So we have the side, and Blues boss Paul Sturrock, he who must be obeyed, has kept in Kane Ferdinand and Jean-Paul Kalala in midfield, so Anthony Grant and Ryan Leonard return to the bench after Barnet.
However, from the 3-0 win in midweek, Bilel Mohsni has moved to the right wing, with Ryan Hall wider left in a sort of 4-5-1, Liam Dickinson on his own, Neil Harris stays as a sub, interesting selection as the rain pours down in Macclesfield, bloody wether forecast!
And it's wideboy Hall who has the first effort on goal, it's off a Silkmen defender for a corner, which he takes as usual, but it doesn't create any danger.
Up the other end and the the very physical looking home side, they are very tall, gets into the game through Tony Diagne with a couple of long range shots that don't test the loanee from West Brom Luke Daniels who remains unbeaten in his short Southend career.
On 8 minutes Ferdinand gets a header in but it clears the bar, and the game settles in to plenty of midfield action with little of it reaching either goalmouth.
Running in fom central midfield Michael Timlin wakes us up with a left footer from long range which goes wide right of the goal before a keeper actually has some work to do after 24 minutes, and it's the home side's Jose Veiga, Mohsni with the overhead kick, the Silkman shot stopper getting his fingertips to the ball pushing it past the right hand post.
A Timlin free-kick finds centre-back Mark Phillips, after that goal to get him level in the top scoring sheets, but he heads wide left.
Timmo then decides to get his shooting boots on with similar efforts within a couple of minutes from 25 yards, both delt with well by Veiga.
Southend dominating possesion now, 55-45 according to the Beeb, and we hope you took those odds of 9's on Ryan Hall opening the scoring for the second successive match, because on 39 minutes he has!
Typical of the in-form winger as well, the ball finds him inside the box and he unleashes a superb volley that finds the top left hand corner of the net.
And with the news that Accrington have taken the lead at Crawley, we are top of the league, for now!
Carl Tremarco ends the half with a shot for the Silkmen, but it's easily saved by young Luke.
Half-Time: Macclesfield Town 0 Southend United 1
Match Stats so far:
Possession; Silkmen 40%, Shrimpers 60%
Attempts on target; Silkmen 1 Shrimpers 6
Attempts off target; Silkmen 2 Shrimpers 4
Corners; Silkmen 1 Shrimpers 5
Fouls; Silkmen 6 Shrimpers 2
Fair to say we deserve our lead, and as EEB has a fiver on 1-0 he would like it to remain the same!
Macclesfield Town: Veiga, Tremarco, Brown, Brisley, Hewitt, Daniel, Diagne, Wedgbury, Chalmers, Boden, Mukendi.
Subs: Kay, Morgan, Mendy, Grant, Hawshaw. Southend United: Daniels, Clohessy, Barker, Phillips, Gilbert, Mohsni, Timlin, Ferdinand, Kalala, Hall, Dickinson. Subs: Bentley, Grant, Leonard, Johnson, Harris.
Source: FOOTYMAD
