On The Road
FANS’ FAVOURITE POWELL HAS THE SHRIMPERS DARING TO DREAM
SoutHeND chairman Ron Martin was once in a great Britain bobsleigh squad at the winter olympics, so he knows all about things going downhill fast.
Nearly four decades on from that icy adventure, it was Martin’s football club in freefall, losing eight matches out of nine and plummeting towards the League one relegation zone faster than a bobsled without a brake man.
the property developer was desperate for somebody to halt the slide.
enter Chris Powell, out of the game for 10 months since a spell as steve McClaren’s assistant at Derby, but a manager with League one pedigree. Powell’s Charlton won the division with a staggering 101 points in 2011-12.
on top of that, southend fans revere Powell. He played for the essex club in their 1990s pomp, when the Roots Hall faithful would serenade their left back with Wiggle e
It by 2 in A Room in honour of his hipswivelling runs down the wing.
Powell smiles broadly at the memory. He has the biggest grin in football. ‘whenever i’ve seen southend fans throughout my career the goodwill has always been there, because i was a player they liked,’ said the 48-year-old.
‘But as a manager it’s different. there’s a risk with coming back. i have to enhance my legacy by doing things right for the club now. And if i get it wrong, i’m in the firing line.’
so far he is getting everything right. saturday’s 3-1 win over Portsmouth was Powell’s fourth victory in five matches since replacing Phil Brown, and Pompey were overrun at times by a team who flood forward with intensity. Powell admires the high- energy style of sean Dyche’s Burnley and it shows.
Right back Jason Demetriou scored two of southend’s goals and Powell substituted him in stoppage time so he could enjoy a standing ovation. ova it was a typical Powell moment. ‘A nice gesture, i appreciated that a lot,’ said the man of the match.
in the directors’ box, Martin lapped it all up. And why not? Powell’s appointment is looking like a masterstroke.
‘Chris is a bright, dedicated man,’ said the chairman. ‘He’s a very genuine person and the players are responding to him. He stamped his authority here immediately, which was important because discipline had gone awry.’
Martin, 65, blames southend’s shocking run from early December on that breakdown in behaviour. He cites striker Nile Ranger, who was in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud when the season kicked off, as a destabilising influence.
‘Nile is not a bad person but he has never had boundaries in his life and that spills over into everything,’ said Martin. ‘things went out of kilter towards the end of Phil Brown’s tenure.’
southend sacked Ranger and Brown in the space of two weeks last month and Powell has quickly restored order. the threat of relegation has passed. But he is only getting started.
For his next trick, Powell wants to be southend’s manager when they leave archaic Roots Hall — ‘Nothing has changed since i left 22 years ago’ — and move into the stadium Martin has been promising fans for what seems like an eternity.
An application for a 21,000seat ground north of the town, designed by the architects behind the new white Hart Lane, has been lodged with the council and Martin hopes it will be approved in June. ‘it’s the biggest investment southend has ever seen,’ he said. ‘And if they grant consent, we’ll be able to get on with construction immediately.’
Powell is excited by the prospect. ‘People laugh at what we’re trying to do with the new ground,’ he said. ‘it’s been going on for years, but there’s a chink of light. the ambition is there.
‘And if we do get it built, it will not just galvanise the club, it will be massive for the whole community. we could have a new generation of fans and i want to help achieve that.
‘People think we’re a small club. i don’t think that. i want southend to be run as well as any club in the country. we can’t compete financially with Premier League clubs, but why can’t we think that way? then, all of a sudden, you can find yourself in places you never dreamed of.’