SHAQ Coulthirst’s early header helped Southend United secure a 1-0 win against Shrewsbury Town at Roots Hall on Saturday, as well as a fourth successive triumph for the Shrimpers.

The on loan Tottenham Hotspur striker brilliantly headed home a right wing cross from John White.

And that ultimately proved to be enough to separate the two sides who both headed in to the game in high spirits.

Southend, of course, had won three games in a row while Shrewsbury came in to town on the back of a shock Capital One Cup win against Championship club Norwich City.

The Shrews had been further buoyed by drawing Premier League giants Chelsea in the next round of the competition.

But they were unable to breach Blues’ well organised back four.

At the heart of that defence, Adam Thompson and Luke Prosser were both extremely impressive as they secured a third clean sheet in their last four outings.

The defensive duo have responded superbly since being paired together and their form has also allayed fears which followed the end of last season when impressive loanees John Egan and Jakub Sokolik both opted against joining the club on a permanent basis.

After the duo’s departure, defensive reinforcements were sought after for most of the summer.

Several trialists came and went before Mads Ibenfeldt and Cian Bolger were both eventually snapped up.

But, perhaps rather ironically, it is the two defenders who were at the club all along, who are currently playing a prominent part in Blues’ run of good results.

In the last few games, the defence has also been brilliantly protected by the tigerish Gary Deegan in the midfield.

And the Irishman was again incredibly influential in securing Saturday’s 1-0 win.

The narrow victory also came in the 10th game of the season, the stage of the campaign when the footballing handbook of cliches, suggests league tables are first worth having a look at.

The standings makes for pleasant reading at the moment too as Blues are fourth in the standings, just two points behind early leaders Burton Albion.

But the success against the Shrews came despite Blues not being at their best.

However, the fact they were still able to secure all three points again displayed the more resolute side of the Shrimpers which has started to emerge.

Earlier on in the season, Blues were failing to win games they were on top in so Saturday’s win, despite not being particularly exciting or entertaining, clearly showed the progress which has been made.

Scoring goals still remains the major concern and the league table perfectly sums up the strengths and weaknesses of Phil Brown’s side at this stage.

The new look defence is already the joint best in the division, having conceded just seven goals in 10 games.

But Blues have netted just 12 times in that period, the joint lowest among any of the top seven sides.

The emergence of Jack Payne has given the Shrimpers a real creative boost in the final third.

However, his recent goalscoring heroics – netting four goals in five games – will undoubtedly have caught the eye of Blues’ rivals.

And he was certainly given extra attention, for perhaps the first time, against Shrewsbury with highly-rated defender Connor Goldson doing an excellent marshalling job on the youngster.

How Payne can now respond to having more men around him remains to be seen but his quick feet and attacking prowess should still allow him to come out on top.

Coulthirst will also be hoping to shine and the striker took his goal superbly well at the weekend.

The youngster has so far been quite inconsistent in front of goal for the Shrimpers but his second effort of the season meant his side made it four wins in a row, all against teams expected to be up towards the top of the table.

That bodes well for the remainder of the season and so does the fact Blues can now win ugly too!