Threadbare Southend United looking forward to facing 'best team in league' Chesterfield

The table-topping Spireites visit the 16th-placed Shrimers on Saturday. Town have won seven on the spin and are 15 unbeaten, but Maher’s men have won seven out of nine at Roots Hall and have the best defensive home record in the division.

The match had been in doubt earlier in the week because of three international call-ups for the hosts but the National League has ordered the match to go ahead.

“We always want to play football at three o’clock on a Saturday and that will never change,” Maher told the Southend Echo.

“The rules and the bits around are to be talked about by other people.

“I’ve got my opinion on it all but we want to play.

“We want to go head-to-head with the best team in the league and see where that takes us.”

Southend will be without striker Daniel Kanu and midfielder Mauro Vilhete because of internationalduty. It remains to be seen whether Noor Husin joins up with the Afghanistan squad. The Shrimpers already have a threadbare line-up because of their ongoing off-the-field issues which has included a transfer embargo and a 10-point deduction.

Maher continued: “There’s a lot of noise about stuff that’s out of our control.

“What we can put out we will have to wait and see.

“We’ll deal with that in the next couple of days.

“We’ll train today and train tomorrow and see where we’re at. “There’s noise I can’t control but all I can do is try get a team ready to go out and play.”

On Chesterfield, Maher added: “They’ve done brilliantly and they’re the best team in the league but we’re looking forward to it.

“It will be a big crowd and I’m sure the fans will be right behind us so it has the makings of a good game.”