Southend United boss Alan Little is looking to add some firepower to his front line ahead of Blues' busy Bank Holiday weekend programme.

The Shrimpers face two of the Third Division's promotion favourites over the next few days, with a tough away match at Swansea City on Saturday, followed by a derby clash with Leyton Orient at Roots Hall on Monday with a 1pm kick-off.

"I've been looking at one or two forward players over the last couple of days and I hope to have a fresh face in my side at Swansea tomorrow," revealed Little today (Friday).

"We've had a few problems in attack and I want to bring a proven striker to the club, initially on loan, to play alongside Neil Tolson.

"The players I'm looking at have a good pedigree and a track record of hitting the back of the net. Hopefully one of them will be on our coach which travels to Wales."

Little said his men were in for a rough ride at Swansea, but said his team should be confident in themselves, following their Worthington Cup display at Second Division Oxford United on Tuesday.

"Swansea are one of the better teams in our division, but we can go there and get a result," said the Seasiders manager.

"They are a strong and powerful side, who play a direct 4-4-2 formation, but I'm sure we can live with them if we play like we did at Oxford.

"We may have lost at Oxford, but they pushed us to the limit and only managed to score one goal against us because we kept our shape and system, which we hadn't done recently.

"If we can remain that solid again and hit Swansea on the counter-attack then I'm sure we can have an enjoyable afternoon in Wales."

Little also said he was relishing Monday's derby clash against near-neighbours Orient, who were the opposition in his first match as Southend manager in April, which saw Blues win 3-0.

"This game will take care of itself and my lads won't need any motivation," said Little.

"There will be a large, noisy crowd inside Roots Hall and there will be local pride at stake, which is enough to spur anyone on.

"But it will be another hard encounter because Orient, despite their poor start, are a good side, who could be involved in the promotion run-in."

Little will play a 5-3-2 formation at Swansea, but one player who looks set to miss the game is David Morley, who has a thigh strain.

Striker Tolson has had a bout of food poisoning, but is expected to recover, and midfielder Mark Beard, who was forced out of Southend's last four matches with a scratched retina, also returns.

Another midfielder, Kevin Maher, is also back from a knee injury, but right-winger Gordon Connelly, who is pencilled in for the Orient match, will not figure at Swansea.

Southend (from): Capleton, Booty, Jones, Roget, Coleman, Tinkler, Beard, Houghton, Tolson, Roach, Abiodun, Clarke, Livett, Maher, Perkins, Morrish, Spittle.

Swansea (from): Freestone, Price, Howard, Bound, Smith, Cusack, Thomas, O'Leary, Roberts, Watkin, Bird, Alsop, Coates, Appleby, Lacey, Jones.

Leyton Orient (from): Barrett, Ampadu, Harris, Joseph, Smith, Lockwood, Ling, Clark, Beall, Christie, Richards, Simba, Morrison, Walschaerts, Watts, Bayes, Donner.

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