Will They Stay or Will They Go?

So the inevitable happened. We've been relegated to League Two. I suppose the good thing is at least we'll be a big fish in a small pond, or will we? I do not wish to linger on the subject of relegation for too long. On that note looking towards the future who currently on the wage bill should we keep and who should we lose. I've made my feelings felt (as it were) below where I've mentioned a couple of players whom have sparked debate amongst the fans.

I agree with Old Blue Lady, Matt Paterson may have something, we shouldn't be too quick to judge. Too many times have Iunderrated a player whilst he's been at Southend, only to see him prosper elsewhere. The same with Laurent I feel, he is very inconsistent but if you look at the highlights against Brentford and Brighton he takes his goals well and his touch can be fantastic (although it can be bloody awful). But he is now our top scorer, I take back what I said last season about him being a slow donkey.

I would release:



Mvoto (loan ends)


Vernon (loan ends)



If an offer comes in for Grant I'd take the money (I don't know where people got player of the season from, Moussa surely) and I haven't seen enough of Sankofa but people like him.

Everyone else I'd keep I think they'd do a good job for us.

Down and Outs? Up and Ins!

Well it looks as if we’re going down. The maximum amount of points we can possibly get is 48. Exeter (who are just above the drop zone) are on 46. That’s not good. But what is good is that Simon Francis has said we’re basically down. Cheers mate, thanks for that, at least your playing for pride that’ll do. I do have a lot of respect for Francis though he didn’t sign for Peterborough when he had the chance, but who would.

On the surface it seems like an impossibility. But if you look at whom the other sides around us have got to play I think we have got the best run of games. Ok the last game away to Southampton is no walk in the park but everyone has got at least one of the top teams in the league if not two.

Let’s take Gillingham who are flying high at the moment when it comes to the relegation battle. They need two wins and another point on top of that to definitely stay up. But their next game is against already promoted, top of the table Norwich City. Then they are at home to Southampton who have lost only five games on the road. Finally away to Wycombe who are fighting for their lives one place above us, not to mention the Gills haven’t won an away game all season. That’s no easy ride.

Exeter, if they win tomorrow they send us down, face play off contenders Charlton and Huddersfield. Sandwiched in the middle is an away trip to mid-table Hartlepool, who are no lightweights and have won ten games at home. Wouldn’t like to be them.

Tranmere play Colchester away, a team looking to slip into the play offs and who have one of the best home records in the league (not to mention their pitch is *word I would not like to post on this blog*). Third placed Milwall who could still easily pip Leeds to second, and rather do that I think than go through the play offs. And Stockport who really have nothing to play for and don’t have a bad home form.

Finally Wycombe have Swindon, who are looking to get that second spot as well and have two players in the league’s top six goal scorers, Leyton Orient, who although their league position isn’t great want to get away from the other relegation dog fighters and have scored 33 goals at home. Then Gillingham, which will really be an interesting game to watch (no sarcastic tone intended… no honestly).

Southend have Oldham away, a team that have scored the least amount of goals at home, Stockport at home, who have an appalling away record (not quite as worse than ours) and are already down and out, and Southampton... well one can dream can't one?

Four Steps Forward, Twelve Steps Back

It’s 4.50pm Saturday 6th May 2006. The referee blows his whistle. Southend United have just beaten Bristol City 1-0. They are promoted to the second tier of football for the first time since 1991 as champions. The bench goes crazy, players rejoice, supporters storm the pitch. As the mad scene calms down one man emerges with a microphone. “One thing I will promise, I’ll never let you down.”

Just what chairman Ron Martin meant was not quite clear. Four years on and we’re back where we started twelve years ago. Relegation to the basement of league football is staring us in the face. So what has actually changed from those dark days at the beginning of the last decade? Is it as bad as it all seems on the surface? And has Ron Martin kept his promise?

One thing is for sure no one knew whom the property dealer from Billericay was when his company Martin Dean PLC took over United in 1998. No one really knew who he was until that famous year when we were promoted. Certainly no one had really heard from him as much as this season.

He seems like a man under extreme pressure made obvious by the nature of what has gone on this season and the decisions he has made in communicating with the fans. This becomes more apparent when you look at the most recent attempts to reach out. Don’t get me wrong there have been good, well thought-out statements, Q&A sessions and blogs directly from Mr Martin.

However, the most recent blogs have been waffly at best, desperate at worst. He boasts about the fact we were 8th in the league for highest wage bill last season and probably in the top ten this year. Which shows nothing apart from the fact it doesn’t matter how much you pay your players you can still get relegated. He seems to be a man hell-bent on explaining his difficult situation and this has come across as hostile. He has appeared to have a pop at the fans, the players and has some sort of gripe against the Southend Echo.

I, though, feel for a man who, I genuinely think, has the club at heart. When he asked supporters to write to the Home Office to show their desire for the plans of the new stadium to be approved, my dad submitted a letter explaining how my late grandfather’s tree was in the crematorium next to the proposed site and how this would have been something he would have loved. Ron Martin replied personally saying the letter touched him. Like-wise when my Nan passed away in 2008 my dad e-mailed Mr Martin telling him how much she loved the club and how they had always treated her well. He replied within the hour (baring in mind the e-mail was sent ten o’clock at night) expressing his sympathies and offered my dad to write an obituary for the programme.

These are not the actions of a chairman who doesn’t care. What people have got to understand is that Ron Martin has been unfortunate in what have been unique economic circumstances. No one could have foreseen the banking crisis. The diggers were one week away from moving in and the development of the new stadium could have started to take shape. Then Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. It must be difficult to take, being so close then suddenly having to face unpredictable financial hardship.

If there’s one thing I could have commended Ron Martin with in the past few years it was keeping quiet and letting the football grab the headlines. This season however has been a very different story and it didn’t have to be. His openness has not gone unnoticed but it has been misinterpreted. People have to understand that Ron Martin has had a very difficult season and it’s not all his fault, but Ron Martin has to understand that people don’t need to know everything. If I were Mr Martin I would invest in a PR officer next season.

Finally if we perceive these to be dark days then I say look at Newcastle United and closer to home Norwich City this time last year. Grown men crying at the sight of their once giant club falling to the pits of doom. Now it’s as if it had never happened and if anything they are over-succeeding. I expect us to do the same and although the club looks in financial meltdown it is because of the ambition to get us to a new stadium, which in turn will create a revenue stream from not only gates but also retail, health centres, hotels. This is the only option for us and it will benefit us in the future. So let’s ride this storm, nay, hiccup and hope that one day we can hear Ron Martin say, “I told you I’d never let you down.”

Southend 14 – 1 Brighton

14 goals, 10 different goal scorers. No I’m not talking literally, I wish, I’m talking hypothetically. That’s what the score would have looked like if we had have kept any of the players that have turned out for us in the past two years. Some of them we’re absolutely awful for us, but now prospering somewhere else. Which begs the question what are we doing wrong. May be they don’t get a fair chance with us, it is often proven that a striker needs a good run of games in the first team before he starts scoring prolifically. Or may be Tilson just doesn’t get the best out of them for whatever reason.

I wasn’t sad to see Billy Paynter go, but now look at him one of the top scorers in the league for Swindon. Charlie MacDonald is another example. The worst result of the weekend was Wycombe winning 3-0. Two goals from Alex Revell and an injury time winner from Kevin Betsy, who would have thought? Apparently Revell is still on loan there from us, how ironic would that be if our own player sends us down?

I Believe in Miracles

These Guys Believe

Meanwhile the club have started a new campaign as worse than any political party’s campaign. Believe. They’re asking fans to get behind the team and ‘believe’ we can stay up. There are ‘believe’ cards to hold up at the games. There’s even a cheesy publicity photo of the chairman, manager and captain all sitting together saying join us. Of course we’ll bloody join you we support the club it’s not like we have a choice. It’s not like an election campaign where we could get a hung parliament if we don’t make our minds up soon enough. “No I think I’ll join the “Don’t Believe” party.”

You have to hand it to them they are trying, bless ‘em. I think although we have accepted our fate, the loss to Brighton yesterday was the nail in the coffin, there is a small part inside of all of us that says, “it’s still mathematically possible, let’s believe in miracles”.

It would be the most amazing thing I would have ever been witness to, if we stay up, that it would be a miracle. So come on let's all hail the prophet Ron Martin and his twelve disciples: Steve Tilson, Adam Barrett, Steve Mildenhall, Pat Baldwin, Scott Malone, Simon Francis, Anthony Grant, Jean-Francois Christophe, Franck Moussa, Alan McCormack, Francis Laurent and Scott Vernon.

He Believes

Lies, Damn Lies and Trends

We desperately need some points. Tilson said before the Leeds game that we needed to win three out of six and possibly get another point on top of that. Looking at the games in hand it was obvious which games he was expecting results from, win the three home games and get a draw away to Oldham Athletic. Basically giving up all hope of any sort of result against Leeds, losing 2-0, we then drew to Brentford… brilliant.

It means we need to win our next three games. Home to Brighton, away to Oldham and home to Stockport. No one seems to hold any hopes of us getting a result at Southampton. It could be done but I feel that if we lose to Brighton then that is our season over. Not mathematically but we’d have to win every game, hope other results go our way and even then it might not happen. Taking into account we’ve only won one game since December, going out and then getting three consecutive wins is bordering on insane.

On a much happier note apparently we’ve gone five games unbeaten at home. What the papers and the press fail to mention is that only one of those was a win. Ever since winning at home to Walsall a few weeks ago all the trends and pessimism has changed into new trends and optimism. Now I’m all for optimism but I was optimistic anyway I didn’t need to be told the same trends but in a different way.

Let me explain. After the Walsall game, when we won 3-0, all the press were banging on about was how we’ve gone three games unbeaten. A couple of days before all they could go on about were how we’d gone twelve games without a win. So why didn’t they just say 13 games and with only one win? That’s the media for you, jumping on any bandwagon that moves. I suppose I’ll be guilty of that in the future.

What are they going to come up with next "unbeaten this year if you take the first 80 minutes of games and subtract them by the number of goals scored divided by games we've played". With that reasoning we've won the league!

If Sky Sports News Have Faith Then So Do I

Well it’s another interesting day in the life of a Southend supporter. I woke up today not knowing whether I’d still have a football team to support by the end of it. Southend United Football Club is a club after my own heart…they like to do things last minute and they’re very jammy when it comes to deadlines. After having their court hearing adjourned this morning until this afternoon, they were then given another week to pay off an outstanding tax bill.

If this isn’t enough we came back from being behind twice last night to draw 2-2 against Brentford. Talk about drama I nearly had a heart attack listening to it. Laurent you beauty. Although this means we need to win our next three games if we want to stay up. If we don’t win this Saturday I think we’ll most likely go down. It pains me to say it but I’m a realist, and British, which means I set myself up for disappointment so as to soften the blow.

Finally it was good to see us on Sky Sports News only if it was brief and about the court hearing but it was positive the reporter said nothing to worry about. And when are journalists ever wrong?