Sturrock: 'Christmas is always an important time of the season'

Last updated : 26 December 2011 By westfield shrimper

Sturrock: Looking on the bright side

Ho, Ho, Ho; 'I won’t be cooking for any of the squad this year'
 
Blues boss Paul Sturrock  has been around long enough to know the significance of the holiday fixture list, that could see the Shrimpers return to winning ways or start the slide into mid-table obscurity, something nobody involved with the club wants after such a great start to the campaign.
 
Sturrock told www.echo-news.co.uk:"Christmas is always a very important time of the season. And it will be no different for us this year. We play three times in the space of eight days and will be looking to get ourselves back on track. Aldershot are up first and that will be a difficult game because they’re a very tight unit. They’ve only conceded nine goals in the league and will make it hard for us. We had trouble against them last season as we lost at their ground and drew at Roots Hall. But this time we’re going in to having had a bit of a break and I’m hopeful that will make a difference."
 
No problem there, but what about last week's horrible 1-0 defeat to the Bantams, our fourth on the trot but a particularly poor match.
 
Sturrock said: "Having watched the Bradford game again I really do think that playing at Oldham on the Tuesday night took an awful lot out of the team. In hindsight, I should maybe have made more changes than I did to give us more freshness as we definitely looked leggy. The game came 24 hours too early for us as our bad run continued but we’re still in a fantastic position in the league. However, we now need to push on again and start getting more points because the team has lost its way a little bit recently. It’s strange because we haven’t changed our style or the side too much early but we’re not scoring the number of goals that we were a few months ago and we’ve been conceding some sloppy ones too."
 
Maybe not, but as Ferdy said Thursday, teams seemed to have 'sussed us out' and I'm sure all the managers involved in the three games will have been watching the videos, a real test of Luggy's management skills here.
 
He concluded: "We’re all focused on playing Aldershot and we will be in on Christmas Day to train which I think is the norm in professional football. I won’t be cooking for any of the squad this year as they’re all a bit more settled but I hope all Southend fans have a great Christmas. And I also hope we can get some good results to make it an even better time for us all."
 
Can't argue with that Luggs.
 
For the full column: www.echo-news.co.uk 
 
We will be making signings in January: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk 
 
Luggy to decide on Shrimpers futures: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk 
 
Bilel vote continues: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk  
 
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