SOUTHEND United striker Stephen Humphrys is thrilled to be banishing his mask this Halloween.

Humphrys had been playing with the protective mask since February after breaking 15 bones in his face when scoring against Accrington Stanley.

But the 22-year-old has now been given the go-ahead to take to the pitch without the mask.

“It’s great I don’t have to wear the mask anymore,” said Humphrys.

“Everytime I was heading the ball it would hit my mask which would then hit my nose which was still broken and it definitely attracted attention from defenders.

“I’ve had more whacks to the face since the start of this season than ever before and the mask also affected my peripheral vision.

“It’s still hung up at the training ground but I definitely hope I never have to wear it again.”

Humphrys worked his way into Blues folklore when scoring a late winning goal against Sunderland on the final day of last season to keep the club in League One.

And the forward knows it will be tough to match that when he comes face-to-face with the Black Cats again this weekend.

“This will be the first time we’ve played Sunderland since then and we’re definitely not going to top that day,” said Humphrys.

“But it would be great if we could get another good result.”

The Shrimpers make the trip to the Stadium of Light sitting second from bottom in the standings.

But Humphrys feels new boss Sol Campbell has already made a big impact.

“He’s changed things around and everything is of a higher standard now,” said Humphrys.

“I came through the ranks at Fulham and what we have now is like a Premier League regime.

"We have Tony (Colbert) working on our fitness for 45 minutes before the manager takes over.

“We’re also training later and that makes sense to me as I never understood why we you would train at 10am because you never play then.

"Even small things like the food has improved so it's been good so far and hopefully the results can follow."