Shaun Goater will definitely hang up his boots up at the end of the season ? and is hoping for a fairytale ending to his illustrious career.

The former Manchester City talisman, who nabbed his seventh goal for Southend on Saturday after a lengthy injury lay-off, has confirmed he will not play on after this season, despite hints last year that he could be tempted to give it one more year if things went well with the Shrimpers.

?No, this is definitely going to be it for me,? said Goater, who nearly retired after a miserable year with Reading before Steve Tilson came in with an offer and Goater was talked out of retirement by both Kyle Lightbourne and former England star Cyrille Regis.

?I am 100 percent going to put an end to it all at the end of this year.

?I am happy that I made the right decision to play on for one more year and have enjoyed my time here at Southend immensely but this is going to be the last season ? I have made my mind up.

?Cyrille can try and talk me out of it again but I will be in Bermuda by then and I won?t be budging.?

Even though the final whistle on Goater?s 200-goal UK professional career will soon be blown, the veteran striker still has plenty of games left with Southend to ensure he goes out with a bang.

?I have got about 15 or so games left and, now I think about it, I am going to make sure I cherish each one. I am going to play my hardest, with determination and passion and make sure I have no regrets by the time the season ends,? he added.

?I want a fairytale ending to my career and that would be helping Southend to promotion.

?We are in a strong position now and I am going to do everything I can to play my part in ensuring we are still at this end of the table come the end of the season.

?It would be the ideal way to end things in football for me here and a great way of saying thank you to the Southend fans who are making my final season so memorable.?