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?

It Aint Easy Being Up North

One thing about being at university is that I am so far away from my beloved Southend United. This is a pain for so many reasons. Last season wasn’t so bad I went to the most away games in a season I’ve ever been to before. This year I haven’t had the pleasure. Due to the fact not many teams playing in League One are near Stoke-on-Trent. What can I say midlands you’re too successful for the likes of this Essex boy. Another draw back about being at university is I’m poor and because of this reason can only afford the basic broadband package of 10 meg. As you may well know it’s never up to maximum speed and as The Sceptical Student will tell you it’s more like 1 meg (0.62 to be precise).

So as I sit down to listen to the Leeds vs Southend game on my Blues Player subscription (internet coverage/commentary of the match) it starts off slow. But then the opening five minutes is clear as day and I relax with a cup of tea settling into the game. What’s this though? The Internet decides it doesn’t want to do this today and pisses off. I’m left in the dark for another 10 mins until I decide there’s only one solution. So I sit and watch Soccer Saturday as I’m pleasantly reminded of how rubbish we are via text updates.

Not much happens in the first half. The commentary cuts in and out as it has done for most of the afternoon. I only become aware that the second half has started by the fact the other games have started on Soccer Saturday. But on the hour a miraculous thing happens. The commentary cuts in and the commentator sounds excited. I can’t quite make out what he’s saying but it’s frantic and the word goal is shouted. I jump for joy thinking that the bias commentator from BBC Essex will surely be referring to us. He isn’t. I check the text updates and no. Leeds have broken the deadlock, 1-0.

By this point I’m fed up with the Internet and, although not a violent man, feel like hitting things. It aint easy being up north, and it’s not just the weather.

Final score Leeds United 2 Southend United 0.

OGG (The Extra G is for Grant)

How unfortunate for Anthony Grant. It’s a record no one wants to hold. The most own goals scored by any Southend United player ever. Not only that but he’s scored them all in one season, a relegation season. He now has 4 to his name, the latest coming in the dying minutes against Bristol City. I know how he feels though. In my brief amateur career as a footballer I’ve managed to notch up 3 own goals at under-11 level (playing for New Park Rangers; below), and 3 in my stint as a six-a-side player. I’ve only managed to score 1 ‘proper goal’ at either level.

You can’t blame him though we just seem to be having an unlucky season. I know you can’t blame a whole season on luck, but I am. If you look at the amount of times we have lost a game when we could have drawn or even won the game. When it’s not been our fault either. Bristol Rovers was a prime example of us. A game we were looking to draw, 3-3 until 90 + 4 minutes, when bam! A cross comes in and Grant just pushes it into the back of the net with his thigh. We did nothing wrong defensively, it was an amazing cross and it was just unlucky it went in.

All I can say is luck better even her good self out and deal us a good hand in the future.

Purple Reign

Steve Tilson: “I just wanna get a result, however it comes. Whether it’s scrappy whether we play well. I don’t give a monkey’s.”

Adam Barrett: “We’d take an awful performance. You know [even if we’re] not in the game we’d take a scruffy one nil. Or anything.”

Franck Moussa: “If we can show the same spirit we showed from coming back from two nil down [against Carlisle]. But do it against Walsall straight from the kick off then it will definitely be an interesting game.”

Well we certainly showed the same spirit against Walsall. And it certainly wasn’t a scrappy one nil performance. Three nil was the perfect way to change some attitudes and turn a corner for the end of the season. Judging by our recent performances a win was inevitable, but what was it that set those performances apart from this one?

That man Moussa for one. The way he played was brilliant and the way he took his goals was nothing short of superb. I’ve watched Franck Moussa from when he was in the youth team and he has always been a player that has impressed me. I honestly think he’s got a bright future ahead of him, hopefully with Southend for some of it. He is fortunate enough to be born a Belgian therefore he will have no trouble getting into the squad let’s just hope they can make it to a major tournament.

But maybe there was something else at work on that cool Tuesday evening in an ever-growingly disgruntled Roots Hall. The players were wearing what was akin to a Cadbury’s wrapper. But didn’t they look good, helped by no small part that they were playing the best football of 2010. The purple shirt was worn to publicise Rotary International’s fight to end polio.

I would like to put a motion to the Blue Hoody faithful. Let’s keep the purple shirts. Let’s keep those shirts with ‘End polio now’ embroiled on them. They symbolise not only that message but also a winning mentality and a purple revolution that could see us stay in League One. Let’s rule the relegation battle.

C'mon You Blues

Sing when we’re losing, we only sing when we’re losing

It’s the middle of March, we’re staring relegation in the face and our last game of the season is away to Southampton. Ring any bells? The only difference is that when we were in the Championship, for the 06/07 season, it didn’t feel like a relegation season. This does. There are many fingers you could point to many different people. Why hasn’t Tilson made more permanent signings and just let players go for cheap or free? Going so close to administration hasn’t helped on field performances and whose fault is that? Where is the money?

But I want to take a leaf out of my new friend Spoons’ book. Let’s think positively. We can be proud that we have the best fans in the land. My fellow football fans think I’m bias and by God I probably am but I don’t care. Just look at some of the admiration we get from other football fans. I wasn’t there but I watched on tele as Doncaster fans applauded our fans after we lost 5-1 in the 2008 play-off semi-final. We could have won that game and gone to Wembley for the first time but instead we were played out the park. Did our fans stop cheering? Did they nelly. We absolutely got behind the team and it brought a tear to my eye. It’s alright singing when you’re winning, or even singing when you’re losing to Chelsea a team that are expected to beat you. But singing when you’re losing 5-1, after drawing 0-0 in the first leg, in a game that you could potentially win to take you to Wembley, then that is heart-warming.

Come the last game of the season I hope to replicate a few things from 2007. The atmosphere we created last time we were at St Mary’s. Once again a very memorable game and once again receiving the appreciation our fans deserve. We were top of the relegation zone and ready to go down, but we wanted to cause one more upset before we said bon voyage to the Championship until next time. However, Southampton had the promise land in their sights. Losing 4-1 was not the way we wanted to go, but leaving an impression amongst the home support of the Saints was. They stormed the pitch as they booked the last play-off spot. After mobbing their players, the jubilant fans turned to the away end, walked over and applauded us just as passionately as our players had done. I was there in that away end and I will never forget that moment of mutual respect between fans brought together by football.

There’s a lot to be proud of supporting Southend United, let’s not forget that. I wouldn’t like to see us go the way Cardiff City fans went at the weekend. Making t-shirts against the chairman instead of getting behind the team. And they’re in the play-offs of the championship. So let’s show our counterparts that we are the Blues fans that were applauded for losing so graciously.

Varsity

I want to apologise for the lack of posts recently. You can appreciate I have been busy, in the world of sport in fact. Some deluded bugger put me in charge of the TV coverage for my University’s Varsity. It was a very successful day culminating in the biggest logistical operation I’ve ever been responsible for. Organising camera operators and presenters for the grand finale football match was hard work but a joy and definitely an eye opener. If I can find a career in it I would be a very happy man. In fact check out my work below. Cheers for now, I’ll see you next week when I’ll hopefully be celebrating a win. Up the blues.

Answer Me This

Well what a difference a week makes. And at the end of it all the Chairman Ron Martin decides to call a Q and A session. In my eyes, and these are eyes that haven’t been critical of the chairman, board or manager (until last week), he’s got a lot to answer for. Losing three nil to fellow relegation battlers Hartlepool United wasn’t a good start. We now need six wins from twelve games according to Tilson. This is achievable and it’s important that the next five games are against teams who are in and around the relegation zone. It would have helped getting some sort of result against the Monkey Hangers, as we would have overtaken them. An important game against Exeter City tomorrow is a must win. Exeter are one place above us in the league and these are the games we should be and need to be winning.

Macca hasn’t helped us again with another match ban after receiving a red card last week, Jeff’s still out after his red card against Charlton. We’ve got the players to fill in though even if Granty is coming back earlier than he should be from injury. I think him and Moose are a capable and skilful midfield. Sometimes Grant can be lazy but he’s learnt the defensive skills he needed to adopt to his game with a few central defensive roles earlier this season. Even if he did score an own goal every time he was playing there. Moose bleeds for the team and he is by far the most skilful player on the pitch I think he is very under-rated; I’ve liked him since he was a youth team player. They are an inexperienced midfield pairing but with the ever-improving Damien Scannell and Francis Laurent, whom I would expect is going to start on the opposite wing, having regular first team starts then it is an exciting attacking midfield.

They say football is unpredictable and who’d have said at the start of the season assistant manager Paul Brush would have been sacked and replaced with the notorious David Webb. We’ve been here before with Webby and it hasn’t always turned out roses, but I wonder whether this is strategic and thoughtful planning from Ron Martin, or whether it’s resorting to ‘what we know best’ tactics. It will be interesting to see what comes of it but it is definitely a surprise and may be the change I was alluding to in my last post, even if it isn’t as drastic. But answer me this Ron Martin, when are we going to see long term contracts signed by players and transfer fees from the ones we move on? Without this the club has an unstable future.

On Your Bike Tilson

Everyone’s allowed to be hypocritical sometimes and I’m a self-confessed hypocrit so that’s alright. I have often said that if a team wants to succeed then stability is the key. And that’s why when a football club’s first response to a bad run of games is to sack the manager I get angry, and you won’t like me when I’m angry. However, when it comes to Southend United and our bad run this season (not winning a game in 2010 and picking up only three points from our last nine games) I become hypocritical. I think Steve Tilson should get on his bike and go home.

It’s nothing-personal Steve I just feel that your time is up. He’s had a good stint as the Blues’ most successful manager and I’m proud to have the fourth longest serving manager in the football league. But sometimes you jut have to know when to say adios, goodnight and god bless. My feelings on this matter were confirmed when inside sources told me he applied for the Brighton and Hove Albion job back in November 2009 and got through to the last stages of the interview process. I mean that doesn’t sound like a manager who is dedicated to the long-term cause. It sounds like a manager who is fed up and wants to go. It is obviously rubbing off on the team. So let him go I say. Let him go and good luck to him.

I have always been a fan of his and it will be upsetting to see him leave. It would be best for both parties in the end and that’s what we have to concentrate on, the future. Who would replace him is another matter and a difficult one at that. Steve Coppell, Paul Jewell, Alan Curbishley to name but a few. These are all managers who I would love to see at Roots Hall and they’ve got some things in common. They’re ambitious and have all achieved exceptional things with small clubs. Obviously whether they want to come to the South Essex coast that’s another thing.

Tilson you’ve done a wonderful job and I’m sure you’re sincere when you say you are up for the challenge of keeping us up this season. And I believe you will, but after that can you then move on please?

Next week I will be upping the ante and providing you lovely people with two lovely posts a week, previewing and then reviewing the weekend’s action.

Roots Hall Roar

It’s Friday night and that can only mean one thing in Southend. Boozed up lads and pissed up girls having it large down on the seafront. But I’m more interested in something else. The Blues are playing Charlton tonight and I think it could be our time. I know there can’t be a lot said about fickle football fans screaming furiously at a bunch of donkeys who should be ashamed to wear the shirt one game and the next game claiming this is it, this is the game that will be the turning point for the rest of the season.

But there can be a lot said about the Friday night Roots Hall roar. Friday nights have a somewhat familiar place in the hearts of all Southend fans. Something Charlton will not be used to and this could work in our favour. Teams don’t like coming to Southend on a cold dark Friday night but the fans relish it and it can prove the difference. I don’t know if it is the turning point of the season but this is definitely a game we can win. Our performances have not been that bad to warrant being 20^th in the league.

Let’s hope the team selection will prove more mature than against MK Dons. I didn’t understand how Tilson could go to the MK Stadium and field two loanees in the heart of defence one of whom is an 21 year-old fringe player. I accept injuries to such a small squad has made it difficult to find eleven fully fit first team players, but playing your captain out of position and relying on Baldwin and Mvoto to keep a clean sheet (or at least prevent enough goals so we score more which is I think how you win a football game it’s been so long I can’t remember) is heading for disaster.

Another thing that gives me faith are the players’ attitudes. There seems to be a good morale considering the circumstances and I feel that this will help us. We’ve got the players to stay up this year so out of the relegation battlers we must be favourites. But it is hard to believe ‘Four Four Two’ predicted us to finish second in the league and get promotion this season. I have totally lost confidence in the journalistic skills of the writers of that magazine. Although who am I to judge. Just a quick note to say my next blog will contain some controversial opinions on Steve Tilson. That is just to cover my back so it doesn’t look like I’m the fickle fan, I mentioned earlier, if Southend lose tonight.