Interesting you say that about Freddy. There was some debate earlier in the season regarding Freddy/Tilly and his importance back then and my thoughts were that without Freddy we wouldn't have got promoted and that Tilly was lucky having him. Without Eastwood we wouldn't have got 2 promotions and Tilly wouldn't have got the accolades he got. My feeling has always been no Eastwood no promotions. I am glad someone finally is thinking that way too.
I remember debating this with you. As I've said before, this is not a situation unique to Southend United between the years 2004 and 2006. You will find that the vast, vast majority of promotion or title-winning sides have a talisman who grabs all the goals. It's very rare for a successful club in any generation not to have one. Think of all Man United's historic talismen goalscorers since the PL was formed. Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona, Ruud van Nistlrooy, Wayne Rooney - would they have won as many titles without those talismen and their 20-30 goals per season? Nope. But Ferguson doesn't get labelled as "lucky" because unlike Tilson, Southend and managers/clubs of that ilk, he has the money at his disposal to go out and buy a new goalscoring talisman to replace an outgoing one, and the fact that his club have those goalscorers just becomes the norm to everyone because they're often never without one. Doesn't mask the fact that Ferguson would have gotten nowhere near as many plaudits as he has done, nor Man United as much success as they have done, without the help of those goalscorers though. Then you can say the same about Arsenal and Thierry Henry; Liverpool and Ian Rush.
Hey, here's a good one, simply because these goalscorer/club combinations were the other 3 sides to get promoted with us in one of the two seasons to which you allude - Scunthorpe/Paul Hayes, Yeovil/Phil Jevons, Swansea/Lee Trundle. All of those 3 clubs and their managers could be accused of the exact same thing that you're saying about Tilson and Southend, in the exact same division, in the exact same season. But Yeovil, Scunthorpe and Swansea fans don't think any less fondly of, and nor do they give any less credit to, Gary Johnson, Brian Laws or Kenny Jackett as a result. So why do you think less of Tilson? Does it not show you that your argument is pretty much a moot point?
I'll continue. Jamie Cureton and Colchester when they were runners-up to us in L1 in 05/06. Ryan Lowe/Bury and Craig Davies/Chesterfield when they went up from L2 the other season - the same season in which Barry Corr grabbed only 5-or-so league goals less than those 2 men, to help SUFC to 12 places and 25 points behind those 2 clubs, no less. Jordan Rhodes/Huddersfield and Bradley W-P/Charlton when they went up from L1 last season. Grant Holt for Norwich's double promotion. Rickie Lambert for Southampton's double promotion. Need I go on?
On another level, not every club who has a mercurial goalscorer is successful anyway. Didn't Billy Sharp share the League 1 golden boot with Freddy Eastwood in our 2005/2006 title-winning campaign, both men scoring 23 league goals? Where did Scunthorpe finish that season? Ah yes. In 12th place. 22 points adrift of Southend. Do you know why? Because it's useless having that mercurial goalscorer if he is surrounded by dross for teammates. There have been many other situations, I am sure, where the 25 goals of a mercurial striker have been in vain in terms of the success of his club. Eastwood would not have been as successful for Southend without the likes of Gray, Goater, Gower, Maher, Pettefer, JCR, Bentley in the team to feed him and back him up, and Blues on the whole wouldn't have been so successful without a defence including the likes of Barrett, Prior, Sodje, Flahavan et al. You do a massive disservice to all of those players, without whose contributions we'd never have gotten promoted even if we had Eastwood.
What I'm getting at is that I'm not disagreeing with your point, and people are "thinking that way too". It is fundamentally true. But you honestly speak as though it is unique to SUFC between 2004 and 2006 when in reality, it has been endemic in football since the organised form of the sport was invented. You could level your exact same criticism at a whole shedload of other successful football clubs and their managers, whether they have won the treble or whether they have gained promotion from League 2. But you don't. People, in general, don't. It's not even thought about and is therefore a completely moot point in my opinion. Where my problem (and that of some other people) lies is not with your opinion itself but with the fact that people will drag up a pointless argument which is applicable across the history of world football simply to fit their own agenda and use it as a stick with which to beat one solitary man, a mere speck on the football space/time continuum, who they just don't like and to whom they can't bring themselves to give any credit.
