Marcus Braddock looks ahead to Saturday's trip to Southend
This weekend Shrewsbury Town travel all the way down south to Essex to face Southend United. The Shrimpers have found life difficult in League One this season, particularly since mid January, which was when, they last won in League One. You have to go back to New Years Day to find Southend's last home win, a 2-0 win against Kent rivals Gillingham. This week, manager Chris Powell and Southend parted company with their form being the obvious reason, Ricky Duncan, the head of the Southend Academy, has taken temporary charge.
Top Scorer (league only)
Simon Cox 14
Tom Hopper 7
Stephen Humphreys 4
Sam Mantom 4
Theo Robinson 4
Assists
Ben Coker 4
Jason Demetriou 4
Simon Cox 3
Timothee' Dieng 3
Sam Hart 3
Sam Mantom 3
Theo Robinson 3
Clean Sheets
Eleven, seven at home. Last clean sheet at home in League one was on Jan 1st 2019, a 2-0 win against Gillingham.
Southend home statistics
Southend's home stats are interesting, as they seem to improve as the game goes on. At home they've only scored once in the first fifteen minutes this season. They've scored three in the second fifteen minutes and their goal count gets progressively better throughout the game, finishing with 10 league goals in the final fifteen minutes of league one games. They've also conceded six goals in the last fifteen minutes and another six in the last fifteen minutes of the first half.
Southend have scored an average of 1.4 goals per home game and have conceded the exact same amount. That's given them an average of 1 point per game against a Skybet League One average of around 1.5.
Referee
Michael Salisbury from Lancashire. Games this season: 36. Yellow cards: 105. Red cards: 4
Squad News
Southend are keeping an eye on top scorer Simon Cox after an ankle injury last week although the player says he feels fit. Tom Hopper and Stephen Humphrys will miss out, as will Winger Stephen McLaughlin will also not feature.
Steve Arnold will miss out after picking up a hamstring injury last weekend which is set to see him missing for 4 to 5 weeks.
Summary
Why is it that teams that are struggling always seem to remove their manager before they play us? I'm sure that statistically I'm wrong but we do seem to play a fair few teams every season that have removed their manager and are playing with a new freedom, it even happened to us earlier this season. Whoever is in charge will be doing their best to test our weaknesses and arrest their slide down the table so we'll need to be at our best and also take the opportunities when they arise.