Sturrock Always look on the bright side

Paul Sturrock is refusing to let any negative thoughts creep into his Southend players' minds ahead of the first of two npower League Two play-off semi-final games against Crewe.

The Shrimpers go into the play-offs having finished fourth, with a resurgent bid for a top-three spot narrowly falling short on the final day of the regular season.

But Sturrock insists that does not mean his side will go into the play-offs low on confidence.

"People will think we're on a downer but we're not," he added.

"In the last seven years, six times 83 points has taken a team up (automatically). Look at what we've done this season, what we've achieved, the progress we've made and the momentum we're going into this game with.

"We haven't lost many goals over the last six or seven games and we've had good wins, so we're going into this game confident as well."