IT WAS fantastic to see Shaq Coulthirst get himself another goal in the win against Shrewsbury Town at the weekend.

I think he’s someone who has the capabilities to be a consistent goalscorer for us this season and hopefully he can get on a run now.

He has scored twice in his eight league starts so he’s averaging one in four but it’s a similar situation to when we had a player called Fredi Bobic at Bolton Wanderers.

He had a similar kind of ratio before he suddenly scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa which suddenly made him a one goal every two games striker.

That’s what we need here but we do have the potential because I think Shaq, Jack Payne, Myles Weston and the other strikers can get two or three in a game to really kick start their season.

We certainly need that to happen because if we can get someone scoring 23 goals in 46 games or so then we are really going to be there challenging for promotion.

Talking of Shaq, I went back to watch Tottenham Hotspur’s under 21 team again on Monday night against Manchester United.

We have a close relationship with Spurs due to Shaq being with us and their coach Paul Brush having such big connections to our club.

When we first saw them, Shaq really stood out as already being a man in a young team.

But there’s plenty of speed and talent at their level.

We’ve identified one or two of them and could well look to bring them in on loan if there comes a time during the season when we need reinforcements.

GIVING THE YOUNG LADS A TASTE OF NON-LEAGUE

GRAHAM Coughlan and I took the whole of our development squad to have a look at Enfield Town playing against Eastbourne Borough in the FA Cup on Tuesday night.

We wanted to get them out to have a look at the standard of the local non league game and whether or not they would welcome the opportunity to go on loan to these types of clubs.

It was certainly a worthwhile evening and it was interesting to find out what these young lads made of the game.

It was an enjoyable evening too as the match ended 4-4 before going to penalties.

I also went to watch Bury Town with our young striker Jason Williams quite recently and it’s something I think is really beneficial for everyone concerned.

JACK PAYNE'S A MARKED MAN

THE game against Shrewsbury could be a sign of things to come for Jack Payne.

He had been something of a surprise package for our opponents in his first few games.

But his goalscoring heroics will now have alerted other teams.

Shrewsbury put the lad Goldson on him and that’s something Jack is going to have to get used to and learn to overcome.

I’m sure he will though because Jack has the ability to almost be able to tackle his way through defenders.

On Saturday, I also have to point out that I thought Shrewsbury’s own young midfielder, Ryan Woods, was very impressive too.

He’s come through the youth system there and it was an interesting battle and reference point to see him going up against Conor Clifford in there.

MULTI-COLOURED CHESS

I’VE watched the Shrewsbury game again on the DVD and it really was like a game of multi-coloured chess.

Their manager kept on changing things, so then I did as well and the biggest plus point for me was how adaptable our players were to that.

I really do think we would have lost or drawn a game like that last season so it was great to get all three points.

That made it four wins in a row and now we’re looking to make it five against Morecambe.

We certainly owe them one too after our recent results against them in the league.

ARSENE'S BEEN BRILLIANT

>ARSENE Wenger celebrated his 18th year in charge of Arsenal just as I was celebrating my 18th month at Southend!

I think it’s phenomenal that he’s been able to be in charge of a club for that long in the English game but I also think he’s been brilliant for football in this country.

His side have yet to lose so far this season and I’ve already heard a few people mention them maybe matching what their ‘Invincibles’ did a few seasons ago.

However, there’s a long way to go just yet and his hopes seem to have again been hit hard by an ever growing injury list.