Neil Harris; still looking for his first league goal as a Blue
With the tough trip to South Yorkshire getting ever closer the loss of midfielder Anthony Grant and winger Ryan Hall will stretch Blues boss Paul Sturrock on both the playing and tactics front.
Second placed Rotherham United have started brightly under new boss Andy Scott and to pick up any points would be hard enough without the loss of two of your most influential players.
For that reason the fact that former Millwall scoring legend Neil Harris played the last 36 minutes in the 2-0 win over struggling Plymouth Argyle Saturday, and looked good in his renewed partnership with 4-goal Liam Dickinson, is a bonus indeed.
Now if only he can get that monkey off his back of an opening goal in a Shrimpers shirt the party can really start, as he told Echoman Chris Phillips on the training ground today.
Harris said: "I'm still waiting for my first Southend goal but does that worry me? No. I’m experienced enough to know it will come, I need to just concentrate on playing well. Then when my first goal does arrive I hope they start to come after that by the bucket load."
So do we Bomber, but as you say, let's start with that first, and the weekend would certainly be a good place to do just that.
Meanwhile, a nice surprise that the talented Lee Sawyer could make a return, with probably the best we can expect being an appearance on the bench.
Phillips tweeted: 'Sawyer will step up work tomorrow to be fit for Saturday. Regrets playing against Crawley. Feels would be fit by now if he hadn't.'
Fair point, but it looks as if the more defensive minded JP Kalala will be ahead of the pack to replace Snoop Dog, certainly in a game where keeping a clean sheet will be a very difficult task.