CRAIG Waters admits it will be a weird feeling for Southend Manor to be in the away team dressing room at Southchurch Park tonight.

Waters’ side will do battle with Clapton, who groundshare with Manor, in an Essex Senior League clash.

But Waters insists the agreement for both clubs to host matches at Southchurch Park following Clapton’s exit from their Old Spotted Dog home does not add any extra spice to tonight’s encounter.

“It will be weird being in the away dressing room for the game,” said Waters.

“But the away dressing room is better than the home one, so it might actually benefit us.

“It’s a bigger space and I’m sure the boys will prefer it in some aspects.

“Although Clapton groundshare with us now, there isn’t a rivalry there, in my eyes.

“It’s just another game with three points on offer and we want to make sure we come out of it with the win.”

Waters’ reign as Manor’s boss got underway with a 1-0 victory over Clapton in the reverse fixture just a matter of days after succeeding Michael Walther in the hotseat.

And Waters is hoping for a similar result as Manor continue to claw away from the relegation zone.

“My first game in charge was against Clapton,” added Waters.

“Garry Pond, our first team coach, and I were talking about it the other day and it brings back some good memories.

“It’s obviously at the same venue tonight and the same result would be ideal.”

Having ended the decade with five defeats in six outings, Manor have made a promising start to 2020.

Manor have suffered just two losses since the turn of the year, with the most recent setback coming at Ilford on Saturday.

Goals from former Manor man Larry Akanbi and Jordon Fisher enabled Ilford to triumph.

But Waters believes having more time with the players has allowed him to get his point across, resulting in an upturn of results since the start of January.

“It took time to get our philosophy and the way we want to do things across,” admitted Waters.

“We have a good bunch of boys and we have a system and style we want to use on the pitch.

“I thought we were unlucky to lose on Saturday and Reece Latimer’s early red card didn’t help.

“We had more possession than Ilford and had the ball in their half a lot of the time.

“Hopefully we will bounce back tonight.”