Brown, Southend United Manager:
“There’s a bit of speculation surrounding his players. There’s talk of Jordy Hiwula going back to Huddersfield, Devante Cole being transferred before the game, Amari’i Bell being transferred before the game on Saturday.
“It’s up in the air with regards to what the opposition is going to put at us, but as far as I’m concerned we’ve just got to focus on what we can put out there and cause Fleetwood problems.
“We’ve got to give our best for the shirt to try and turn the corner and stem the tide at the moment.”
Rob Kelly, Fleetwood Town Assistant Head Coach, said:
“It’ll be a tough game, it’s not an easy place to go, but we’ll do what we do. We’ll prepare properly and professionally, like we always do, and look forward to going there and getting a result.
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