Off to the seaside in search of win

Southend are one of those bottom clubs, they've occupied one of the three relegation positions since losing to Cardiff in September, although their more recent form has been better despite suffering three consecutive defeats at the end of last month.

When we last met, in October, they were exactly where they are now in 23^rd place whilst we were riding high in second spot behind leaders Cardiff. That game ended 0-0, something of a surprise given the then form of the two teams and the fact that Southend at the time were conceding goals very easily.

There haven't been many changes to their squad since that date. They signed a couple of loan players in November. RK Sunderland's Spanish midfielder Oriol Riera played a couple of games for them but the second of them Alan McCormack from Preston has since made his move to Roots Hall a permanent one.

That was during the January transfer window and manager Steve Tilson also brought in Irish forward Richie Foran from Motherwell. He's switched between starting and coming on from the bench and in his last game was sent off for two bookable offences.

Yesterday Tilson further added to his squad with the capture of Charlton winger Lloyd Sam who has swapped a relegation battle in the Premiership for one in the Championship. Sam spent a month with Sheffield Wednesday on loan back in August and September.

They go into the game with a draw and a win in their last two games at home to Leicester and at Ipswich.

Click HERE to see all Southend's results this season.

We continue to look to bring this long run of games without a win to an end, and if we can secure that victory tonight it will again put nine points between us and Southend and should see us getting ever closer to safety.

Steve Tilson has two names to add to the squad that won at Ipswich in Richie Foran returning from suspension and new signing Lloyd Sam. Neither are expected to start, in fact they have already said that Sam, recovering from a bout of chicken pox will be on the subs bench.

The team is expected to be the one that won at Portman Road which is: Darryl Flahavan, Simon Francis, Peter Clarke, Efe Sodje, Lewis Hunt, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Kevin Maher, Alan McCormack, Mark Gower, Lee Bradbury, Freddy Eastwood. Subs from: Steven Collis, Spencer Prior, Steven Hammell, Matt Harrold, Franck Moussa, Richie Foran, Lloyd Sam.

Click HERE to see the full Southend squad.

Burnley have Kyle Lafferty back in the squad following suspension but will again be without Alan Mahon and Wayne Thomas who are both ruled out with injury. The team looks to be virtually picking itself right now apart from down the left hand side of the pitch and much will depend on which position is taken up by Chris McCann.

I suspect he may well continue at left back and that could mean Kyle coming back in at Jon Harley's expense. If that's the case we will line up: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Steven Caldwell, Chris McCann, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Kyle Lafferty, Ade Akinbiyi, Andy Gray. Subs from: Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Graham Branch, Steve Jones.

Our last visit to Roots Hall came early in the 1997/98 season. We'd lost at Watford, drawn at home to Gillingham when David Eyres was ridiculously sent off by a referee by the name of Graham Laws, and by the time this game had finished the early season enthusiasm was very much on the wane.

We fell behind to a goal from Dutch forward Jeroen Boere after just six minutes and that proved to be it as far as goals were concerned - and we only had another four league games to wait before we finally did get our first goal of the season.

The teams were;

Southend: Simon Royce, Andy Harris, Nathan Jones, Mike Marsh, Leo Roget, Keith Dublin, Paul Byrne, Carl Beeston, Jeroen Boere, Paul Williams (Andy Thomson 55), Adrian Clarke (Julian Hails 79). Sub not used: George Parris.

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Richard Huxford, Steve Blatherwick, Lee Howey, Mark Winstanley, Paul Weller, Michael Williams (Damian Matthew 44), Mark Ford, David Eyres, Andy Cooke, Paul Barnes (Chris Waddle 59). Sub not used: Chris Brass.