SOUTHEND United’s Ryan Leonard hopes to be given the freedom to let his hair down in the Shrimpers midfield during the remainder of the season.

The 22-year-old, who is being ridiculed by his team-mates for the length of his new hair-style, bagged Blues’ first goal in the 2-1 win at Portsmouth on Saturday.

And Leonard is now eager to make the most of his more attacking role in the centre of the park.

“The manager has asked me to get forward a bit more now and I do enjoy that side of the game so it’s good to be getting in the box more often,” said the midfielder.

“Playing with the two strikers up top has changed things around for us a little bit in midfield and it was nice to get the goal at Portsmouth.

“I’ll certainly be looking to build on that and can hopefully keep on getting forward to try and score a few more.”

Leonard’s effort at Fratton Park was his third goal of the season and came after he had bundled an inviting header from David Worrall in to the back of the net.

And he celebrated the goal by shaking around his hair in front of the travelling supporters.

“It’s the worst goal I’ve ever scored so I didn’t really think I could do too much of a celebration,” said Leonard.

“The ball literally went in off both of my thighs so I didn’t think I could run off waving my arms in the air after something like that.

“One or two of the lads have been giving me stick about my hair and wearing a hair-band so I just ended up taking it off as part of the celebration for some reason.

“But it was really nice it all happened in front of our own fans.”

Leonard will now be bidding for more of the same when Blues host York City at Roots Hall this weekend.

And the former Plymouth Argyle trainee is keen to turn around the Shrimpers’ stuttering home form.

“We’ve drawn our last three home games without scoring a goal and we know we have to do better than that,” said Leonard.

“We’ve taken more of our chances in the last two away games and now we want to do the same at Roots Hall.

“York will try to frustrate us but we’re on the up after the last two games, winning at Portsmouth and Oxford.

“I think that’s shown the spirit in this side and now we want to go and make it three victories in a row.”