On The Road
SOUTHEND PLUNGE SHOWS PERIL OF ‘OVER-REACHING’
SOUTHEND are adrift. Seven points from safety in League Two and flirting with the same gravitational force which has recently sucked Notts County and Chesterfield into non-League football. A hundred years in the Football League are good for nothing when you can’t score. Southend drew another blank at Stevenage. They have scored only six in 15 league games and have not found the net since their only win of the campaign, at Walsall last month. On this occasion, at least, it came with a clean sheet, another point, a spirited display and fighting talk. ‘We’re getting better,’ insisted manager Mark Molesley. ‘Once we’ve got our key players back, we’ll be OK, I’m convinced.’ The descent has been rapid. Five years ago they were celebrating promotion to League One with victory in a penalty shootout at Wembley. Three years ago, under Phil Brown, they finished seventh in the third tier and were ambitious about returning to the Championship. The push for the next level is dangerous. It has been part of many a tale of woe. Clubs pay bigger wages, only to find the dynamics change inside the club. A good thing vanishes, momentum is lost and is impossible to recapture. A couple of hours before kick-off, chairman Ron Martin is trying to identify that moment at Southend. He settles on a ‘culture shift’ towards the end of Brown’s five years in charge. He admits they ‘over-reached’ and instability took hold. Managers came and went in a blur. Chris Powell, Kevin Bond, Sol Campbell and almost Henrik Larsson, who is now a coach at Barcelona and still in touch. ‘He sent me a message to see how I was,’ says Martin. ‘I replied with a joke to say, “Send me a striker”. He said, “You need a centre half”. I said, “Send both”.’ He moved away from high-profile bosses to Molesley (right), 39, who had led Weymouth into the National League. This was a big game, ahead of a big week, in a big month. Plans for a new stadium, which have been in (torturously slow) motion since Martin arrived at the club in 1998, go before Southend Council on Thursday. Some fans will say they’ve heard d it before, how the new stadium is the key to a brighter future. Southend remain under a transfer embargo but Martin is confident it will be lifted, possibly this week. That would enable them to finally register striker Simeon Akinola and defender Sam Hart. These are the slivers of hope as fans return to Roots Hall for Scunthorpe’s visit on Saturday. ‘It’s us against the world and we need them,’ said Molesley.