Preview: Southend United v Leeds United 28th Oct 08

Preview track:

I always know when it's the school holidays.  For a start the morning paper doesn't arrive until late, the roads are less congested and The present Mrs Marching on Together is at home........now all of these changes impact on me one way or another but as I work mainly from home the latter one has the biggest impact.  This week we have rather foolishly resolved to gut our lounge and redecorate which involves everything from replacing the existing fireplace to a complete re plastering of the walls and ceiling.  So we have entered the veritable minefield of domestic decision making on the colour of the paint, new settee, new dining suite, new TV etc.........you get the picture.  It's at this point that the fundamental differences between the two sexes float to the top.  For me choosing a settee, dining suite and the colour of the walls can be done in about 5 nanoseconds but the TV..........that needs numerous visits to Currys/Comet and endless assessments of product reviews on the t'internet whereas Mrs MOT would be happy with "that slim black TV" (bit like picking a car for her.....colour more important than what it can actually do) the rest takes her an eternity!

That brings me to this morning.  I face a massive challenge as I am already on thin ice in spending hours travelling to Roots Hall for tonight's match but now we have to visit various showrooms and place orders for the fireplace, settee and potentially dining suite and be back in time to pick The Happy Chocker up at 1.30pm........it's going to be tight!

Onto the match and I must admit a certain amount of relief on reading that Mr Freedman has a groin injury and is unlikely to play (papers now arrived) as I feared the Ghost of Dougie coming back to haunt us.  Given that Southend have already conceded an eye watering 25 goals in the league this year, it makes our shaky defence look Arsenalesque, we should be celebrating yet more  balls flying into the onion bag from the boots of Becchio/Beckford/delph/Robbo this evening.

On the subject of Robbo I do hope he starts tonight as he always adds a fizz to the attack when he gets on the pitch.  It's the one thing I can't quite understand about Macca's strategy but the proof of the pudding is in the eating so as long as we keep winning and scale the heights of Division 3 I'll be happy.

So with a 10 hour round trip getting home at around 2 O'clock in the morning this match tests the resolve to get to every game this season but not withstanding the vagaries of the M11 and M25 we should make it.

MOT