First hard team selection for a while.
Difficult away game, so you'd want Wright in. But you'd also want Basham in. But you can't really play them both without dropping one of our key midfielders (probably Coutts) or changing the formation and moving players out of position.
I think one thing we should agree on is that we should stick with the 3-5-2 away from home, where it's worked perfectly.
So it probably has to be a choice between Wright or Basham in the back 3, with only one of them in the team. The other option is Basham in for Coutts in midfield. Wilder's got to decide if it's a game that should suit Coutts, or a game like Bradford away, which suits Basham. I think Southend are more technical than physical in midfield so it should be a fairly clean game, which would suit Coutts. But it's Phil Brown, so maybe not...
Another thing to consider is that Southend seem to start games well, and we finish games well. Would it be wiser and safer to start with Wright to try and keep it tight early on before kicking on for the win in the last 30 minutes or so, when we could bring Basham on? Possibly.
I'd probably edge towards starting Basham at the back, he's done well enough to be trusted I think. And he is more athletic than Wright which might be important against Ranger/Fortune. Also, I didn't like EEL at RCB against Bury.
--------------------Moore
----------Basham EEL O'Connell
Freeman-----------------------------Lafferty
--------------Coutts------Fleck
---------------------Duffy
-------------Sharp--------Lavery
Subs: Ramsdale, Wilson, Wright, Carruthers, Scougall, Done, Clarke