Chris Beech says it would be foolish to assume Carlisle United are in for an “easy ride” against lowly Southend tomorrow.

The struggling Roots Hall club are fighting for League Two survival.

And while United head to Essex hopeful of another positive result, head coach Beech says they should expect nothing other than a tough encounter.

“They are fighting for their lives,” Beech said of Mark Molesley’s side.

“You’ve seen us play [other] teams that are quite dogged.

“I know we got some negative press from the Grimsby fixture [the 1-1 draw against the bottom side] but you can see from their results after playing us, they are running hard for their manager and they have some real big players in that squad.

“Southend are very similar. There’s no easy ride in League Two.”

While most League Two sides have played their first Easter weekend fixtures today, United’s clash with the Shrimpers is the only Saturday game in the division.

The Blues will be hoping to make up further ground on the sides above them as they try to reignite a play-off challenge.

United’s win over Crawley on Tuesday stopped their recent run of defeats.

They now face a Southend side who have won just once in their last eight games, but have only lost twice in that time too.

Carlisle are hoping to build on Tuesday’s display and make it a positive final stage of the season after their recent slide down League Two.

Beech, who is assessing one or two knocks ahead of the game, said: “We’ve got 10 games to attack.

“There’s 30 points to play for, and we have to recognise that and take every opportunity with individual circumstance and give our best attributes towards each game.

“I might have to make a couple of changes; we’ll have to assess ahead of playing a very good team that’s trying their best to stay in the league.

“The table doesn’t make sense in some ways. You saw us put Cambridge on the back foot for 45 minutes with 19 shots at goal [last Saturday].

“It doesn’t mean Southend’s going to be like that. We have to make sure we prepare correctly and we turn up.”

It will be United’s first trip to Roots Hall since February 2015, when the hosts won 2-0.