SOUTHEND United skipper John White is confident of getting one over his former manager John Ward when Bristol Rovers visit Roots Hall on Friday night.

White played under Ward, who now bosses the Pirates, during their time together at Colchester United.

And, while the defender rates Ward’s managerial skills highly, he believes Blues will be able to come out on top.

“Despite the last few results the lads are still confident,” said White, who returned to the starting line-up for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Bury after recovering from a thigh injury.

“We’ve played well in the majority of games this season and the Morecambe game is probably the only exception.

“Things sometimes don’t go your way and while we probably deserve more points on the board it’s not happened.

“Hopefully we can put that right on Friday and get back to winning ways.

“I played under John Ward at Colchester United for a while and he’s a good manager who is very organised and disciplined in his approach to the game.

“I also played with John-Joe O’Toole and we all know what to expect of him.

“He’s a good passer of the ball but hopefully we can play well this time and also get the result we all want.”

Blues will be heading into the game on the back of a five-game winless streak.

But White insists that while the Shrimpers were gutted to concede during stoppage time at Gigg Lane they were still pleased to have stopped their run of defeats with a share of the spoils at Bury.

“There were definitely mixed emotions after Saturday as we had done enough to win the game and it was frustrating they managed to pull it back so late on in the game,” said White.

“However, we still managed to stop the rot of losing games and we’ve got to use that as a platform to build on now for Friday night against Bristol Rovers.”