IT has been a good start to the season for us - and we want to keep it going at Walsall this weekend.

We started off with a good performance against a big spending Huddersfield side on the opening day and then showed good spirit to win 2-1 at Cheltenham Town on Tuesday night.

I didn’t play at Whaddon Road because of my knee and the gaffer felt it was best for me to rest up.

I managed to play against Huddersfield but it was sore the next day and it’s still not quite 100 per cent right.

We are now playing Saturday, Tuesday, Friday too so it was decided I shouldn’t play against Cheltenham.

I wanted to be out there but I know the sensible thing was for me to miss out and that’s what happened.

But I will be back training today and OK to play at Walsall on Saturday.

That’s never an easy place to go and we don’t have the greatest of records there.

That counts for nothing though and we are going there confident of getting a good result.

NEW SIGNINGS TAKE CENTRE STAGE

The tradition of new signings having to sing at their first away game has continued this season.

The new boys have already performed and, as usual, it gave the rest of us a real laugh.

Matt Heath was first up to sing or to be honest shout!

He certainly didn’t need a microphone for his performance and apparently he was singing a Robbie Williams number but it was quite hard to tell!

John White was very nervous before his turn.

He had his i-pod on and had sweaty palms but to be fair he did get up there and talked his way through a song I had never heard before.

Big Jean (Yves M’Voto) also got up.

I think he only knows one English word so he just sung that over and over again.

Anyone who has seen him though will know we wouldn’t argue with him so we all just politely applauded and patted him on the back - but in reality he was rubbish!

Lee Sawyer hasn’t had a go yet and he is claiming he doesn’t need to do it because he’s already been up once.

However he has left and come back since then so he needs to perform again and I think it will happen this Saturday when we go to Walsall.

We’re all looking forward to it because his last song was fantastic and it got such a reaction from the rest of the lads that the manager of the restaurant had to come over and tell us to keep the noise down!

KARTING TRIP FOR THE LADS

Go-karting was the latest team outing with the lads but unfortunately I was unable to take part because of my knee injury.

I believe Alan McCormack won with John White second and the gaffer third.

Poor Franck Moussa got the most stick though and he was apparently indicating to go round each corner.

To be honest I think he was just worried about going fast because it might muck up his hair!

ALF BILBY

ON behalf of everyone at Southend United I would like to offer our condolences to Alf Bilby and his family after his wife Gwen sadly passed away.

Alf has been a big part of everything to do with the club since I signed and is a fantastic man.

Our thoughts are very much with him at this sad time.