The dawn of the Kevan Broadhurst era couldn’t have brought a much more difficult task, as the Saddlers head for an away trip at a high flying Essex team for the second time on the trot. Yes, after Colchester United, it’s the League leaders, in an attempt to get a point at least from the land of fish and chips and jolly Cockney day trippers, Southend United. Let’s hope Jamie Oliver isn’t taking his nieces there for a picnic, as that would be too much to bear.

Broadhurst will, presumably, be leaning heavily on the opinions of Mick Halsall for team selection, although we have had reports that he watched the last two home games and will, hopefully, have learned a lot from those. The match day 16 will be missing long term injury victim Darren Wrack and club skipper Chris Westwood, while Paul Devlin will be missing for the third game of his ban. Danny Fox may well be fit to play however, and the club are hopeful about Mads Timm, although his availability would cause problems with loanees, as five is the maximum we can have in a match day squad.

The starting eleven could, therefore, be any permutation from Oakes, Pead, Mills, Roper, Gerrard, Fox, Wright, James, Osborn, Kinsella, Leary, Smith, Demontagnac, Constable, Barrowman, Fitzgerald and Nicholls, plus a few more as well!

Meanwhile, Southend Captain Kevin Maher will play through the pain barrier tomorrow, after getting a broken nose during their win vs Chesterfield last week and he will go “under the knife” on Monday to have his nose reset

Midfielder Mark Bentley is also facing a fitness test after injuring his ankle against Brentford and isn’t expected to play and striker Wayne Gray (scorer of their first goal at Bescot this season) will also be missing with a hamstring problem.

Best news of all is that star striker Freddy Eastwood is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow of the season after getting his hat trick against Chesterfield. His replacement? Likely to be former Saddler Lee Bradbury, signed during the transfer window!

United will welcome back defender Efe Sodje who has now completed a one match ban for also reaching five cards this term.

Their danger man is, of course, Shaun Goater – say no more.

Predictions? New manager syndrome might kick in, of course, but this is a daunting prospect. We have decided to take this very seriously and have travelled today and are stopping overnight, but Southend have only lost twice at home this season (although they have also drawn 5 times, which means they have only the sixth best home record in the Division). Like Colchester, this is a very tough trip and we don’t have the advantage of the opposition having their minds on a game at Stamford Bridge this time. I can’t see anything other than a home win, but let’s hope for another improved performance.