Southend United new boy Martyn Booty is looking forward to making his Shrimpers debut in Saturday's Roots Hall match with Third Division strugglers Scarborough.

The full-back, who has joined the Blues on a month's loan from Second Division Reading, readily admits that he cannot wait to get his Southend career underway.

"I'm looking forward to making my debut and hopefully getting off to a winning start with Southend," said the 27-year-old.

"It's been a couple of months since I've been involved with a First team game and I can't wait to get stuck in.

"As a professional footballer you train hard all week in preparation for playing in a match on the Saturday and I have missed that.

"I've come to Southend to play at first team level again and I'm looking forward to enjoying my time at Roots Hall."

Booty, who can play at left or right-back, added that he was not worried about dropping into the Third Division to play for Southend.

"I've spent most of my career playing football in the First Division, but playing in the bottom division never put me off coming here for one minute," he said.

"Southend are an ambitious club and I don't think they'll be in their present position for too long.

"The lads at the club are a good bunch and from what I've heard Southend should be doing a lot better, but haven't had the rub of the green in some of their games.

"Hopefully I'll be able to help Southend kick-start their season and climb the table."

Blues chief Alvin Martin has warned his men not to take Saturday's opponents Scarborough, who have lost four of their last five league games, too lightly.

He said: "They're second from bottom in the league at the moment, but that doesn't mean we're in for an easy game.

"Scarborough have had their fair share of problems on and off the pitch this season - which I know from my experiences here at Roots Hall can affect the way a team plays.

"However, they will be desperate to get a result against us and are bound to put on a committed performance which will provide another hard test for us."

Martin revealed that hamstring injury victim Leo Roget could figure in tomorrow's action following the young defender's return to training yesterday and winger Adrian Clarke could also return following Achilles trouble.

However, the Blues boss still has a striker crisis at the club with Trevor Fitzpatrick (groin), Dominic Iorfa (hamstring) and Kevin Rapley (hamstring) all still sidelined. Defender Keith Dublin has also cried off with flu.

Scarborough's squad has been decimated by suspensions ahead of the match at Roots Hall and they will be missing three central defenders.

The Seadogs boss Mick Wadsworth has tried to combat the problem by signing 36-year-old former Aston Villa defender Derek Mountfield, who has not played professional football since being released by Walsall last season.

Southend (from): Margetson, Beard, Newman, Coleman, Booty, Livett, Maher, Houghton, Gooding, Burns, Conlon, Roget, Clarke, Morley, Jones and Johnson.

Scarborough (from): Weaver, Kay, Mountfield, Marinkov, Atkinson, Jackson, Worrall, Bullimore, Russell, Brodie, Greenacre, Campbell, Tate, Radigan, Rainford.

Ready and waiting - Blues' new boy Martyn Booty is poised for action against Scarborough

(Right) Martin - warning players against complacency

Picture: MAXINE CLARKE

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.