Shrimpers skipper speaks out: 'We know we need more clean sheets' : Swindon Town Northampton Town

06 September 2011 13:22
Southend United centre-back Chris Barker is concerned that the defence he's a part of is leaking far too many goals even at this early stage of the season, but reminds the faithful, we are still three matches unbeaten! Barker: 'We won at Port Vale, who are a strong team' Shrimpers skipper and central defender Chris Barker has been in the thick of things as his side have let in nine goals in their first six league games! With a manger like Paul Sturrock, who he's played for at Plymouth, Chris will be well aware that here is a manager that has built previous promotion teams on the back of a strong defence. Barker told www.echo-news.co.uk: “We do a lot of work on our back four and the back six but you wouldn’t think we did at the moment because we’re letting in too many goals. We kept 12 clean sheets last season but only have one in the league this year so we know we need to start getting a few more if we are to be in the hunt for promotion.” Fair enough, but to let a two goal lead go as they did last weekend against Northampton was not the way to go about getting a top seven place come May let alone top three, and knows that Saturday's opponents Swindon Town have plenty of attacking options as the Robins 3-2 win over Rotherham in their last game showed. Barker continued: “In the end it was a frustrating afternoon for us but we’ve had a good week. We won at Port Vale, who are a strong team, and then got through to the next round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy by beating Crawley. Drawing with Northampton has made that three unbeaten for us and we want to keep the run going when we go to Swindon on Saturday.” The Barker Files Personal information Full name Christopher Andrew Barker Date of birth 2 March 1980 (1980-03-02) (age 31) Place of birth Sheffield, England Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Playing position Defender Club information Current club Southend United Number 23 Youth career 1997–1999 Alfreton Town Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1999–2002 Barnsley 113 (3) 2002–2007 Cardiff City 159 (0) 2004 → Stoke City (loan) 4 (0) 2006–2007 → Colchester United (loan) 38 (0) 2007–2008 Queens Park Rangers 25 (0) 2008–2010 Plymouth Argyle 54 (0) 2010 → Southend United (loan) 4 (0) 2010– Southend United 45 (0) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 08:47, 4 September 2011 (UTC).† Appearances (Goals). (Player info supplied by Wikipedia, for the article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Barker)

Source: FOOTYMAD