Southend United captain Chris Barker: We owe Aldershot one (From Echo)

Southend United captain Chris Barker: We owe Aldershot one

9:00am Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Sport By Chris Phillips

CHRIS Barker is keen for Southend United to get their own back on Aldershot Town tonight.

Blues suffered two crucial defeats against the Shots last season, including one after a controversial floodlight failure at the Recreation Ground.

And Barker is therefore seeking revenge at Roots Hall this evening.

“I think we do owe Aldershot one after what happened last season and it would be great to get a win tonight,” said the Blues captain.

“We missed out on promotion by just one point last season and the game at their place is one you do look back at.

“We were 1-0 up and they had 10 men before the game was abandoned due to a floodlight failure and we lost the rescheduled game.

“It was frustrating and hard to take but it’s in the past now and we have to focus on this season and trying to get promotion.

“We have two home games coming up this week and if we win them both then we could be in the top four or five in the table.”

However, Barker will be taking nothing for granted and he is expecting a difficult evening against Aldershot, despite their current run of bad results.

Shots have lost their seven games but Barker still feels they will be hard to beat tonight.

“These types of game are often harder to play in,” said Barker.

“We had a very hard game against Barnet, who are bottom, which we drew not so long ago and we lost to Accrington too so we know we will be in for a battle.

“But we want to get back on track after conceding a late goal at Morecambe at the weekend.”

Blues go in to the game 11th in the League Two table and manager Paul Sturrock is also keen for his side to record their first win against the Shots in 22 years.

“This will be a very difficult game but we need to get back on the rails again,” said Sturrock.

“Aldershot have been a bit of a bogey team for us but we want to get going again and get a good result to pick us up from Saturday’s disappointment at Morecambe.”