Focus Shifts To On The Pitch

After a summer of turmoil and drama behind the scenes at Roots Hall, Southend fans can finally look forward to the forthcoming football season after the club settled their debts with HMRC on Monday and escaped administration (for another year, at least). It means that the transfer embargo which has been on them for some time now should be lifted before the start of the season, allowing the 17 players who manager Paul Sturrock has signed on pre-contract agreements to officially register with the Football League and play Stockport County on Saturday, including today's 3 new signings - Chris Barker (1-month loan from Plymouth), Josh Simpson (6-month loan from Peterborough) and Adam Bouzid. The embargo hasn't officially been lifted yet, despite Ron Martin's assurance (another broken promise) that it would be sorted by yesterday, but I imagine it's just a case of paperwork and bureaucracy. Again it was Sainsburys who saved the day, underwriting Southend's debts for the next 12 months. I may tell my mum to start shopping at Sainsburys!


Looking ahead to Saturday's opening match with Stockport (and how nice it is to be talking about football not finance), it is hard to make predictions with Southend at the moment given that we have an almost completely new team who need to gel. But there is certainly a feeling of positivity around the place, helped by Tuesday's impressive 1-1 draw with West Ham United (albeit their reserve team). Defensively the team looks solid, with Tunisian centre-back Bilel Mohsni looking like a gem of a discovery from the French amateur leagues and new signing Luke Prosser impressing against the Hammers. The central midfield partnership of captain Craig Easton and Anthony Grant, now the longest-serving and arguably best player at the club, must be one of the strongest in the league. The side's weakness appears to be up front as we lack a proven, regular goalscorer. Blair Sturrock and Barry Corr are experienced at this level but have poor goalscoring records, whilst Harry Crawford, Matt Paterson and Scott Spencer are all young, unproven strikers but they should get a fair few goals between them. Contrary to recent seasons in which conceding goals has been the problem, this season may see a lot of low-scoring games. Stockport were the last visitors to Roots Hall for a league game, having also been relegated from League One, and like Southend they have substantial financial problems. The Shrimpers won 2-1 on that occasion and it should be a close game again. But whatever the result, we should just be thankful that we have a team to field. Ron Martin is far from a hero but at least the club is above water for another 12 months.

Billy Blenheim

Football League Fixtures 2010/2011

The 2010/2011 Fixtures have been released. Here are the respective views in brief by our three Essex panelists.

Camulodunum (CUFC)- Colchester United

"It's a given that we're always away first game of the season so I'm not surprised. Daggers at home on the 28th September, I'll be looking forward to that, although slightly nervous as they'll treat it as a cup final and beat us.....


The first 2 homes game, we play both Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth at home which I see as good to get them out of the way early. Hopefully we'll have a bit of early season optimism and pull a few big crowds.


Bristol Rovers at home last game of the season, my birthday - Secure a play-off place?! C'mon!!!"

SOTD (D&R)- Dagenham and Redbridge

"Away to Sheffield blimming Wednesday. If League One football hadn't hit Sheffield Wednesday fans yet, Then it will come down like a ton of bricks when they scan over the fixtures to find their first game is against Dagenham and Redbridge, the famous pub team from Essex. Literally the perfect game to begin our League One campaign. Over 20,000 fans, sunshine (We hope), A city with plenty of boozers and a game that will epitomise the achievement's of John Still and his warrior Daggers.

For personal reasons it gets even better, I have just finished studying in Sheffield so a weekender with old friends beckons. "How many will you take?" will probably be the frequent question posed by Wednesday fans on our forum in the upcoming weeks. I'm going to be optimistic and say over a thousand. We took over 500 for Stockport which was our first ever league game, But i don't think many people will want to miss possibly our biggest league game in our history. Luckily being skint this summer is a blessing in disguise as I don't have a holiday booked in August, although I'm aware than many others do...perhaps there will be another volcanic eruption if you're lucky?

As for other fixtures, my first instinct was to look at when we are playing Colchester in our first Essex league derby for a number of years. Unfortunately my fears were confirmed, both games on Tuesday Night. However, the away game is quite early in the season so I can see us taking quite a few.

As for the others, Southampton and Plymouth on Tuesday Nights will be a mission to get to, but I'm sure many Daggers fans will try every avenue possible to get to these. Bournemouth away on a Saturday for once and still when it is quite warm, could be a quality weekender while Tranmere may persuade many to take in the culture of Liverpool City Centre!

Overall I'm pleased with them. Our first 3 home games are arguably winnable. Peterborough away on he last day of the season already cries out Mackail-Smith relegating Dagenham and Redbridge, but my only thoughts are on Sheffield at the moment.

I'm off to look at the fixtures again, even Dagenham vs Walsall is quite surreal to look at!


Billy Blenheim (SUFC)- Southend United

So, the fixtures for next season have been announced and Southend fans face the thrilling prospect of trips to beautiful British towns such as Bury, Crewe and Morecambe. Yes, I am being slightly sarcastic. The fixture list is only bound to compel the misery at being relegated. One post on Shrimperzone reads: "It finally dawned on me that with the fixtures coming out today this must be how the also rans must feel every year." We mustn't be arrogant and big-headed though. Only 6 seasons ago we were in League Two and promotion next year will be difficult given our financial situation and lack of players.

And there isn't even a proper local derby to look forward to this season, with Gillingham and Barnet being our closest trips. Annoyingly, both of the Gillingham games are on a Tuesday night. 'Highlights' of the season are definitely Oxford away on New Years Day and Wycombe away on the final day of the season, two fairly short trips. The Shrimpers begin the season at home (for the 7th season in a row) to fellow relegated and skint Stockport, before a not too distant journey to Aldershot. On the positive side, there are plenty of new grounds for Shrimpers fans to visit next season and they will be one of the biggest clubs in League Two next season, if you don't take into account our dire finances and threadbare squad"

Shambles at Southend

Whilst most football fans in the country are sitting back and enjoying the World Cup, Southend United fans will also be concerned with what's going on at their club at the moment. The Shrimpers had a disastrous season in which the club nearly went into administration and which ended with relegation to League Two, making them the lowest league team in Essex (congratulations to Dagenham & Redbridge, by the way). And things don't look like improving any time soon. It came out last week that some of the staff still haven't been paid their wages for May and a number of players have been placed on the transfer list by request, including club captain Adam Barrett, who has made almost 250 appearances for Southend and is the only remaining player from the squad that won promotion from League Two in 2005. Things must be bad at Roots Hall if even Barrett, a local boy with genuine passion and loyalty towards the club, has had enough and wants to leave.


It begs the question of how long it will be before manager Steve Tilson makes the same decision. Barrett may not be as good as he was in his first two seasons for the club but he's a major character at the club and if he does depart, it means even more re-building to be done in pre-season. We have just 11 players under contract at the moment (4 of whom are reported to be on the transfer list), plus 3 who have been offered new deals but are yet to sign. That means up to 10 new signings could be needed before the start of the season. But that won't be happening any time soon since we're still under a transfer embargo. And then there's the small matter of appointing an assistant manager after Paul Brush was wrongly sacked towards the end of last season. Things couldn't get much worse.

Chairman Ron Martin insists that Tilson will be able to sign players before the start of next season and that the future remains bright for the club but it's very difficult for Shrimpers fans to share his optimism. With a strict budget in place, new signings are likely to be all loan signings or free transfers and largely players from the lower leagues, maybe even from non-league, who will be on lower wages than their predecessors. The likes of Barrett, Simon Francis (who the club is accepting bids for), Franck Moussa and Alan McCormack are apparently on high League One wages and it's clear that the club is prepared to let them go for financial reasons. All this is being done with the new stadium in mind but with the team's best players leaving, Southend could turn into the next Darlington, playing League Two (or now Conference) football in front of 3000 fans in a shiny but empty 22,000-seater stadium. For now the fans are remaining loyal with attendances looking to remain stable next season and the priority between now and August must be signing players on lower wages but who are capable of doing well in League Two. Tilson has an eye for non-league talent and who knows, he could find another Freddy Eastwood. We can only hope.

Billy Blenheim