Walsall, who have lost each of their last six league outings, head into this afternoon's clash sitting second bottom in the table and in desperate need of a return to winning ways as, with just four games remaining, they are in very real danger of facing at least one season in the bottom tier of English football.
The Saddlers are three points from safety and a point behind this afternoon's opponents, who are also enduring a dismal campaign including going winless in their last fourteen outings, and, following last weekend's defeat to Accrington still fresh in the mind, Kinsella knows the Saddlers can ill-afford another bad result either today or from Easter Monday's trip to Wycombe Wanderers.
Colchester-born Kinsella, who has made 36 first-team appearances so far this season, said; "Southend is a must-win game – it’s as simple as that. We have to go out there and put in a performance and make sure we pick up all three points. They haven’t won a game in a while so it is a massive game for them but it is a massive game for us and we just have to get the three points.
"A draw, I don’t think will be good enough. We have to get the win and then go to Wycombe and win there as well. They are both massive games but we have got to focus on Southend first. If we can get three points in this game, we can then build on them and hopefully get a win against Wycombe. That would be a fantastic six points and it would give us a great chance of staying up."