Shrimpers on loan keeper Luke Daniels has had a taste of playing at Wembley with Shrewsbury Town in the final of the 2008/09 League Two plays-offs, losing to Gillingham but having a fine game.
And he'll be trying to help his new side get three matches closer to north-west London when they play Oxford United again Tuesday evening, this time at the Kassam Stadium, in the regional quarter-finals of this season's JPT, only four days after practicly keeping them out single handed, well two in most cases, to make sure Southend took the points in a 2-1 win.
Daniels told www.echo-news.co.uk: “It wasn’t pretty on Saturday and we had to dig deep to win but hopefully we can get enough good result against Oxford tonight. It will be strange playing the same team again so quickly but we will know what to expect and we definitely want to win to get another step closer to a Wembley cup final. Everyone dreams of playing at Wembley when they’re younger and it would be great for Southend to get there too. But we can only focus on this game at the moment and we know it will be tough.”
Cettainly should be, the U's proved to be the Shrimpers toughest opponents this campaign and Saint Luke had to pull off several great saves to keep them at bay.
Daniels said: “I had a few bits to do but the most important thing was that we won the game. Things are going well here and I’m enjoy playing first team football again. You just don’t get those kind of battling performances in the reserves and I’m looking forward to the game tonight as well.”
And we're pleased to see you between the sticks, have another good one Luke.
No to Preston, yes to Oxford: www.southendunited-mad.co.uk
The Daniels Files
Personal information Full name Luke Matthew Daniels Date of birth 5 January 1988 (1988-01-05) (age 23) Place of birth Bolton, England Height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Playing position Goalkeeper Club information Current clubSouthend United (on loan from West Bromwich Albion)
Number 31 Youth career 1997–2004 Manchester United 2004–2006 West Bromwich Albion Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 2003–2004 Manchester United 0 (0) 2004– West Bromwich Albion 0 (0) 2008 → Motherwell (loan) 2 (0) 2008–2009 → Shrewsbury Town (loan) 38 (0) 2009–2010 → Tranmere Rovers (loan) 37 (0) 2010 → Charlton Athletic (loan) 0 (0) 2010 → Rochdale (loan) 1 (0) 2011 → Bristol Rovers (loan) 9 (0) 2011– → Southend United (loan) 3 (0) National team‡ 2006–2007 England U19 2 (0) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 05:32, 26 October 2011 (UTC).† Appearances (Goals).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 13:31, 1 August 2008 (UTC)(Player info supplied by Wikipedia, for the full article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Daniels)
Source: FOOTYMAD
