ON LOAN Southend United midfielder Oli Coker is helping Aveley maintain their push for a second successive promotion.

The 19-year-old scored for the Millers in Monday night’s 2-1 win against Hastings United to send Danny Scopes’ side third in the Isthmian Premier League standings.

And Scopes is pleased with Coker’s contribution.

“Oli is a really good kid which is important and I’ve known him for a little while now,” said Scopes.

“In my time at Concord he came in and did some training with us and I know various people who know his family so he’s always someone who has been on the radar.

“I spoke to Oli at the start of the season and wished him well with Southend.

“I hoped he would be in and around the squad there which he was but did say if the opportunity ever did come up for him to go out on loan we would love to take him.”

And that it what ultimately transpired with Coker joining Aveley at the start of January.

“I spoke to Kevin (Maher) and he thought it was a good move for Oli at this time so we were really pleased to take him,” said Scopes.

“The work we did last year with Jon Benton has held in good esteem with the club and they’ve trusted us with Oli.

“He’s fitted in with the group really well and he wants to work hard and learn.

“He’s shown what he can do on the pitch already and we’re still in that bedding in period.

“He’s settled in really well, he’s got a couple of goals and three or four assists so we’re pleased with him as a young player.

“Our job is to obviously help Aveley but we want to help Oli as well.”

Scopes, who is based in Eastwood, led Aveley to the Isthmian North title last season.

And he has already secured his first main target for the current campaign.

“We haven’t been in this league for 10 seasons so our main priority was to survive and stay up and we made sure of that a few games ago,” said Scopes.

“That probably sounds really negative but that has to be the aim when you’re going into a new division.

“I’ve been really pleased with the group of players.

“We took a lot of boys up from step four with us and they’re doing really well. The club have adapted well to the level and the players have too.”

But Scopes is determined to keep the good performances going.

“We set some targets at the start of the season including the wins we felt we needed,” said Scopes.

“We’re pretty close to that now but getting over that line is our first target.

“We will see what games we have left after that and will keep on pushing on.

“The challenge we set the group was to be competitive in as many games as we possibly can. You’ve only got to the look at the results to see we’ve been competitive even when we have lost.

“You can count on one hand the games we haven’t been competitive in and after 27 games that isn’t too bad as a newly promoted team.”