A Night at the Races.
This Tuesday the 25th of November the Mighty Shrimpers have a nice away trip to Whaddon Road which is the home of Cheltenham Town Football Club.
Our last trip to Whaddon Road was a night game on a cold friday night in February where we witnessed a 1-1 draw. A crowd of 3,859 people experienced
a pretty dull game and myself being one of them. The Robins took an early first half lead with a strike from Steve Brooker and after a pretty poor
display from the blues it wasn't untill the 74th minute when Southend's Nicky 'This is my dream move' Bailey scored the equaliser to earn us a
point.
Another season has past and its time for another night trip to Whaddon Road and lets hope this one will be a little bit more exciting
than the last one. The most noticeable change to Cheltenham is their super star striker (a rumoured Steve Tilson target) Steven Gillespie was sold
during the summer to that other team up the A12. Obviously the guy has bags of ambition and wants to play infront of small crowds and sleep with
his sister. But anyway enough of the Colchester bashing and on with the report.
Cheltenham's Last 5 League Results:
Carlisle United (A) 1-0
Hereford United (A) 3-0
Leeds United (H) 0-1
MK Dons (A) 3-1 - Caines
Tranmer Rovers (A) 2-0
Out of 8 home games they have played Cheltenham have:
Won: 3
Drawn: 1
Lost: 4
The have conceeded 15 goals at home and scored 10 goals.
How the teams lined up on the 29th of February:
Cheltenham Town: Higgs, J.Gill, Gallinagh, Duff, Wright, Vincent, Bird, Armstrong, Spencer, Brooker, Gillespie.
Subs: S.P.Brown, Connor, B.Gill, D'Agostino, Lindegaard.
Southend United: Flahavan; Francis, Clarke, Barrett, Mulgrew, Black, McCormack, Bailey, Gower, Barnard, Walker.
Subs: Collis, Hunt, Moussa, Grant, Harrold.
How the teams lined up on their last league matches:
Cheltenham Town: Brown, Bird, Diallo, Gallinagh, Wright (c), Murray, Montrose, Westlake, Ridley, Hammond, Connor.
Subs: Higgs, Kenton, Spencer, Vincent, Payne.
Southend United: Federici, Francis, Clarke, Barrett, Harding, Betsy, Christophe, McCormack, Milsom, Walker, Revell.
Subs: Mildenhall, Grant, Ademeno, Herd, Sankofa.
So Cheltenham Town have 8 changes to the squad that lined up against The Shrimpers in February of this year.*
And Southend United have 10 changes to the squad that lined up aginst The Robins in February of this year.*
*These figures are based on the basis that the line ups stay the same as each teams last league matches.
The Gaffer:
Martin Allen - Aged 43 Martin is an ex proffesional footballer, a midfielder with a 14 year playing career having played for Queens Park Rangers, West
Ham United, Portsmouth and finished his career after a short loan to of all teams Southend United. He hung up his boots in 1998 after 5 appearances for
The Shrimpers to focus on a coaching career. His first job as in his coaching career came as assistant manager at his home club Reading during Alan Pardew's
stint with The Royals. His first job came as Barnet manager in 2003, he then went on to manage at Brentford, MK Dons, Leicester and now Cheltenham. Allen has never spent more than 2 years with a club with his shortest stint being with the Leicester City. Due to the over powering powers of Milan Mandaric Allen's stint as Leicester manager lasted 4 months after his contract was terminated on mutual consent. Martin Allen took over at Cheltenham Town in September and right away made an impact by dropping players and bringing in players straight away. And also his father managed Cheltenham Town for 5 years
in 1974-1979.
The Likely Line Up:
Scott P Brown - 23 year old, 6ft tall goalkeeper who was a product of the Wolverhampton Wanderers youth set up, he left Wolves and played for Welsh side Welshpool Town then was snapped up by Bristol City who he did not make a first team appearance for the season he was there for. He then signed for Cheltenham Town in 2005 and has made 12 appearances in the league since joining. His most recent appearances have been of recent due to Allen favouring him over former No.1 keeper Shane Higgs.
David Bird - 23 year old midfielder who is one of the products of Cheltenham Town's centre of excellence. He made his debut for the Robins in 2002 and ever since that has been pretty much a regular with him coming runner up in the 2007-2008 season supporters player of the year.
Drissa Diallo - 35 year old, 6ft 1 defender currently on loan from MK Dons. Diallo was born in Mauritania of Arabia but has French nationality and made 1 internaional appearance for Guinea. He started his player career with CS Sedan Ardennes and has played for Burnley, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday and MK Dons. He has fallen out of favour with Roberto Di Matteo so was sent out on loan.
Andy Gallinagh - 23 year old, 5ft 10 defender who started his playing career with Coventry City's youth team, he then left to join Stratford Town, and in 2003 he was then snapped up by Cheltenham Town and has only made 28 league appearances since joining. Most of which came this season and last season where he was voted Cheltenham Town's Young Player of The Year.
Alan Wright - 37 year old, 5ft 4 defender who is Cheltenham's captain. He started his career with Blackpool in 1989 and has since played for 11 different clubs. He spent most of his early career with Aston Villa notching up 260 appearances, in 2007 he signed for Cheltenham on a free after being released by Sheffield United. He has since played 33 times for The Robins.
Scott Murray - 34 year old, Scottish right winger currently on loan from Bristol City. Started his career in 1993 with Fraserburgh F.C a team based in Aberdeen he then signed for Aston Villa the next year. He has spent most of his career with Bristol City having two stints with the club and notching up an impressive 352 appearances and scoring 74 goals. He has played 7 times in the league for Cheltenham scoring 2 goals.
Lewis Montrose - 20 year old, Scottish midfielder on loan from premiership side Wigan Athletic. A Wigan youth product he has yet to figure for their first team and has been sent on loan once to Rochdale and now to Cheltenham were he has so far made 3 appearances in the league. He is at the club on a months loan.
Ian Westlake - 25 year old, midfielder on loan from Leeds United. Started his career with Ipswich Town and after 113 appearances he moved to Leeds in a part exchange deal for Southend United's on loan left back Dan Harding. He has made 48 appearances for Leeds and been sent on loan twice this year once to Brighton at the tail end of last season and now to Cheltenham where he has made 3 appearances.
Lee Ridley - 26 year old, 5ft 10 defender made 100 appearances for Scunthorpe when he started his career. He was then later sold to Cheltenham Town in 2007 and has spent time out on loan. But since Martin Allen has taken over he has started to figure more in the first team making 3 appearances so far this season.
Elvis Hammond - 28 year old, Ghanian striker started his career with Fulham where he never really made an impact and spent most of his 4 year stay with them out on loan. He was later signed by Leicester after a successful loan spell in 2005. In 2006 he made 1 international appearance for Ghana against Mexico in a friendly. Hammond joined Cheltenham after being released by Leicester on the 11th of November 2008 and has signed a short term contract untill January 2009.
Paul Connor - 29 year old, Striker first started playing for Middlesborough in 1996 and has been a bit of a journey men in his 12 year career playing for 9 different teams. He signed for Cheltenham in 2007 and has so far played 35 games and scored 5 goals in the league. I have picked and reviewed all the players who played against Carlisle United on saturday.
Ricey's One's to Watch:
I think for me as the reporter I find this one very hard to pick because no disrespect to Cheltenham Town but they have not had a set line up since Allen has come in. With so many new players coming in and going out it is hard for me but I have picked these 4.
Lloyd Owusu - He was unable to play against Carlisle United due to his wife giving birth. This guy is one of those strikers for The Shrimpers he will always score against us. He has scored against us countless amounts of times during his playing career for Yeovil and Brenford mainly. A dangerous striker who needs to be targetted if playing by Clarkey and Barrett.
Drissa Diallo - Solid and strong but starting to get on a bit. I think he adds the certain Efe Sodje/Spencer Prior effect that our team lack and this is why he will be a threat to our strikers. He will be a real thorn in Walker/Revell/Barnard's bum.
Josh Payne - Didn't start against Carlisle but could start against us, he is a 17 year old youngster on loan from West Ham United. Highly rated by the Hammers this guy is apparently a future England star.
Scott Brown - The Goalkeeper who has knocked Shane Higgs off his goal post and taken his no.1 spot. He has been highly impressive since Higgs was dropped and showed that he has real potential.
Here we go again another Pre Match report completed by myself. This only my second one and once again feedback and comments are welcommed as this is now a permenant feature to SZ. So I would like to improve them as they go along, and I would like to say a huge thank you to all the owners of Shrimperzone who have let me put my words to good use and giving me this oppertunity.
Kind Regards and Up The Blues!!
Matthew Rice (Ricey)
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