Sturrock: 'We relish the chance to play against the top teams in the league'
Blues boss Paul Sturrock is well aware that the long trip to South Yorkshire is the beginning of a set of League Two clashes where any points will be of hard won.
Sturrock told www.echo-news.co.uk: "(Saturday's) game at Rotherham United is the start of another difficult run of fixtures for us. They're currently second in the table and will make life very difficult for us at their ground. They have a very settled side and, because of that, you virtually know every week what their starting line-up is going to be. That's something you always like to have as a manager but suspensions have stopped that happening for us so far this season. We've had four different players missing with bans already and it's something I will be talking to the players about. We can’t keep on picking up these fines and booking but I certainly don’t think we’re a dirty side. We're missing Anthony Grant and Ryan Hall against Rotherham as they have one match suspensions which is a shame but that does give other people a chance to come in and show what they can do."
Which is what we are all waiting to find out, with the former Chelsea youth Lee Sawyer possibily a surprise inclusion, and then, what do you do about Bilel?
Whatever he decides there's doubt the future is tough!
Sturrock continued: "I have one or two things to think about before deciding their replacements and we will also be checking on the fitness of Lee Sawyer and Bilel Mohsni. Whoever I do pick will need to play well just like we did at Port Vale and Accrington to get hard fought wins. Port Vale were flying when we went there and won and Accrington hadn't lost for something like 14 games at home in the league before we beat them so they were both good results. We now want another one tomorrow and it's important to keep this good run we're on going.After Rotherham we face Shrewsbury, who are third and soon after that we play the league leaders Morecambe so it's a tough few weeks we have ahead of us. We're looking forward to the challenge though and we relish the chance to play against the top teams in the league."
Bilel back today? Vote here: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk