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Sturrock: 'Side may need freshening up'; Coleman: 'Have to organise our shape better'

Last updated : 12 August 2011 By westfield shrimper
Sturrock: New Shrimpers boss
Sturrock: 'It will still be a very difficult game for us'
 
Blues boss Paul Sturrock is well aware what a tough task his side have on their trip to face a team that consistantly punch above their weight, Accrington Stanley.
 
Sturrock told www.echo-news.co.uk: "Tomorrow we find ourselves up against Accrington Stanley and John Coleman, who for me was manager of the year last season. He does a fantastic job there and has a system and way of play which is very difficult to combat. He’s lost a few players from the team he guided in to the play-offs last time around but he’s always had to put up with that while he’s been there and it will still be a very difficult game for us."
 
So what will Luggy do with the squad after what must have been a shaken dressing room after Tuesday evening's penalty shoot out defeat to East End neighbours Leyton Orient, a game that the Southend manager admits: 'We created the chances to win the tie but didn’t take them.' 

Sturrock said: "It means I have one or two things to think about when it comes to picking the team and the side may need freshening up after our Carling Cup tie with Leyton Orient went to extra time and penalties on Tuesday night. I will need to see how the likes of Liam Dickinson and Graham Coughlan respond to playing 120 minutes, when they were only supposed to play for an hour, and we will also have to check on the fitness of Mark Phillips who felt something pop in his groin. That’s a concern because he’s been playing very well for us but he just doesn’t seem able to play four or five games in a row without getting injured. We will also need to again check on Bilel Mohsni who is fasting for Ramadan right now and we will be wanting to get back on track after losing to Leyton Orient on penalties in the first round of the Carling Cup on Tuesday night."

UPDATE: Bilel Mohsni will not play at Accrington as he needs rest due to Ramadan as Sturrock explains above.

So where will the Shrimpers finish this season? VOTE HERE: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk

Coleman: Demands better

Coleman: 'You don't take your chances you don't win games'

Meanwhile, Stanley boss John Coleman is demanding greater ruthlessness in front of goal as his side have yet to score a goal this season after being held to a goalless draw by Northampton Town on the opening day and losing 2-0 to Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

Coleman told www.accringtonstanley.co.uk about the Iron defeat: "If anybody was going to score it was going to be them in the second half. We were poor in the second half. We had five one on ones in the first 25 minutes but if you don't take your chances you don't win games. We have to organise our shape better than what we did in the second half. We didn't press the ball, we didn't try to pass the ball at all, we went long and we didn't hold it up. The ball kept coming back at us and they kept playing the same diagonal ball to their right winger that caused us no end of problems."

Coleman was left frustrated after his side spurned a host of chances against the Iron and is looking to his strikers to get back to placing the ball in the old onion bag, and just to give them a gee-up he allowed former Rotherham United and Tranmere Rovers forward Ian Thomas-Moore to train with his squad Thursday, and who knows, he may be sitting on the bench for Stanley at the weekend.