Lincoln City v Southend United - Preview

Tes Bramble was missed against Kidderminster. Hopefully he'll play at Lincoln.

There is no doubting thay United's home defeat at the hands of Kiddermister was a terrible result which came courtesy of a most lacklustre performance from Rob Newman's side. However the advantage with midweek matches is that you have a Saturday game only a few daus later in which to bounce straight back, and Newman will be wanting his men to hit back at Sincil Bank.

The obvious absentee on Tuesday night was striker Tes Bramble, Tes suffered a re-occurance of the stomach bug that has been affecting him, and United missed him greatly. Hopefully however Bramble will be fit and raring to go against Lincoln.

One huge bonus for the Shrimpers is that midfielder Ian Selley played 70 minutes of Wednesday afternoon's reserve team victory against Wycombe Wanderers and should be added to the squad that travels to Lincolnshire.

Harriers clinched victoy with a goal each side of half time on Tuesday night, and Newman has promised to make changes to his starting line-up, although in truth he has often made such promises and never quite gone through with them! Nevertheless whatever switches the Blues boss may make, striker Graeme Jones who was recieved a lot of critism from the supporters and has yet to score is set to partner Mark Rawle in attack once more.

Southend managed to clinch a tidy 1-0 victory at Sincil Bank last season; Steven Clark netting the winner having connected onto a Rob Newman pass. Hopefully Blues can repeat the feat and five wins out of seven won't look to bad!

Last Matches:-
Southend United 0 Kidderminster Harriers 2 (Flynn 45, Melligan 49), Line-up - Flahavan, Beard, Searle, Broad, Cort, Maher, Smith, Steven Clark (Belgrave 51), Jenkins (Maye 68), Rawle, Jones. Unused - Gay, Whelan.

Hartlepool United 2 (Boyd 62, Williams 66) Lincoln City 1 (Mike 2), Line-up - Marriott, Futcher, Logan (Cropper 68), Morgan, Bimson, Weaver, Gain, Willis (Camm 58), Bailey (Mayo 85), Yeo, Mike. Unused - Pettinger, Buckley.

Last Five Meetings:-
16th March, 2002 - Lincoln City (0) 0 Southend United (1) 1 (Clark) - Division Three
1st December, 2001 - Southend United (1) 1 (Bramble) Lincoln City (1) 1 - Division Three
3rd February, 2001 - Southend United (1) 1 (Abbey) Lincoln City (0) 0 - Division Three
2nd September, 2000 - Lincoln City (0) 3 Southend United (0) 0 - Division Three
29th April, 2000 - Lincoln City (1) 1 Southend United (0) 0 - Division Three

SOUTHEND (from):- Darryl Flahavan, Daniel Gay, Mark Beard, Neil Jenkins, Damon Searle, Leon Cort, Stephen Broad, Tom Jordan, Phil Whelan, Kevin Maher, Jay Smith, Stuart Thurgood, Ian Selley, Steven Clark, Danny Maye, Tesfaye Bramble, Graeme Jones, Mark Rawle, Barrington Belgrave.

Mark Wallis
www.thelittlegazette.com

HEAD-TO-HEAD - LINCOLN CITY v SOUTHEND UNITED
Stats by www.soccer-stats.com