Battle of the SUFC Players of the 00's: Freddy Eastwood vs Spencer Prior

[manor15]

Freddy Eastwood (davewebbsbrain)​

VERSUS​

Spencer Prior (Moody Blues)

Please ONLY vote for your favourite, or who you regard to be the best player of the tie.
Davewebbsbrain and Moody Blues please feel free to post messages of why people should vote for your player.
This poll will close in 48 hours.​

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

To my eyes, this should be the final - these two are the men who, more than any other, contributed to our rise up the leagues. Freddy banged them in at one end; Spinner shored up what, previously, had been a very average defence. There is no avoiding the conclusion that, once we were promoted back into the Championship, Spinner's retirement and the slow but steady disintegration of our defence were inextricably linked.

I imagine Freddy will win this fairly easily, which is why I'll vote for Spinner. They were jointly responsible for our rise up the league - without Freddy, we were undoubtedly lacking the firepower to go up; but without Spinner, we might not have had the defensive solidity to be in contention in the first place.

 

[Tommy2holes]

I voted eastwood as this is for the noughty's and prior was fabulous first time round and although he was great second time round he was nowhere near as effective as eastwood was. Both legends in my eyes.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Echo what MTS says, Spinner was as vital as Freddy but its always strikers who catch the plaudits.

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

To my eyes, this should be the final - these two are the men who, more than any other, contributed to our rise up the leagues. Freddy banged them in at one end; Spinner shored up what, previously, had been a very average defence. There is no avoiding the conclusion that, once we were promoted back into the Championship, Spinner's retirement and the slow but steady disintegration of our defence were inextricably linked.

I imagine Freddy will win this fairly easily, which is why I'll vote for Spinner. They were jointly responsible for our rise up the league - without Freddy, we were undoubtedly lacking the firepower to go up; but without Spinner, we might not have had the defensive solidity to be in contention in the first place.

What MtS said.

No doubt Freddy was a hero but Spinner will always hold a special place in my shrimper coloured heart. If you want to know how good Spencer was, just ask Wayne Rooney. But be warned you won't hear much, he's still trying to find his way out of Prior's pocket.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

After much deliberation I've gone for Spinner.

Freddy was clearly a bit special, but in the same team (ie Gower and Maher) Leon Constantine scored 25 goals the previous season. Post-Freddy we didn't find goals hard to come by either and were the second top scorers in League One.

I think we probably only had a decent defence for about 3 years of the decade. Two and a half years of those were when we had Spinner at the heart of it (the other 6 months was with Dervite). That's no coincedence. Spinner was so good that playing alongside him the likes of Barrett and Flahavan became Southend legends, even Che Wilson was made to look passable. Their short-comings (excuse the pun) were ruthlessly exposed when they were no longer protected by Spinner and they were made to look like league two players out of their depth again. Now Spinner gets next to no recognition for this: defending isn't sexy and organising and positioning is seen as inferior to throwing your body in the way or cuddling opposing forward, but it wasn't Freddy who made Tilly into a great manager, it was Spinner (and Tilly deserves all the credit for encouraging him to return). It was a fantastic strike against Man U from Freddy, but if it hadn't have been for Spinner marshalling those defences Rooney and Ronaldo would have ripped us to shreds and we'd have lost 7-1 instead of winning 1-0. But it wasn't just Man U Spinner kept at bay, but all those league two and league one clubs in those back-to-back promotions and it was that defence which gave us the confidence to play.

The word great is overused. Freddy is a Southend great, but so is Spencer Prior whose clubs continually overachieved. The history of Southend United would have looked ever so different if Tilly hadn't have persuaded Spinner to return to his roots and I for one am incredibly grateful that he did. So I say Spinner is the most influential player of the last decade.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Top post, YB - and very much agreed.

:clap:

 

[OldBlueLady]

Nope, can't agree. Spinner was a lynchpin undoubtedly but Freddy had that spark which terrorised the opposition and it's something we've missed ever since, no-one has been able to sweep the crowd along with them in the way Fred used to. Freddy for me.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Nope, can't agree. Spinner was a lynchpin undoubtedly but Freddy had that spark which terrorised the opposition and it's something we've missed ever since, no-one has been able to sweep the crowd along with them in the way Fred used to. Freddy for me.

I don't dispute that, but no-one's been able to quell the opposition either and it's something we've missed ever since.

There are two parts to the game: attack and defence, and our defence has been our weakness ever since Spinner's legs went.

 

[pickledseal]

Any excuse....

[video=youtube;jFysv6je59M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFysv6je59M[/video]

 

[OldBlueLady]

I don't dispute that, but no-one's been able to quell the opposition either and it's something we've missed ever since.

There are two parts to the game: attack and defence, and our defence has been our weakness ever since Spinner's legs went.

However, Peter Clarke and Dorian Dervite actually had a very good partnership and it was really thanks to them that we toyed with the play offs the season before last. We've not had a player to unify the crowd since Freddy, and that is really why for me, he's the winner here.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

However, Peter Clarke and Dorian Dervite actually had a very good partnership and it was really thanks to them that we toyed with the play offs the season before last. We've not had a player to unify the crowd since Freddy, and that is really why for me, he's the winner here.

I agree the defensive solidity Dervite provided was the major factor in that play-off run, doesn't that however just show Spinner's value?

We reached the play-offs first season without Freddy, and if we'd had a decent centre-half and keeper instead of the disasterous Clarke-Barrett-Flahavan triumuvirate we'd have gone up automatically.

ps Who disliked Lee Barnard last season?

 

[OldBlueLady]

I agree the defensive solidity Dervite provided was the major factor in that play-off run, doesn't that however just show Spinner's value?

We reached the play-offs first season without Freddy, and if we'd had a decent centre-half and keeper instead of the disasterous Clarke-Barrett-Flahavan triumuvirate we'd have gone up automatically.

ps Who disliked Lee Barnard last season?

Barney was still taking a fair amount of flak, he never achieved anything like the crowd excitement Freddy did.

 

[EastStandBlue]

I've gone for Spinner as well, purely on the basis that whereas we've successfully(ish) replaced Eastwood with Barnard eventually, it's been half a decade and we still haven't replaced Prior, even at his age.

Freddy was Magic, and I'll cherish the memories of the three seasons we had him. Swansea at home, Cardiff, Bristol City Away, Swansea Away, Manchester United... But Spencer just pips it for me.

 

[Blue_Wes]

I completely agree with all the comments made around Spinner, but when you look back at all the good times that have been had watching Southend in recent years, how many of those centre around Prior's solidness, or defensive organisation, or how many centre around Freddy's sheer brilliance? Thinking back to some of the games I saw Freddy excell in gives me goosebumps in the same way as Collymore did. The goals at Swansea were breathtaking not to mention emotional, the sweet strike at Oakwell from out of nowhere, sublime, the free kick against United sent us into raptures, the birthday hat-trick at City was a joy to behold, coming off the bench to score a winner very few others could of at Blackpool, amazing.

Very few players are capable of giving us those spine tingling moments that Freddy did, and even fewer on such a frequent basis. Spinner had a massive contribution no doubt, but when I look back at Southend games gone by, it's Freddys talents that had me drooling, and enjoying football as much as I have at any stage before or after.

Legends the pair, but for me it's Freddy all the way.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I would have voted for Efe Sodje over Prior, he was nothing like the presence that he was first time around.