Source: FOOTYMAD
Sturrock: 'Idea about putting Harry out on loan': Lee: 'More pressure on the home team'
Southend United manager Paul Sturrock and Northampton Town's assistant boss David Lee both their say before their League Two clash Saturday afternoon at Roots Hall. Sturrock: 'They invested heavily in their team during the summer' Blues boss Paul Sturrock is well aware that on paper their weekend opponents Northampton Town have a very strong squad on paper that has somehow only won once this season, 1-0 away to Aldershot, while losing five successive games, four on the row at the Sixfields stadium, where they will be pleased to be avoiding Saturday! Sturrock told www.echo-news.co.uk: "They haven’t had the best of starts to the season but they invested heavily in their team during the summer and I think they are still trying to get in to their stride. That can often happen to teams in the opening few months of the campaign and I certainly don’t think it will be too long until they stick to pick things up. But we have to make sure that doesn’t begin against us." As for the Shrimpers, two up, two down, two up again, it's certainly been a roller coaster ride for the Southend faithful, and Luggy obviously wants the 'up' part to continue. Sturrock continued: "I have been pleased by the response of the players since we lost to Burton but the second half performance wasn’t actually that bad against them either. We carried that on against Port Vale and then also beat Crawley Town in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy which was another good result." However, the loss of Liam Dickinson to a three match suspension, the injuries to Lee Sawyer, Neil Harris and Barry Corrhave put presssure on teh essex boys squad, especially up front. He said to BBC Essex: "Bilel Mohsni has been ill, the boy Harry Crawford is available, so I still have options. Harry's been a bit unfortunate, we've brought a couple of other strikers and that have put him down the pecking order. I did have an idea about putting him out on loan but the situation has arisen where we can't do that until everyone's available again." Lee: 'Every player makes mistakes and hopefully we're not make them again' Cobblers assistant boss David Lee is obviously concerned at his side's poor start but they don't plan to press the panic button just yet. Lee told www.ntfc.co.uk: "We need to get back to basics and we need to show the same passion and determination as we did on Tuesday night. (2-1 JPT home loss to huddersfield.) We were very disappointed with the way we played on Saturday but I think the reaction we got from everyone on Tuesday night was excellent and if we can play that well and in that way against Southend then I think we will do alright." As for the Northampton boss Gary Johnson, Lee believes his vast experience will help him through this current trough. Lee continued: "Gary has been a manager for a long time, he deals with the pressure very well and he handles himself very well. Losing a few games on the trot certainly won't face him, when he was at Bristol City I think he went through a bad time when he first joined the club and then he turned it round and ended up getting them to within one game of being in the Premier League." Well, that's history,but a fairer point is how teams can sometimes enjoy playing away from the pressure of picking up points at home after a bad home run, we've seen it with the Shrimeprs a few times, especially last season when Luggy was putting his side together from scratch. Lee concluded:"We've had four games on the spin now at home and sometimes going away from home can help to relieve a bit of the pressure. There is probably more pressure on the home team, we like to play good attacking football and being away from home can allow you to counter attack a little bit more as well. We had a good chat with the players on Monday about Saturday's game and we wanted to get it out of our system as quickly as possible. Every professional has pride an after a bad performance there is nothing better than having another game or two or three days later to try and put things right. We made mistakes on Saturday but every player makes mistakes and it's up to them to learn from that and hopefully not make those mistakes again." We will not have long to wait and see if they won't!
