Southend United's Luke Prosser wants to continue good record against his former Port Vale side (From Echo)

Southend United's Luke Prosser wants to continue good record against his former Port Vale side

9:00am Friday 8th March 2013 in Sport By Chris Phillips

LUKE Prosser wants Southend United to continue their recent good record against Port Vale when he faces his former side this weekend.

Blues are unbeaten in their last four games against the Valiants.

And Prosser wants Paul Sturrock’s team to avoid defeat when the two teams meet again at Vale Park tomorrow.

“We’ve done quite well in the last few games we’ve had against Vale and we need that to continue,” said the 24-year-old centre-back.

“We need to get a win after what happened against Rotherham last weekend and what better place to get that then at the team sitting second in the league.”

Despite their lofty league placing though, Vale have also been struggling to find top form in their few outings.

Just like Blues, they have triumphed just once in their last six games.

And Prosser believes it could be a good time to be taking on Micky Adams’ men.

“They aren’t on a very good run themselves at the moment and seem to be struggling a little bit,” said the defender.

“We’ve not been playing at our best but if we can reach a good standard on Saturday we can definitely pick up three points.

“We look forward to playing the big teams and we seem to do better against them too.

“Vale certainly fall in to that category as they have a big ground and good fans and I certainly enjoyed my time there so I’m looking forward to going back.”

Prosser joined Port Vale, when aged 15, after being released by Tottenham Hotspur.

He then served an YTS apprenticeship with the club before going on to make 36 appearances for their first team and he is glad to see them doing well this season.

“Vale gave me my start in football so I like to see them winning games,” said Prosser.

“But I won’t be showing any sentiment tomorrow because I’m a Southend United player and we need the three points.”

For that to happen, Blues must keep League Two’s top goalscorer, Tom Pope, quiet.

Pope has hit the back of the net 27 times already this season.

However, Prosser is relishing taking him on.

“Popey is on fire this season but you always want to test yourself against the top players,” said Prosser.

“Hopefully Ryan (Cresswell) and I can keep him quiet but we know we’re in for a hard afternoon.”

Southend will have none of their injured players back for the game, meaning Chris Barker (calf), Marc Laird (hamstring), Mark Phillips (broken toe) and Gavin Tomlin (thigh) will again be absent.