SOUTHEND United defender Jason Demetriou will head into Saturday’s trip to Shrewsbury Town boosted by his international displays.

The experienced right-back captained Cyprus in their Nations League clashes with Norway and Slovenia.

And Demetriou thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“It’s always great going to play for Cyprus and it was an honour to be captain too,” said the defender.

“Over there, the captain is always the player in the starting line-up who has the most caps but I was proud to be given the armband.

“We also got three points out of six so the games didn’t go too badly either.”

Cyprus lost 2-0 at Norway before bouncing back to beat Slovenia 2-1.

And Demetriou - who has now won 45 caps for his country - was pleased with the reaction of the team.

“It was good to get the three points,” said the right-back.

“If we had lost both games we would have been playing catch up but thankfully that’s not the case.”

However, Demetriou has now returned to training with the Shrimpers and has swapped facing Slovenia for Shrewsbury Town.

And the defender is determined to help Chris Powell’s side end a run of two successive League One defeats.

“Shrewsbury were flying last season but it hasn’t quite gone their way this season so far and hopefully we can take advantage of that,” said the 30-year-old.

“They lost the manager and a lot of players from last season and it can take time for things to settle down after that.

“But we have to just focus on ourselves because we need the three points to get ourselves going again.

“We want to go on a run and we want that to start on Saturday.”

The Shrimpers head to Shrewsbury on the back of a 3-2 defeat against table-topping Peterborough United.

And Demetriou was being kept up to date on the game by his dad.

“My dad went to the game and was telling me we were the only team in it but then we were suddenly 2-0 down,” he said.

“Unfortunately, that just seems to be the way it’s going for us at the moment.

“We’re doing a lot of things right but just seem to be unlucky.

“Nobody wants that and it’s up to us to change it.”

Blues have taken seven points from their opening seven League games and are currently sitting 16th in the standings.