Tuesday night's defeat of Oldham Athletic extended Rovers unbeaten run to six games (3 wins and 3 draws) and sees them sitting in a comfortable mid-table position.

Perhaps more importantly for everyone at the club they are doing it with a number of players still missing through injury and seem to have found a formation that is both effective and attractive.

The win on Tuesday was a real litmus test as, up until that point, Oldham had lost only one game all season. This week-end Steve Tilson brings a Southend United team to North Bristol which is also on the crest of a wave. The Shrimpers held League leaders Scunthorpe to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night and extended their own unbeaten run to 7 games.

It took a 79th minute Paul Hayes penalty to rescue a point for the Iron who stretched their own unbeaten run to 12 games. Hayes penalty success made up for two earlier misses.
Earlier Southend had taken a second-half lead when Lee Barnard headed home a corner to score his sixth goal of the season.

Scunthorpe's Gary Hooper headed wide of an open goal in the first-half while defender David Mirfin also nodded over from a corner, before Hayes equalised.

Team news from Essex is that United are looking to extend goalkeeper Adam Federici's loan spell for at least another two weeks. The 23-year-old Reading goalkeeper has put in a number of impressive performances since joining on a one-month loan at the end of September.

Steve Tilson said he was in talks to keep the Australian until at least 8 November, "We're looking to probably take it up to the FA Cup game as Reading certainly won't let him play in that," he said.

Federici has played five games for the League One side and with fellow shot-stopper Steve Mildenhall still recovering from injury, Tilson said he was keen to extend the deal.

Tilson, looking at the other end of the pitch has praised Francis Laurent's first goal in English football at the weekend. The Frenchman, 22, scored the winner in the 2-1 victory over Swindon on his league debut on Saturday. "It was a fantastic finish [from] another decent ball in. But it was a great header, no keeper saves those in the world - and it was a goal worthy to win any game."

Looking at the background of the opposition Southend United Football Club was founded in 1906 and joined the Football League in the same season as Rovers, 1920-21, when the Third Division was formed and here they remained until league re-structure in 1958. They came close to promotion twice when they finished 3rd in 1932 and 1950, their highest league positions until 1991.

In 1958 Southend joined the new national Third Division where they remained until 1966 when they suffered their first ever relegation, dropping into the Fourth Division. Fans had to wait until 1972 to witness the club's first ever promotion as they finished runners-up behind Grimsby Town.

In 1976 they suffered relegation again before grabbing another runners-up spot behind Watford in 1978. Another relegation in 1980 was immediately followed by one of the most successful seasons in the club's history as they won the Fourth Division Championship in 1981, breaking a series of club records in the process.

But the prospect of a "golden era" for Southend United had to be put on hold for a while after the club sold many of its talented players and the club dropped back into the basement division in 1984 to embark on a fight for survival both on and off the pitch. One of the club's darkest hours saw a season average attendance of barely above 2,000 watch the Shrimpers narrowly avoid the lottery of re-election to the Football League.

Promotion in 1987 started a period in which Southend United finally fulfilled its potential. Relegation in 1989 was a mere blip because two successive promotions in 1990 and 1991 saw the Shrimpers become "full members" of the Football League for the first time in their history and in 1992 the club finished 12th in the old Second Division, their highest ever position in the Football League to date.

On New Year's Day 1992 they briefly topped the Second Division but their dismal late season form put paid to any hopes of a unique third successive promotion that would have given them a place as a Premier League founder member. Manager David Webb then stepped down and was replaced by Colin Murphy.

Over the next three seasons, Southend were managed by Colin Murphy, Barry Fry and then Peter Taylor. In 1995, former Liverpool player Ronnie Whelan was appointed player-manager, and Southend finished 14th in Division One in his first season at the helm, only to suffer relegation a year later.

Whelan was quickly sacked and replaced by Alvin Martin, who was unable to prevent a second successive relegation that pushed Southend into Division Three. Martin left in April 1999, with Southend fifth from bottom in the league. Around this time the club was under threat of bankruptcy and the board decided to sell Roots Hall in preparation for a proposed relocation in 2003. Almost a decade later, relocation has yet to take place, and Southend are still playing at Roots Hall.

Southend's fortunes didn't change until former player Steve Tilson was given the manager's job in late 2003 with Paul Brush as his assistant.

The duo turned things around dramatically and Southend reached their first ever national cup final in 2004 when they met Blackpool in the final of the LDV Vans Trophy at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Over 20,000 Southend fans travelled from all over the world to be part of history, but the team couldn't quite rise to the occasion and Blackpool won 2-0.

In 2004 Tilson and Brush were installed as a permanent management / coaching duo and responded by guiding Southend to promotion via the play-offs in 2005 whilst also making a second successive appearance in the LDV Vans Trophy final, beating Rovers in the Regional final.

Once again the trophy eluded the Shrimpers as they lost 2-0 to Wrexham, but the third appearance at the Millennium Stadium in the League Two play-off final against Lincoln City brought success as Freddy Eastwood and Duncan Jupp scored the goals that gave the club their first ever taste of promotion via the play-off system and their first major piece of silverware since 1981.

In 2006 the Shrimpers were promoted as Champions to the Football League Championship. They were relegated in their first season and at the same time lost talismanic striker Freddy Eastwood to Wolves. Southend were able to finish sixth in League One at the end of 2007-08 thus qualifying for a play-off place against Doncaster Rovers. They drew the home leg 0-0, but lost the second leg 5-1.

Looking at previous meetings between the teams, back in 1964-65 season Rovers were looking a strong prospect for promotion. During that spell they had a visit to Southend on 24th October. Rovers Manager Bert Tann described the match as a nightmare. Ian Hamilton gave Rovers a 3rd minute lead but then it was all down hill, McKinven (2), Smillie and Smith all scored before half-time to give the Blues a 4-1 lead. Hamilton scored two more in the second half, but McKinven and Smith also scored to give a 6-3 final result. Rovers recovered from that to win 3 and draw 2 of their next 5 games.

By the end of April Rovers had dropped away from the leading pack. The day after a dull 1-1 home draw with Exeter they needed to beat Southend in their final home game of the season to give themselves a realistic chance of going up. It was that man McKinven who gave Southend the lead early in the second half, but then in the last 10 minutes the game exploded into life, Harold Jarman and Alfie Biggs gave Rovers a 2-1 lead with just 2 minutes left, but Watson equalised a minute later.

It was the following season when Southend suffered their first ever relegation and Rovers gained their revenge on 5th March 1966 for a 2-0 defeat inflicted at Roots Hall less than a month before. Harold Jarman, Dave Stone and Johnny Brown hit the net for Rovers with John McKinven once again proving the scourge of the Rovers defence. The score would have been closer had Slack not missed a penalty in the 88th minute.

Perhaps the most memorable game between the two clubs as far as Rovers fans are concerned was on 19th April 1974, a 0-0 draw at Roots Hall. Whilst the match itself was not especially exciting the one point was enough to secure promotion to Division 2.

The teams have met 98 times up until now and it is the Essex team with the distinct advantage, having won 42 of those games to Rovers' 34 victories. 26 of those Rovers' wins have been in the West Country.

United's last visit to the Mem was on 2nd October last year, where they held out for a 1-1 draw and Rovers won the Roots Hall encounter 1-0 on New Years Day.

If Rovers can get into an early lead as they did on Tuesday night then there is no reason that Rovers can not inflict the Shrimpers first defeat since they went down 2-1 to Carlisle on 6th September.

Written by Gerry Prewett