Sturrock: 'If we were to win it would put a real distance between us and them'

 

Blues boss Paul Sturrock is well aware what a fine home record fifth-placed Shrewsbury Town have at Greenhous Meadow, having not tasted defeat there since March 2011!

 

Then again, with nine wins on the road the Shrimeprs are no mugs, which is why they lead League Two at the moment.

 

Sturrock told BBC Essex: "Difficult game, lets's be honest. 9 wins, 3 draws is very impressive. They know exactly how to play at home, their form has been excellent, they have good players all over the pitch so we have to be at the top of our game. We've done reasonably well away from home so we'll have to take the sort of form we showed at Port Vale or Rotherham, that sort of performance, if we don't it will be a real difficult game."

 

Certainly the Shrimpers have been scoring goals at ease of late, 13 in four matches, but points mean prizes, and victory would keep the gap between the top three and the teams presently holding the play-off positions led by Di Canio's annoying one defeat in 21 Swindon.

 

Luggy continued:"Yes, these teams are chasing us at the minute, if we were to win we'd put a distance, ten points, between us and them which would be a real benefit. But if it goes the other way we're only four points ahead. There is a lot at stake in this game, they're going to play exactly the way they've been playing at home, they've got players who can open you up wide and their two strikers can finish."

 

His mind goes back to the first game between the sides at Roots Hall back on the last Saturday in September when we won 3-0, two goals coming in the final minutes.

 

Sturrock said: "We played very well that day but at the end I didn't think there was three goals in it. On saying that we have scored goals away from home, we'd like to think we have a few in our locker."

 

The travelling faithful will hope so too, but what did go wrong when suddenly on the verge of breaking a long standing club record of 17 unbeaten matches, 13 of them wins, the Shrimpers lost the plot losing four successive games.

 

Sturrock explained: "Our suspensions and injuries I think caught up with us with four games in ten days. I think if Mohsni had his goal allowed in the first cup game with Oldham you would have seen a totally different month for us. Saying that we were beaten by a very good side at Cheltenham, we can take nothing away from them that day, we were well beaten. We've now tided ourselves up and added some players."

 

And those signings all look pretty good, not that we've seen Anto Flood yet who Luggy says is a couple of weeks away from being considered, and it's the quality of that bench which should see us crossing that promotion line come May.