Source: FOOTYMAD
Southend United boss Paul Sturrock speaks before Oxford United and Cheltenham Town
In his weekly Echo column Southend United manager Paul Sturrock talks about the frustration of postponements offset by the chances of injured players getting fit for the new year. Sturrock: Not a lot of positives for Blues boss Paul Sturrock can be had from losing five out of the last seven games due to the adverse weather conditions, but one is that it gives time for players to get fit, and there's been a few injured Shrimpers lately, including forgotten man, centre-back Mark Phillips. Sturrock told www.echo-news.co.uk: "The boy Phillips is now making good progress from the hernia operation he had and the plan is for him to resume full training tomorrow which would be a huge boost for him. He has had a tough time with injuries since he came to the club and he has hardly kicked a ball for us so far but if the Essex Senior Cup game goes ahead at Chelmsford City next week then he will definitely play some part in that."There was good news about fellow centre-back and all round cult player Bilel Mohnsi, as well as goalkeeper Glenn Morris, who we weren't aware was even carrying a knock!Luggy explained: "He picked up a bad ankle injury and, if our games over Christmas had gone ahead, then I would have gone with Rhys Evans in goal because of the amount of time Glenn had out. He was OK to play in one of the training matches we had on Tuesday though and it was great we were able to organise the games. It gave everyone a run-out, including some of the reserves who have not had a game for quite a while now." The called-off games will lead to a real fixture pile-up as the season enters 2011, but the forecast is good, if you forget about the fog, for the two New Year games to go ahead.The Shrimpers manager continued: "We now hope to return to action against Oxford this weekend and that will be a difficult game because they brought in three or four very good players on loan just before the transfer window closed. They also beat Macclesfield 2-1 in the week which is a good result and they will therefore be full of confidence against us." Finally, Luggy spoke about the upcoming reopening of the Football League transfer window and a former loanee turning out against us at the Kassam Stadium on Jan 1. Luggy concluded: "We could also be coming up against Jack Midson who has now returned to Oxford after completing his loan spell with us. He is still in our thoughts though and I'm burning the midnight oil at the moment thinking about the changes which need to be made to our squad during January. I have had four months to look at all the players who came in during the summer and I now know what areas we need to strengthen in. We also need to move people on and make sure that by the end of January we have a stronger squad than we do now."
