SOUTHEND United goalkeeper Steve Collis heads back to his former Nottingham Forest side tonight looking to continue his fine form between the sticks.

The 26-year-old, who has now started the last 12 matches for the Shrimpers, impressed while keeping a clean sheet during the 1-0 victory at Northampton Town on Saturday.

And he is now hoping for more of the same against his ex-employees.

"They are a massive club and it would be good to go back there again," said Collis.

"I've only been back once before and that was with Yeovil and we lost 2-1. Hopefully it will be a different story this evening."

Collis spent one season at the City Ground after joining from Barnet in the summer of 2000.

He failed to force his way into the first team but still enjoyed his spell with the club.

"David Platt was the manager at the time and it was an excellent experience for me," recalled Collis.

"I learnt so much when I was there and it really helped me develop. Dave Beasant was the goalkeeping coach as well as being the first choice and he was great to work with.

"It also showed me what a big club they are and everyone there believes they should be back in the Championship at the very least."

At present Forest look like mounting a serious push for promotion as they are currently fourth in the League One table.

But Collis knows the former European Champions are under immense pressure to succeed and that could well work to Southend's advantage.

"Although they are just below us in the league table everyone shall be expecting them to win," he said.

"If we can start well then the supporters could well start to get the backs of their players and that would certainly help us."

Collis has kept four clean sheets since replacing Darryl Flahavan, who has suffered with both injury and illness this season.

His latest shutout came against the Cobblers at the weekend when he pulled of some fine stops to help Southend move up to third in the standings.

"I was just doing what I'm there do," said Collis. "We defended well and I thought it was a good battling performance.

"Luckily enough for us Adam Barrett popped up from a set piece too score and the clean sheet was an added bonus.

"We're pleased with how it's going and want another good result at Forest now."

Blues have no new injury concerns but winger Tommy Black faces a late check on the hamstring problem which forced him to miss out against Northampton.

Southend (from): Collis, Hunt, P Clarke, Barrett, Hammell, Moussa, McCormack, Bailey, Gower, L Clarke, Hooper, Harrold, MacDonald, Francis, Black, Maher and Foran.