Southend sees the new Sutton-free era begin

In an almost ironic twist of fate, Lincoln City face the team that were arguably the case of the beginning of the club's decline of the past five years. It will be the first time that the Imps will face Southend United since May 2005, the Playoff Final contested between the clubs.

Back in May 2005, the Imps were a team that were actually a team that produced on the pitch, a far cry from now. After beating Macclesfield 2-1 on aggregate in the Playoff Semi Finals, the Imps faced Southend United, a team City very rarely lost against at the time, infact, City hadn't lost against Southend in the League in six meetings going into the game, winning three of the games. Just like the three games previously though, the teams went in at the end of 90 minutes level, neither side hitting the net in normal time.

The sides went into extra time with some players struggling, and by half time in extra time, the Imps had already lost Simon Yeo and Gary Taylor-Fletcher before that time.......however, Southend were winning by that time. Freddy Eastwood pounced from mere centimetre's out after Gareth McAuley's goal-line clearance didn't get cleared properly. Southend did eventually make it 2-0 before eventually winning promotion.

Ever since that match, the Imps have generally been poor. Other than the calendar year of 2006, the Imps often struggled to get consistency with results. Although City finished 7th in 2005/6, anyone who went on a regular basis knew that it was fairly undeserved, whereas City's start to the 2006/7 will always been remembered, however, since the turn of the year in 2007, it's been one rubbish year after another, eventually seeing Chris Sutton appointed last year and failing to even achieve midtable mediocrity.

The Imps are now managerless after Sutton left the Imps following the 0-0 draw with Burton Albion in midweek, leaving behind a record of just 14 wins in 51 games. Names such as Dave Penney, Gareth Ainsworth and Martin Foyle have all been linked to the job, as has Steve Tilson, the man who managed Southend United to the aforementioned Playoff Finals. For now Scott Lindsey and Paul Musselwhite are in charge.

The departure of Sutton was fairly mixed, although the majority seemed to lean towards the argument that Sutton wasn't good for us, so it'll be interesting to see how the Imps react now that he's gone. The players seemed miserable at times, so maybe not having Mr Negative around will actually spur the players on, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Normally in this section we would go through all the players we expect to see in the starting XI, or even the formation, but now that we have a new man in charge, it's impossible to tell who will start. Adifane Noussara will not be travelling with the first team due to a lack of match fitness, meaning he will have to wait at least another week before making his debut for the first team.

Scott Kerr is suspended for the third and final game following his red card at Accrington. Andy Hutchinson is also set to miss the game.

Lincoln City have had four different managers since the last time the Imps and Southend faced each other. Keith Alexander, John Schofield, Peter Jackson and Chris Sutton has all left the club in the five years since the Playoff Final. Before the Playoff Final, you'd have to go back to March 2005 to find the last meeting between the clubs. It was a largely forgettable game at Roots Hall, with seemingly a disallowed Taylor-Fletcher goal being the only talking point, however the talking point was still to come. Ben Futcher scored in the 87th minute for the Imps, although Southend were angered as he appeared to foul a defender in the build up. However, the Imps could be annoyed about the equaliser as well, Freddy Eastwood went down very easily under a Lee Beevers challenge before hitting the leveller.

It was the second time that season Southend had gained a controversial penalty. Gary Taylor-Fletcher had scored the opening goal in August 2004 at Sincil Bank, but later on the first half Southend were given a penalty. Alan Marriott cleared the ball before Gray came into contact with his leg. Gray didn't even go down but the referee awarded a penalty, a penalty that Gray eventually put away.

2003/4 saw the clubs meet three times. City travelled to Roots Hall on September 16th and it was a game of firsts. Marcus Richardson scored his first ever goal for the Imps before Marriott saved a late penalty, from that penalty the ball went up the other end of the pitch and Richard Butcher scored a stunning goal to give City their first away win of the season. Three months later and Southend certainly got their revenge with a 3-0 win over City in the FA Cup 2nd Round.

The game at Sincil Bank was a game of two halves. The rapidly improving Southend came to Sincil Bank in their last game before the LDV Vans Final and took a 2-0 lead thanks to two Leon Constantine strikes, however, late goals from Francis Green and Simon Yeo drew City level.

Only four players have played for both clubs during the last ten or so years. Current Imp Drewe Broughton spent several years at Roots Hall several years ago. Martin Carruthers, Danny Webb and Lawrie Dudfield also spent time at both clubs in that period.

To say Southend United had a difficult summer would be an understatement. They had severe financial troubles again, only just avoiding being wound up and their players were only officially registered a few days before the season. Many websites, including ourselves, felt they were doomed due to the financial issues, infact our prediction of 24th didn't go down to well in Essex, but I did say I would hold my hands up and say I was wrong if they did well, and they are doing reasonably well at the moment considering.

Paul Sturrock has had success at this level with Plymouth Argyle and Swindon Town and although he hasn't started brilliantly at Southend United, I think he'll be reasonably pleased with the start given how things looked and that it's a brand new team. However, form at Roots Hall hasn't been great, winning just one of the four games played there so far, including losing to Morecambe, who can't seemingly buy a win at their own stadium, let alone away from home.

They have won 3 from their last 6 games, not an overly bad record and they have picked up four points from their last two games, both on the road.

In terms of the squad, they have a half decent team. In goal is the former long serving Orient keeper Glenn Morris, but Sturrock has recruited from his former clubs quite heavily. Blair Sturrock, Paul's son, is well travelled and Southend are his 8th club at the age of 29, Southend being the third club he's played for that were managed by his dad. Graham Coughlan played for Sturrock at Plymouth, whereas Craig Easton, Barry Corr, Sofiene Zaaboob and Michael Timlin were all at Swindon during Sturrock's time there.