Tommy Elphick got quite a fright when our conversation was interrupted by a seagull landing on his car.

More of a fright than he hopes to suffer against a former Seagull at Roots Hall tomorrow night.

The promising centre-half will be marking his pal, Alex Revell, as Albion attempt to stretch their unbeaten start to the season to four games against Southend.

They were on the same side when the Shrimpers were beaten 3-2 at Withdean a year ago. That changed at the end of the January transfer window, when Revell was sold for £150,000 after a respectable 18 goals in 71 games.

He was a late substitute in the 2-0 defeat at Roots Hall in April, which ended Albion’s lingering play-off aspirations and cemented Southend’s top six finish, but is poised for a more prominent role this time.

Injury-hit Revell’s 13th appearance for his new club at Millwall last Saturday proved lucky.

Replacing Paul Furlong in the starting line-up, he scored just seven minutes into his first start of the campaign to break his Southend duck in a 1-1 draw.

Elphick joked: “I saw his goal and I think it was more the goalkeeper’s fault! I am still in contact with him and spoke to him before the game and after the game. He is a good friend.

“I got on well with him down here. I marked him when he came on as a sub for the last five or ten minutes last season and I’ve obviously played against him in training, so that might give me the edge over him.

“He has never come up against Colin (Hawkins), so maybe we have got a bit more knowledge about him than he has on us but he is a good lad and a good player.

“He always poses a threat with his height and strength. I think he’s had trouble with his groins again and he didn’t take part much in pre-season. Hopefully he is not too fit yet.”

Tomorrow’s tussle of the seasiders gives Albion and Elphick the chance to make amends for a below-par performance in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Bristol Rovers at Withdean.

Four days earlier, Elphick celebrated a half-century of appearances for the club with a clean sheet in the Carling Cup romp against Barnet. Against Rovers a frustrating afternoon for Elphick and his team-mates was typified by only his second booking since April for a second-half foul.

“It was disappointing,” he admitted. “I don’t really know what it was, there was no spark there on Saturday. We were all gutted afterwards, because it was two points lost rather than a point gained.

“As a team we were not quite at it. There were too many people not taking it by the scruff of the neck, myself included.

“I wasn’t very happy with the way I played, I’m the first to admit that. I will be looking to put things right on Friday.”

Elphick is relieved that elusive winger Mark Gower, who opened the scoring when the teams met four months ago, has left for Swansea but he is wary about Revell’s partner, Lee Barnard, a loan target for Albion a couple of seasons ago when he was at Spurs.

“We know what Southend are like, they are a very good footballing team,” said Elphick. “It will be a tough game but it’s a chance for us to set in stone how we want to be going about our season.

You don’t want to be tailing off now. I know the table doesn’t mean much at this stage but we are fourth and we want to stay in that top six all year.