npower League 2

Southend v Torquay United 

Saturday, 4th September - KO 3.00pm

United played out a 2-2 draw in a practice match with Exeter City on Wednesday with Lathaniel Rowe-Turner & Billy Kee scoring the Gulls' goals after they fell two behind and Bucks stressed how important this game was for the squad: ''It was imperative that the players who haven't been involved of late got up to speed with ninety minutes of football and we are grateful to Exeter for presenting the opportunity to us. It was a good game with a good tempo and both sides will get a lot out of it. We had a late one getting back from Bournemouth on Tuesday night and we started this match a little slowly but that was to be expected. We got into our stride as the match went on and it was a good contest.''

Looking ahead to Southend and United will take a full squad which includes Wayne Carlisle who was rested at Bournemouth in midweek, the squad have put in the miles this week and the coaching staff are working as hard as ever to prepare the team in between coach trips: ''Everyone is fit as of Thursday, we are training on Friday at West Ham and then head on to prepare ourselves for a big game on Saturday. It isn't ideal to be travelling to Port Vale, Bournemouth and then Southend in the space of a week, it isn't fair in many ways and the players will probably be feeling it come the weekend but it is up to us to try and find the right training methods and know when to come off it and when to ad a bit more in. It is important to get the right foods into the players because they haven't got a lot of time to prepare and we haven't got a massive squad.

''Credit must go to the players for going to Bournemouth and putting on a fine display and we will need more of the same on Saturday and we have a lot of preparation to do.

''Our focus must be solely on what we can do, we have been doing enough good things in games and it is about reminding each other of those good points and eliminate as many of the negatives as we can. We are doing very well at the moment and nine times out of ten if you keep doing the right things well you will be successful'' 

United squad: Bevan; Rowe-Turner, Nicholson, Ellis, Robertson, Charnock, Mansell, Kee, Benyon, O'Kane, Wroe, Macklin, Carlisle, Potter, Halpin, Stevens, Gritton, Lathrope, Branston, Yeoman, Palmer, Zebroski.