ECHOSPORT talks to keen Accrington Stanley supporter Josh Cook ahead of tomorrow’s game against Southend United.

What have you made of the season so far?

“The season so far has been a bit of a strange one.

“We’ve had tons of positivity off the pitch and not too much on it since October.

“What a difference a week makes though, six goals scored in the last two games and the gap between us and the bottom four has widened.

“We also have a few games in hand so hopefully we don’t get that close to the drop again.”

What were the hopes for this season?

“The expectations in a new division have always got to be to stay in it.

“The club would like to cement it’s place at this level and to do that we always needed to grind out results.

“I personally expected a very tough season as we didn’t recruit well and that’s proven to be the case.”

What are the hopes for the rest of the season?

“Just keep our head above water to be honest.

“I think the relegation scrap will go right down to the wire so as long as we’re not needing wins late in April I’m happy.”

Who would you say is Accrington’s star man?

“After this week I think we’d have to say Paul Smyth on loan from QPR.

“John Coleman always has a knack of pulling these diamonds out of nowhere and it’s all looked excellent from Smyth.

“He was man of the match at Sunderland and can certainly hurt teams.”

What’s the team news this weekend?

“Sam Finley is still serving a five game suspension so we’ll miss him in midfield. We’re also without the injured Ross Sykes at the back after he’s struggled with a knock in the past couple of weeks.”

What’s the predicted line-up for tomorrow?

“Maxted, Johnson, Hughes, Richards-Everton, Donacien, Clark, Brown, Barlaser, McConville, Smyth, Kee.”