Southend United's Matthew Lund fighting to be fit for Rochdale clash (From Echo)

Southend United's Matthew Lund fighting to be fit for Rochdale clash

1:00pm Friday 22nd March 2013 in Sport By Chris Phillips

MATTHEW Lund is fighting to be fit for Southend United’s trip to Rochdale tomorrow.

The on loan midfielder missed the midweek defeat to Plymouth Argyle with a hip problem.

And Blues boss Paul Sturrock is not sure if he will be back in time to figure at Spotland on Saturday.

“Matthew is still struggling with the hip injury which forced him out of the game on Tuesday and we’re not sure whether or not he’ll be able to play,” said the Scotsman.

“He will be given opportunity to be declared fit but at the moment I would say he’s doubtful and that’s obviously a blow for us because he had been playing well.”

Southend will definitely be missing Mark Phillips (broken toe), Chris Barker (Achilles), Michael Timlin (broken leg) and Neil Harris (knee).

But Luke Prosser is available again after completing a two match suspension for accumulating 10 yellow cards and he looks set to go straight back in the side at centre-back.

Barry Corr, Ryan Leonard and Gavin Tomlin are also pushing for recalls and Sturrock will again make changes to his side after a trio of disappointing home results.

“One point from those three games wasn’t good enough and now we need to get ourselves back on the rails again,” said Sturrock.

“Rochdale are quite an inconsistent side but on their day they are a very strong side so we will have to play much better than we have been doing just recently if we are to get a good result.

“They’re 17th in the table but all the teams down towards the bottom are picking up and they will want to get points on board as quickly as they can.

“But we have to start doing better against the teams down towards the bottom.

“I think we’ve taken something like 10 points out of a possible 36 against the bottom seven sides so far this season and that has to improve.

“We want to finish the season on a high and we need a good performance and result tomorrow.”

Daniel Bentley again looks set to keep his place in goal for Blues while Kevan Hurst is in line to make his 50th appearance of the season.