Sowfend Not Sarfend
Happy Warrior
After seeing talk on here about 'tinpot' clubs and with our new stadium hovering somewhere over a very large hill, I was looking back at the football league tables for the first season I followed the results week-in, week-out - the 1970/71 season. What struck me was although most clubs like us have been through numerous promotions and relegations, ultimately many of them have ended up more or less where they were.
75 out of the 92 clubs are either in the same division or have moved up or down only one division
4 out of 92 have gone up two divisions - Villa, Swansea, Brentford, Bournemouth
11 out of 92 have gone down two divisions - Coventry, Carlisle, Luton, Portsmouth, Oxford, Halifax, Torquay, Bristol Rovers, Wrexham, Stockport, Barrow
2 out of 92 have dropped more than two divisions - Darlington, Workington
Even the 13 clubs promoted to the league seem to have the same trend whereby initial advances are slowly lost - Wigan are the highest climbers but are on a downward slope now. Of the four new clubs in League 1, two - Crawley and Yeovil are on the slide.
The obvious implication to Southend for me is that we are very unlikley to ever be an established Championship club. My own view of our natural position, if were well run, is League 1 in a 15,000 ground with occasional forays into the Championship and occasional visits to League 2.
Some stats for the 70/71 season make interesting reading for old codgers like myself tempted to believe the old days were always better - we finished 18th in the old division 4 with an average home league crowd of 5,446 and scored 53 league goals.
75 out of the 92 clubs are either in the same division or have moved up or down only one division
4 out of 92 have gone up two divisions - Villa, Swansea, Brentford, Bournemouth
11 out of 92 have gone down two divisions - Coventry, Carlisle, Luton, Portsmouth, Oxford, Halifax, Torquay, Bristol Rovers, Wrexham, Stockport, Barrow
2 out of 92 have dropped more than two divisions - Darlington, Workington
Even the 13 clubs promoted to the league seem to have the same trend whereby initial advances are slowly lost - Wigan are the highest climbers but are on a downward slope now. Of the four new clubs in League 1, two - Crawley and Yeovil are on the slide.
The obvious implication to Southend for me is that we are very unlikley to ever be an established Championship club. My own view of our natural position, if were well run, is League 1 in a 15,000 ground with occasional forays into the Championship and occasional visits to League 2.
Some stats for the 70/71 season make interesting reading for old codgers like myself tempted to believe the old days were always better - we finished 18th in the old division 4 with an average home league crowd of 5,446 and scored 53 league goals.