SOUTHEND United manager Paul Sturrock has warned his side to keep their feet on the ground ahead of tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint southern area semi-final against Swindon Town.

Victory at Roots Hall this evening would make it a club record 18 games unbeaten for Blues.

And it would also push them to within one round of Wembley.

But Sturrock has warned his side, who top League Two and could play at Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup in January, to not get carried away.

“The players need to appreciate of the fact that there’s a lot of hard work to be done before we can start to think about Wembley or Liverpool and most important of all promotion,” said Sturrock.

“Swindon are a very good team and they’re on an excellent run of form themselves.

“They’ve had some very good results away from home and will fancy their chances against us.

“We’ve already lost to them once this season and we will need to work hard and play well if we are to get the victory tonight.”

That is also the case for next Tuesday’s FA Cup replay against Oldham Athletic.

The winners will go on to play a mouth-watering tie at Anfield.

But Sturrock has told his team to not yet be thinking about Liverpool.

“I heard the players talking about ticket allocations for the Liverpool game and I had to stamp down on that right away,” said the Scotsman.

“Oldham will be a very difficult place to go and nobody should be thinking about Liverpool at all yet.

“In fact everyone should be thinking about Swindon as that’s our next game and it’s a big one too because there’s the chance of us getting closer to a Wembley final.”

The clash will also see Sturrock up against his former team.

He bossed the Robins for a year before his departure in 2007.

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