Southend United's Paul Sturrock: Losing Michael Timlin was a major blow at Morecambe (From Echo)

Southend United's Paul Sturrock: Losing Michael Timlin was a major blow at Morecambe

3:00pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in Blues By Chris Phillips

Michael Timlin - injured

SOUTHEND United manager Paul Sturrock felt an early injury to influential midfielder Michael Timlin contributed towards his team’s disappointing 1-0 defeat at Morecambe on Saturday.

Timlin suffered an ankle problem after just five minutes following a poor challenge from Shrimps defender Jordan Mustoe.

And Sturrock believes his eventual departure, at the start of the second half, enabled Morecambe to come out on top.

“Timlin going off was a blow to us and he was certainly missed in there,” said Sturrock.

“He talks and organises very well and we didn’t have that in the second half.

“We needed his strength and the way he bosses people around, and so to lose him was a disappointment.

“His ankle is like a balloon at the moment so we will ice it and see what effect that has but I hope he is fit for tomorrow’s game with Aldershot.”

But Blues will go in to the match at Roots Hall looking to get back to winning ways and Sturrock was left feeling frustrated after again having failed to beat Morecambe.

“They’re definitely a real bogey side and to concede like we did at the end was a really bitter pill to have to swallow,” said Sturrock.

“We had a good chance to score just before they did and if that goes in then it’s a different story.

“But if any team did deserve to win it I would say it was Morecambe because the ball was in our penalty box more than theirs, which is disappointing.

“We’ve lost 1-0 again and we’ve had too many of them for my liking already this season, so it’s something we need to sort out.”

Blues also failed to trouble Morecambe’s back four for most of the match but Sturrock still opted not to bring Freddy Eastwood off the bench.

And the Scotsman insisted that was down to the striker’s lack of training.

“Freddy hasn’t trained much in the last week and a half for a variety of reasons and I was very wary of that,” said Sturrock.

“It’s been hard to get him the games he needs to get fit as we don’t have a reserve league to play in and the weather hasn’t been great either.

“However, Freddy is very much in contention for tomorrow’s game with Aldershot.”