Next Up: Sarfend

It's third v fourth in the League 1 promotion race and whilst still early in the campaign both ourselves and the Shrimpers will be expected to be amongst the leaders come the end of the season.

Southend have done well since being relegated from the Championship last season. Currently in 3rd spot, they sit a point and a place above the Reds on 25. Their away form to date is pretty decent, having won 4 from 7. They have drawn 1 and lost the other 2.

Southend have not shown any signs of missing star man and proud Pikey Freddy Eastwood, since his £1.5M move to Wolves in the summer. They now have Leon Clarke on loan from Sheffield Wednesday to take over from him, albeit until January.

Forest will be buoyed by the news that they have arrested the dip in form that threatened to derail our own promotion push. The 2-0 win over fellow promotion rivals Tranmere at the weekend was a timely result. This will be a tough game and maybe a point won't be seen as a bad result, even though we are at home. Whilst Forest were beating Tranmere on Saturday, Southend were beating Northampton away 1-0.

Shrimpers boss Steve Tilson was delighted with his sides 1-0 win at the weekend saying. 'Northampton have an excellent home record, and we had to work hard from the first whistle to get a result. We are right amongst things at the top now, and we need to keep picking up points to stay there.'

No new injury worries ahead of the game from Forest as yet. The good news is Tyson looked in fine form after coming back from a knee injury at the weekend. Wes Morgan will also be pushing for a place.

In his one and a half games so far in the Garibaldi, he's shown why he is set to become a crowd favourite. Blistering pace, a good crosser of the ball and a willingness to run at defences is what the fans were wanting and he doesn't look as though he's going to disappoint.

No news from the Southend camp just yet. Updates will appear as and when.

Clarke joined from Sheffield Wednesday on loan just before the transfer deadline. He's at Roots Hall until January at least. The striker has so far hit 7 goals for the Shrimpers and is the clubs top scorer.

Last time the two sides met was back in 2005. The game at the City Ground saw the Reds run out 2-0 winners. This was sweet revenge for the 1-0 defeat suffered in the televised game at Roots Hall earlier in the season, the same weekend their famous pier burned down strangely enough. Nothing to do with Forest, despite the amusing claims of fans at the time.

This looks like a tight game and has draw written all over it in my opinion. 1-1.

FAC 1. Lincoln City (a). November 10, 2007.

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