When are most Shrimperzones going to wake up and smell the coffee

[Matt the Shrimp]

A lot of people on this forum are still stuck in the John Main days...

Perhaps more than most I am one of those who is wont to remind people as to where we have come from in our not-too-recent past. However, I do this not from a sense of nostalgia for what was a dreadful phase in the club's history, but as a reminder that while it takes many years to build a house, the place can burn down overnight.

It is worth remembering that our spell in the bottom flight between 1998 and 2005 - 7 seasons - is the longest spell that our club has spent in the basement division in its entire history. More than that, our club was perhaps the worst prepared for that stint that it has ever been - we plunged straight into the bottom flight having only just shed (and probably still paying off) the likes of Boere (reportedly on £3,500 a week back then - when we were getting barely 4,000 through the gates), bloated with a squad in the 30s (we used 37 players that season) and carrying the wages of Stimson, Keith Dublin, Newman (all ex-Prem), Morely, Conlon (both Man City players)... and then some really sh*t players on top of that!

:thump:

I don't recount these details in the perverse glorification or hankering after that period; instead, I remind everyone of that period in order to emphasise how very deeply in the brown-stuff we were for such a long time.

This club endured perhaps as much as 9 years of epic failure - the wheels were already coming off during our last season in what is now the Championship. At one point, players' wages alone were 123% of the club's turnover - never mind stadium costs, police costs, depreciation of fixed assets etc. etc. In truth, this club has only been tasting success since Ron Martin had the extraordinary good fortune - and a smidge of good judgement - to appoint Steve Tilson as manager in Oct/Nov 2004. That means that this club has only been on the up again for somewhere between 3-4 years. As you said yourself:

...[W]e all know that football goes in cycles. We have had a good spell, and are probably at the start of a poor one, the trick is to make the good ones a lot longer than the bad.

...and you're not wrong about that. At the moment, our current "good" phase - and we are in a good phase, even now (relatively speaking!) - has only been slightly over half the length of the preceding bad phase. Yes, we were supposed to be aiming for "8 through the gate" - and we have now achieved that - but we've only had that for 3 seasons now. The current boon time is still only chipping away at the mountain of debt and problems we built up for ourselves from 1996 onwwards.

People keep asking why Ron doesn't open his chequebook - in the presumption that we have vast untapped riches that we put away during the last couple of years on which we should now be drawing. Personally, I've always presumed that the club was essentially still broke. The Tilson regime began with the club at least £4m in debt - and perhaps more than that. As successful as we've been under Tilly, we haven't got close to wiping that debt out. Since then, Ron had to shell out another substantial wedge to buy out Delancey in order to gain sole control of the club. Conservatively, that must mean that Ron has leveraged another £4m against the club's "assets" (noting, in fact, that the club owns half of b*gger all). That means that, somewhere in its books and amongst its byzantine structure, the club has c. £8m of debt kicking around. In that context, you can see why the chequebook hasn't been opened too often.

* * *

We are a bigger and better club now than when we were in the John Main days - of that there is no question. We have greater potential and we have, consequentially, greater expectation. We should not consider ourselves arrogant if we think that relegation to League Two ought to be beyond the pale. As a club, we should be in the top half of League One and eyeing up promotion to the Championship.

However, we must remember that our means do not always match our ambitions. We pawned the family silver (Roots Hall, B&L) a long time ago, and it should be remembered that the club is currently being run by the pawnbroker. I still have absolutely no idea whatsoever where the club is supposed to be getting the funding from to build FF - in the current climate, I rather suspect that there are precisely no banks queueing up at all to provide us with a single penny of funding, which is why all of the fanfare as to the club's future at B&L is now a hollow echo. We might get some token bulldozers rolling around in the fields at B&L for a bit of PR, but I would be gobsmacked if funding were properly in place to allow substantial progress on the new site much before Q4 2010.

As a financial proposition, this club is still far more about future potential than current worth or viability. Take a look at the Ricoh & Liberty Arenas, the St. Mary's and Madejski Stadiums, and you'll realise that Championship has moved on a hell of a lot in recent years - struggling, as it is, to keep pace with the Premiership. I thought the stat that placed us 50th in the country in our current home was very telling indeed. That puts us 6th in League One - exactly where we finished last season, and the place where (optimistically) most of us thought we would be aiming for this season.

At the moment, we're 8 places below par - struggling to sign players and to sort out the gaps in the side because we're currently penny-pinching in an attempt to convince the banks that we have plenty of spare cash in order to service the (in all likelihood) punishing repayment schedule which we will need to enter into in order to finance the new stadium. However, given how tight the purse-strings appear to be, at the moment, you'd have to say that being only 8 places below where we should be is a pretty darn stellar effort by our manager, particularly where two of our best players (Freedman, Barnard) have been unfit for the best part of 2 months.

This season has been pretty disappointing thus far. But those advocating a change of manager would surely be committing as gross an act of footballing hara-kiri as we would have seen at Roots Hall since the promotion of Ronnie Whelan to the managerial hotseat back in 1995. Only those who really were hankering after a return to the John Main days would suggest getting rid of Tilson right now.

This season isn't over yet... it's all about the fight for 6th place. Let's see if we can do it - and if anyone can get us there, Tilly can.

UTB!

Matt

 

[Reg Martin]

No doubt the team has gone backwards since last year with the turmoil of last summer being a major cause.
(Its also worth remembering the howls of anguish when Francis was transfer-listed last summer and now he's everyone's favourite fall-guy, just illustrates the great gift of hindsight.)
I don't think this is the time to make panic changes at the top but there is an old cliche about winning teams being built on defence.
Apart from a brief spell towards the end of last season our defence has been shaky since we were in the Championship.
At the moment its like we're starting every home game 1-down and every away game 2-down. That's OK if you're scoring plenty as we did last year and were for a while this season but whn the goals dry up you're looking at a relegation fight.
Getting the defence sorted out will determine whether Steve Tilson has a long-term future as our manager. I still hope he does but I wonder how he's going to do it. Do we need someone else to come in and help with defensive coaching?

 

[canveyshrimper]

One point that hasn't been touched on here is the loyalty factor. It never ceases to amaze me with football "supporters" that they demand utmost loyalty from players and managers alike. Yet when we hit a bad patch the vultures are out demanding the head of the man who in all probablity is the clubs most successful manager in its history. Forget Play off wins, LDV finals, winning League 1, play off semi finals, just sack him is the message I see from some.

Loyalty is a two way thing and the management team IMO deserves the loyalty of the supporters of the club. I don't have any problem whatsoever with people offering criticism as the Ex Trust man has done in his excellent post. However I do have a problem with the sack Tilly and be done with it brigade, as if this happens and you get your wish in all likelihood you will find we were better with the devil we knew.

So the my message for Christmas and the New Year is support the club and the management and hope we will dig our way out of the current malaise.

UTB

 

[PAK]

Perhaps more than most I am one of those who is wont to remind people as to where we have come from in our not-too-recent past. However, I do this not from a sense of nostalgia for what was a dreadful phase in the club's history, but as a reminder that while it takes many years to build a house, the place can burn down overnight.

It is worth remembering that our spell in the bottom flight between 1998 and 2005 - 7 seasons - is the longest spell that our club has spent in the basement division in its entire history. More than that, our club was perhaps the worst prepared for that stint that it has ever been - we plunged straight into the bottom flight having only just shed (and probably still paying off) the likes of Boere (reportedly on £3,500 a week back then - when we were getting barely 4,000 through the gates), bloated with a squad in the 30s (we used 37 players that season) and carrying the wages of Stimson, Keith Dublin, Newman (all ex-Prem), Morely, Conlon (both Man City players)... and then some really sh*t players on top of that!

:thump:

I don't recount these details in the perverse glorification or hankering after that period; instead, I remind everyone of that period in order to emphasise how very deeply in the brown-stuff we were for such a long time.

This club endured perhaps as much as 9 years of epic failure - the wheels were already coming off during our last season in what is now the Championship. At one point, players' wages alone were 123% of the club's turnover - never mind stadium costs, police costs, depreciation of fixed assets etc. etc. In truth, this club has only been tasting success since Ron Martin had the extraordinary good fortune - and a smidge of good judgement - to appoint Steve Tilson as manager in Oct/Nov 2004. That means that this club has only been on the up again for somewhere between 3-4 years. As you said yourself:



...and you're not wrong about that. At the moment, our current "good" phase - and we are in a good phase, even now (relatively speaking!) - has only been slightly over half the length of the preceding bad phase. Yes, we were supposed to be aiming for "8 through the gate" - and we have now achieved that - but we've only had that for 3 seasons now. The current boon time is still only chipping away at the mountain of debt and problems we built up for ourselves from 1996 onwwards.

People keep asking why Ron doesn't open his chequebook - in the presumption that we have vast untapped riches that we put away during the last couple of years on which we should now be drawing. Personally, I've always presumed that the club was essentially still broke. The Tilson regime began with the club at least £4m in debt - and perhaps more than that. As successful as we've been under Tilly, we haven't got close to wiping that debt out. Since then, Ron had to shell out another substantial wedge to buy out Delancey in order to gain sole control of the club. Conservatively, that must mean that Ron has leveraged another £4m against the club's "assets" (noting, in fact, that the club owns half of b*gger all). That means that, somewhere in its books and amongst its byzantine structure, the club has c. £8m of debt kicking around. In that context, you can see why the chequebook hasn't been opened too often.

* * *

We are a bigger and better club now than when we were in the John Main days - of that there is no question. We have greater potential and we have, consequentially, greater expectation. We should not consider ourselves arrogant if we think that relegation to League Two ought to be beyond the pale. As a club, we should be in the top half of League One and eyeing up promotion to the Championship.

However, we must remember that our means do not always match our ambitions. We pawned the family silver (Roots Hall, B&L) a long time ago, and it should be remembered that the club is currently being run by the pawnbroker. I still have absolutely no idea whatsoever where the club is supposed to be getting the funding from to build FF - in the current climate, I rather suspect that there are precisely no banks queueing up at all to provide us with a single penny of funding, which is why all of the fanfare as to the club's future at B&L is now a hollow echo. We might get some token bulldozers rolling around in the fields at B&L for a bit of PR, but I would be gobsmacked if funding were properly in place to allow substantial progress on the new site much before Q4 2010.

As a financial proposition, this club is still far more about future potential than current worth or viability. Take a look at the Ricoh & Liberty Arenas, the St. Mary's and Madejski Stadiums, and you'll realise that Championship has moved on a hell of a lot in recent years - struggling, as it is, to keep pace with the Premiership. I thought the stat that placed us 50th in the country in our current home was very telling indeed. That puts us 6th in League One - exactly where we finished last season, and the place where (optimistically) most of us thought we would be aiming for this season.

At the moment, we're 8 places below par - struggling to sign players and to sort out the gaps in the side because we're currently penny-pinching in an attempt to convince the banks that we have plenty of spare cash in order to service the (in all likelihood) punishing repayment schedule which we will need to enter into in order to finance the new stadium. However, given how tight the purse-strings appear to be, at the moment, you'd have to say that being only 8 places below where we should be is a pretty darn stellar effort by our manager, particularly where two of our best players (Freedman, Barnard) have been unfit for the best part of 2 months.

This season has been pretty disappointing thus far. But those advocating a change of manager would surely be committing as gross an act of footballing hara-kiri as we would have seen at Roots Hall since the promotion of Ronnie Whelan to the managerial hotseat back in 1995. Only those who really were hankering after a return to the John Main days would suggest getting rid of Tilson right now.

This season isn't over yet... it's all about the fight for 6th place. Let's see if we can do it - and if anyone can get us there, Tilly can.

UTB!

Matt

Great Post , agree with every word

 

[CC51DAS]

Great Post , agree with every word

Yearp - so do I - especially the bit about bringing back Ronnie Whelan !

 

[seany t]

After last seasons late spurt, playoff semi-final and Martin's comments last term (that he was sticking behind Tilly but that in turn he has been told the Club expects promotion within a season or so), I think people got carried away with our potential to go up this season.

For me, that would have been my expectation IF we hadn't have lost Gower and Bailey. We've struggled to replace Gower true, given that we had a few weeks to do so, but I don't think many people foresaw what occurred with Bailey. We were building a team based around him and Macca's ability to work together and go forward / back as a unit. However, Bailey's departure, and more specifically the timing of it, left us up **** creek. Tilly had little other option than to get in some loanees, which in fairness to him I think he did superbly.

If either Christophe or Sawyer come back, then great. And then we just need Macca to rediscover his best form.

And then if we can strengthen the defence come January, we're good to mount a strong challenge yet again, whether that be this season or next.

Alternatively, we could just sit tight and wait for almost very club in the football league to go bankrupt, therefore ensuring our rise through the ranks by default.

 

[seany t]

I also suspect the Chelsea match might bring in a few quid to help with signings. Added to that, if we perform moderately to well then a fair few players out there will at least have us at the back of their mind when Tilly is on the blower trying to convince them why our humble town is worth coming to.

 

[Tampa Blue]

As I am very simple, please can someone answer me a simple question which presumably has nothing to do with money, but everything to do with the it being the Manager's choice (this is where I am really concerned with T&B):

Why have we got Stanislas, Milsom and Feeney in on loan when we have full time cover in those positions (Walker, Grant, Moussa, Ademano - yes not great players but all signed as pro by T&B so obviously they must rate them) yet our defence clearly needs at least 1 CB in on loan and 1 RB to give Francis a kick up the harris and presumably 1 LB to replace Harding when his loan runs out.

It's not like it's new news, the defence has been unbalanced ever since we signed Clarke (and no, I am not blaming Clarke as whether you like him or not he has always given 100%).

The squad is so unbalanced it is like the leaning tower of Pisa!!

This is not the responsibility of the fans, players or Chairman - this is 100% the responsibility of T&B - so please don't let me hear that we are down to bare bones again from Tilly - cuts no ice with me.

 

[BrettieAngell]

As I am very simple, please can someone answer me a simple question which presumably has nothing to do with money, but everything to do with the it being the Manager's choice (this is where I am really concerned with T&B):

Why have we got Stanislas, Milsom and Feeney in on loan when we have full time cover in those positions (Walker, Grant, Moussa, Ademano - yes not great players but all signed as pro by T&B so obviously they must rate them) yet our defence clearly needs at least 1 CB in on loan and 1 RB to give Francis a kick up the harris and presumably 1 LB to replace Harding when his loan runs out.

It's not like it's new news, the defence has been unbalanced ever since we signed Clarke (and no, I am not blaming Clarke as whether you like him or not he has always given 100%).

The squad is so unbalanced it is like the leaning tower of Pisa!!

This is not the responsibility of the fans, players or Chairman - this is 100% the responsibility of T&B - so please don't let me hear that we are down to bare bones again from Tilly - cuts no ice with me.

That is my main gripe at the moment, the loan players are a stop gap, has Feeney even been on the pitch? You missed out Scannell aswell though. I think we should definitley have got Moussa back when Sawyer and Christophe both left and put him in the side.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Personally think we are doing it right in not spending big this year and putting more funds towards the stadium.

I thought any money that Southend United earn will go towards paying off the debt rather than towards the new ground?

Even if Southend made a small profit then a few thousand pounds is hardly going to help much towards a stadium development costing £55m.

We have been told that new stadium is being funded by the building of the Retail Park, which should be started on early next year. Lets just hope there are some retailers left to fill all the units!!!!

 

[secondalibi]

I hate to gloat but I smelt the coffee at the beginning of the season.

I predicted that we would finish the season in 12th and I have no reason to change that prediction now.

This season was never going to be a promotion challenge, you could see that with the look and shape of the squad, and even bringing in a few new faces on loan didn't really change that.

Why are people so desperate to get into the play-off this season when the team is clearly nowhere near ready for that at the moment. The league table doesn't lie. If we got promoted this season with this current squad then The Championship next season would be embarrassing. Some may argue that we would improve the squad if we went up, but even if we managed a few new signings, we simply don't have the financial clout to bring in the quality of player needed to actually make a difference.

There is nothing wrong with ambition and setting goals, but sometimes you have to be a little more realistic.

- G

 

[Gt Yarmouth Shrimper]

Perhaps more than most I am one of those who is wont to remind people as to where we have come from in our not-too-recent past. However, I do this not from a sense of nostalgia for what was a dreadful phase in the club's history, but as a reminder that while it takes many years to build a house, the place can burn down overnight.

It is worth remembering that our spell in the bottom flight between 1998 and 2005 - 7 seasons - is the longest spell that our club has spent in the basement division in its entire history. More than that, our club was perhaps the worst prepared for that stint that it has ever been - we plunged straight into the bottom flight having only just shed (and probably still paying off) the likes of Boere (reportedly on £3,500 a week back then - when we were getting barely 4,000 through the gates), bloated with a squad in the 30s (we used 37 players that season) and carrying the wages of Stimson, Keith Dublin, Newman (all ex-Prem), Morely, Conlon (both Man City players)... and then some really sh*t players on top of that!

:thump:

I don't recount these details in the perverse glorification or hankering after that period; instead, I remind everyone of that period in order to emphasise how very deeply in the brown-stuff we were for such a long time.

This club endured perhaps as much as 9 years of epic failure - the wheels were already coming off during our last season in what is now the Championship. At one point, players' wages alone were 123% of the club's turnover - never mind stadium costs, police costs, depreciation of fixed assets etc. etc. In truth, this club has only been tasting success since Ron Martin had the extraordinary good fortune - and a smidge of good judgement - to appoint Steve Tilson as manager in Oct/Nov 2004. That means that this club has only been on the up again for somewhere between 3-4 years. As you said yourself:



...and you're not wrong about that. At the moment, our current "good" phase - and we are in a good phase, even now (relatively speaking!) - has only been slightly over half the length of the preceding bad phase. Yes, we were supposed to be aiming for "8 through the gate" - and we have now achieved that - but we've only had that for 3 seasons now. The current boon time is still only chipping away at the mountain of debt and problems we built up for ourselves from 1996 onwwards.

People keep asking why Ron doesn't open his chequebook - in the presumption that we have vast untapped riches that we put away during the last couple of years on which we should now be drawing. Personally, I've always presumed that the club was essentially still broke. The Tilson regime began with the club at least £4m in debt - and perhaps more than that. As successful as we've been under Tilly, we haven't got close to wiping that debt out. Since then, Ron had to shell out another substantial wedge to buy out Delancey in order to gain sole control of the club. Conservatively, that must mean that Ron has leveraged another £4m against the club's "assets" (noting, in fact, that the club owns half of b*gger all). That means that, somewhere in its books and amongst its byzantine structure, the club has c. £8m of debt kicking around. In that context, you can see why the chequebook hasn't been opened too often.

* * *

We are a bigger and better club now than when we were in the John Main days - of that there is no question. We have greater potential and we have, consequentially, greater expectation. We should not consider ourselves arrogant if we think that relegation to League Two ought to be beyond the pale. As a club, we should be in the top half of League One and eyeing up promotion to the Championship.

However, we must remember that our means do not always match our ambitions. We pawned the family silver (Roots Hall, B&L) a long time ago, and it should be remembered that the club is currently being run by the pawnbroker. I still have absolutely no idea whatsoever where the club is supposed to be getting the funding from to build FF - in the current climate, I rather suspect that there are precisely no banks queueing up at all to provide us with a single penny of funding, which is why all of the fanfare as to the club's future at B&L is now a hollow echo. We might get some token bulldozers rolling around in the fields at B&L for a bit of PR, but I would be gobsmacked if funding were properly in place to allow substantial progress on the new site much before Q4 2010.

As a financial proposition, this club is still far more about future potential than current worth or viability. Take a look at the Ricoh & Liberty Arenas, the St. Mary's and Madejski Stadiums, and you'll realise that Championship has moved on a hell of a lot in recent years - struggling, as it is, to keep pace with the Premiership. I thought the stat that placed us 50th in the country in our current home was very telling indeed. That puts us 6th in League One - exactly where we finished last season, and the place where (optimistically) most of us thought we would be aiming for this season.

At the moment, we're 8 places below par - struggling to sign players and to sort out the gaps in the side because we're currently penny-pinching in an attempt to convince the banks that we have plenty of spare cash in order to service the (in all likelihood) punishing repayment schedule which we will need to enter into in order to finance the new stadium. However, given how tight the purse-strings appear to be, at the moment, you'd have to say that being only 8 places below where we should be is a pretty darn stellar effort by our manager, particularly where two of our best players (Freedman, Barnard) have been unfit for the best part of 2 months.

This season has been pretty disappointing thus far. But those advocating a change of manager would surely be committing as gross an act of footballing hara-kiri as we would have seen at Roots Hall since the promotion of Ronnie Whelan to the managerial hotseat back in 1995. Only those who really were hankering after a return to the John Main days would suggest getting rid of Tilson right now.

This season isn't over yet... it's all about the fight for 6th place. Let's see if we can do it - and if anyone can get us there, Tilly can.

UTB!

Matt

Everything I would like to say but in a much more direct and eloquent manner than I could ever muster.
Top marks for that post

 

[Reg Martin]

One point that hasn't been touched on here is the loyalty factor. It never ceases to amaze me with football "supporters" that they demand utmost loyalty from players and managers alike. Yet when we hit a bad patch the vultures are out demanding the head of the man who in all probablity is the clubs most successful manager in its history. Forget Play off wins, LDV finals, winning League 1, play off semi finals, just sack him is the message I see from some.

Loyalty is a two way thing and the management team IMO deserves the loyalty of the supporters of the club. I don't have any problem whatsoever with people offering criticism as the Ex Trust man has done in his excellent post. However I do have a problem with the sack Tilly and be done with it brigade, as if this happens and you get your wish in all likelihood you will find we were better with the devil we knew.

So the my message for Christmas and the New Year is support the club and the management and hope we will dig our way out of the current malaise.

UTB

TBH I think the 'Sack Tilly now' brigade are still confined to the usual suspects though I think many of us are concerned about recent form and longer term inability to resolve defensive frailties.
I think its becoming clearer what an extraordinary (over)achievement the double promotion in 4/5 and 5/6 was. Far more so then the one in early 90s as money plays such a bigger part these days.

 

[Tampa Blue]

Whether we are better now under RM, than under John Main (and clearly we are), there is no point in comparing us to the past.

The reality is that football and life in general is harsh and unforgiving - Barnsley were unforgiving when they sacked Andy Ritchie as it could be said that their Team a couple of years back were also overacheiving yet they stayed up and we went down.

I admire Tilly greatly and hope he turns this slump around and he really needs to be active in January to do this - hopefully the new appointments of Reserve Team Manager and Scout will help with this regard.

Personally, I will judge him on his current acheivments (by this I mean season-end) rather than his past acheivements - this is just like how my boss will judge me and I am sure most posters on here will be judged in the same manner by their bosses.

 

[Reg Martin]

Personally, I will judge him on his current acheivments (by this I mean season-end) rather than his past acheivements - this is just like how my boss will judge me and I am sure most posters on here will be judged in the same manner by their bosses.

I personally hope my boss would judge me on my overall record and stand by me if I dropped a clanger.

 

[BoyWonder2]

Yes I think the season is a little bit disappointing mainly due to the awful run we are on at the moment, but go back 5 or so weeks and our record was only 2 defeats in around 17 games.

I didn't expect a great deal this season to be honest, I said at the start of the season I'd be happy with around 9th - 12th not a great amount of points off the play-offs and a Cup run. We have the Cup run with reaching the 3rd round of the FA Cup and an away game at Chelsea which is going to be fantastic for the Club and the fans. We need to sort our league form out, the Northampton game is massive, arguably our biggest game of the season. Even if we was on great form, I still don't think we'd pick anything up at MK Dons, but I'd expect us to beat Northampton and we all need a win at home. 3 points, a couple of goals and a clean sheet would be brilliant to Tilly, Brush, Martin, the players and us as fans we need 3 points massively.

For the rest of the season, I'd like us to spend wisely in January, not massively. We need a permenant left back, another centre half, possibly a right back if Francis is off, a permenant left winger, Sawyer and JFC. Also, I'd like to see some more of the youngsters blooded in, the likes of O'Keefe, Forshaw, Herd, Hazell etc the so called cream of the crop.

As a Club we are on about par for the size we are. Mid-table in League One is us. We need the stadium to kick on, but with the potential we have we could become an established Championship side, and the man to guide us there is Tilson.

Who else could we bring in that has his track record, and a love for the Club. Look at the recent sacking of McAllister. He hasn't been given a fair crack of the wipe and have had a high turnover of managers in recent seasons as have Newcastle as well and both sides are struggling and arguably should be performing better.

As a Club you need continuaty all the way though. From the boardroom, to the manager, to the back room staff, to the players as well. Look at the amount of players we have used this season in just the League and compare it to our double winning promotion teams. I bet we have used far more than both of those seasons already and that does have an effect. Look at Birmingham in the Championship, pundits still don't think they have clicked with the new players, and when we are using different players week in week out you can see why we haven't clicked.

As a squad we are more than capable of a top ten finish on paper, but we need to start turning it around on the field starting with Northampton. We need to turn it around in the stands as well. Look at the atmosphere at Southampton and Doncaster, both superb but we was being heavily beaten at the time. We need to get atmospheres like that at Roots Hall from the off, it really can make the difference. What you don't want as a player is going through a bad run of form, like a lot of the players, and when you make a mistake in the first minute at home being booed etc.

Friday is massive. We need to win it, its our biggest game of the season. Forget the Chelsea game, could we even ban talk of it until after MK Dons? We need to concentrate on Friday. Make sure we are up for the fight as well as the players.

Come on Southend!

 

[Tampa Blue]

I personally hope my boss would judge me on my overall record and stand by me if I dropped a clanger.

personally I think Ron Martin has been extremely supportive in the face of a number of clangers - it's a question of how clangers many RM thinks is acceptable