Sun, sea and Southend struggles.
The summer of 2020 has been quite like no other and more than anything, it has been a great chance to reflect on the past few years at Southend United, and particularly the club’s time in the third tier, from the highs of the 2016/17 season to the misery that ensued in the seasons after, ultimately leading to the Blues’ relegation to the fourth division.
On 4th May 2019, Southend beat Sunderland in a tightly fought battle decided by a 87th-minute strike from Stephen Humphrys, jubilation filled the stands and indeed the pitch after the final whistle, Shrimpers fans ecstatic as the prospect of League Two football was no longer a concern (for the time being at least).
It was with absolute confidence that chairman Ron Martin announced to the fans that the club was never to see such a campaign again, us Shrimpers lapped it up because, well, why wouldn’t we?
This should have been a wake-up call of the largest proportions when you’re talking about fine margins, it doesn’t get much tighter than avoiding relegation through goal difference.
But what was it all for? A season which was frankly abysmal both on and off the field, featuring a 7-1 mauling in our own back yard, a televised FA cup defeat against a non-league side, and misconduct charges for late payments of wages.
This was infuriating from a blues’ fan’s perspective, to have such a negative season and proceed without really doing anything about it showed clear naivety and only further magnified the deep-lying issues within the club.
Martin’s empty promises of a bright future for this club have continued to grind fans down to the point in which the club became utterly toxic, so whilst Blues fans didn’t have a repeat of the 2018/19 season, we endured something a whole lot worse.
A year after dreading the possibilities of League Two football, it frankly became a best-case scenario for Shrimpers fans as consistent winding-up orders, court appearances and late payments of wages provoked worries of potentially not having a club to support in the immediate future.
It makes fans miss the little moments you get at a functional, progressing club, like being featured on Soccer AM for great togetherness in team celebrations, as Southend previously had been, rather than being a laughing stock for our very own manager forgetting the club he works for.
It’s been a very dark age for Southend, but, just as the good times can come to a very abrupt end, so can the not so great times and that is the hope that shrimpers fans are clinging onto.
Hope is the key, and in football that is everything.
It’s hope that brings you to games to support your team on its best or worst runs, the hope that despite relegation, your club will fight and get back to its feet and that’s why Southend fans just need to look forward now, try to create a positive atmosphere for a team of youngsters under new management and a new regime.
Relegation could be the perfect way for everyone at Southend to wipe the slate clean, dust themselves off and go back at it in a positive direction once again.
We need to hope that everything in Ron Martin’s hands will be sorted, for there is nothing us fans can do to control that situation.
The club has fallen into such a negative spiral that some would see little way out for Southend.
‘This club just does not know when it is beaten’ was bellowed as Joe Piggott equalised for the Blues, taking us into a penalty shootout for promotion five years ago, and whilst there will be ups and downs, we know our club will always fight for its life, and for that we can have hope of a brighter future.
words Leon Imber, Southend United fan