Southend boss to make changes for Torquay clash (From Thurrock Gazette)

Boss Sturrock does not mince his words about lacklustre Shrimpers display

3:10am Saturday 16th March 2013 in Sport

SOUTHEND UNITED: Southend boss Paul Sturrock has not minced his words about the Shrimpers midweek performance.

He said: "Tuesday's night’s game against AFC Wimbledon was our worst home performance of the season so far and we need a strong reaction in Saturday's game against Torquay United.

They may be down towards the foot of the table, but we’ve learnt the hard way this year that a low position means very little at all.

That is particularly the case with Torquay because they made the play-offs last season and still have some quality players.

We know we will be in for a difficult game and we will certainly need to play far, far better than we did against AFC Wimbledon.

It was doom and gloom after the game, but we will have a team meeting where we will talk things through and really rally the troops.

Our injury situation certainly hasn’t helped and when we had a settled side we went on a great unbeaten run.

But I’m not going to be using that as an excuse because we have to work our way back up the table.

We were overtaken by two other teams after losing against Wimbledon and we’re now 10th in the table which is something we’re not happy about and need to sort out during the final quarter of the season.

Tomorrow’s game is a must win – but so was Tuesday and one or two players will pay the price for their poor performance when it comes to picking the team.

Luke Prosser will be out as he starts a two match suspension and it was stupidity on his behalf to get the yellow card like he did in the last minute against Wimbledon.

Someone on nine bookings shouldn’t be making a challenge like that and I will be having words with him so he will definitely know I’m not happy.

We will have to change the back four without him again and we’re very hopeful of bringing in other players on loan in time for Torquay.

It’s all in the melting pot at the moment and some water has to go under the bridge before it can happen but we’re confident that the squad will be strengthened before tomorrow’s game.

However, one player who won’t be involved is Danny Mayor who has gone back to Sheffield Wednesday after his loan spell ended.

I thought Danny did well in glimpses during games but he picked up an injury towards the end of his time here and I also felt he wasn’t quite consistent enough.