Preview - Southend United

Everything you need to know about Saturday's friendly with Southend United
The Background

West Ham United’s busy pre-season continues with their second game in less than 48 hours with a trip to newly promoted Southend United. 

The Shrimpers, under the stewardship of experienced manager Phil Brown, gained promotion back to League One via a sudden-death penalty shootout at Wembley in May.  

Hammers manager Slaven Bilic is set to name a squad mixed of new arrivals and highly rated youth prospects. 

Both Dimitri Payet and Angelo Ogbonna are in line to make their Claret and Blue debuts, while Cheikhou Kouyate and Diafra Sakho, who missed Thursday night’s victory over Birkirkara FC through suspension, will both return to action. 

The history

Southend United were formed in May 1906, before joining the Football League in 1920. The Essex club have competed mainly in the lower leagues of English football, however they have enjoyed recent success winning the Football League Trophy in 2012-13 before winning promotion back to League One last season.

The Shrimpers play at Roots Hall Stadium, which has a capacity of just over 12,000 seats.

Team news

Southend United

Saturday’s hosts have a near to full squad available. Captain John White and David Worrall are both expected to feature as is highly rated goalkeeper Daniel Bentley. 

New signings David Mooney and Anthony Wordsworth will want to make a good impression in front of their new home fans.  

West Ham United

As the Hammers prepare for the second out of four games in a week, including an imminent trip to Malta, Slaven Bilic will have to reshuffle his pack. 

French international Dimitri Payet is in line to make his Hammers debut after completing a summer move from Marseille. A lot has been made of the creative midfielder’s vision and technical ability, so fans of both teams will be eagerly watching his every move.  

Similarly Angelo Ogbonna is likely to get some minutes as the Italian regains match fitness ahead of his first season in the Premier League. 

Out of the youngsters available, Bilic could use Reece Oxford, Josh Cullen, Lewis Page, Djair Parfitt-Williams and Amos Nasha, all of whom made their senior competitive debuts against FC Lusitans. 

The Hammers will be without Andy Carroll who is recovering from injury, while Carl Jenkinson is still away and Enner Valencia only returned from holiday this week following his participation in the Copa America. 

Match facts

•    The last time these two teams played competitively was back in August 2004 in the League Cup. West Ham ran out 2-0 winners at the Boleyn thanks to a brace by Marlon Harewood. That game featured a very young Mark Noble.

•    Southend were victorious the last time the two sides met at Roots Hall. Just the one goal was enough to separate the sides in the old Division One way back in the spring of 1993. 

•    Despite their relatively close vicinity, the two teams have only played each other seven times competitively. 

•    Since his appointment as West Ham United manager, Slaven Bilic’s men are unbeaten in four games, scoring eight goals. 

Tickets, Travel, Weather & TV Coverage

•    Tickets purchased on matchday are priced at £12 Adults and £6 for Over-65 and Under-21s.

•    whufc.com will carry live updates throughout the match, with live text commentary, photos, stats and reaction. The Club's official Twitter feed will also have updates.

•    At present, a good service is also anticipated on Greater Anglia and c2c services out of Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street respectively. A regular service will run throughout the day.  

•    A cloudy day with sunny intervals are expected around time of kick-off, with temperatures of 16C/61F.