Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I am no stranger to hardship and we’re going to need hard work, a tight unit and sheer endeavour
DARKNESS fell hours ago and Mark Molesley was still at his desk for the first ‘bongs’ of News at Ten.
S outh end Unit ed’s rookie manager will be back before daybreak, working tirelessly to arrest the slump of a seaside club where kiss-me-quick has been replaced by the kiss of life.
Molesley hopes his side’s first win of the season – and first clean sheet since January – at Walsall (bottom picture, right) last week will be a turning point.
But one man’s l ow tide is another man’s quicksand, and if Southend don’t catch a wave soon, they could sink.
The Shrimpers have lost 33 of their last 47 league games, and their days as natural prawn giantkillers have been washed away by too many false dawns on the Thames Estuary.
Fourteen years, almost to the day, since Freddy Eastwood (top, right) scored as Southend ambushed Manchester United – including Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney – in the League Cup, fans barricaded the team’s coach out of their own ground by padlocking the gates after a humiliating 6-1 defeat at hated Essex rivals Colchester (right, third from top).
What a load of rubbish? Roots Hall was once a wartime refuse tip, but when you’re bottom of the league, you can’t go any lower.
Molesley, 39, deserves a bit of goodwill and a slice of luck. The treatment room this season has resembled a scene from M*A*S*H, while new signings Sam Hart and Simeon Akinola cannot kick a ball for the club until a transfer embargo is lifted.
But chairman Ron Martin has batted away a £682,000 windingup petition from the taxman and a new stadium at Fossetts Farm has cleared more planning fences than the Grand National course.
And Molesley (right) is not fazed by the five-point gap to safety – because he has been in much tighter corners. “I’m no stranger to hardship,” he e said. “Technically, I was Eddie Howe’s first signing at Bournemouth mouth when they had been under der an embargo, had no money y and I was a free transfer.
“We started the season on on minus 17 points and , from Christmas onwards, had to o show promotion-winning form just to stay in the Football League e – and we did it.
“The year after that, we got promoted, and the Bournemouth mouth fairytale had lift-off, but there was no magic wand. It was s based on hard work, a tight unit nit and sheer endeavour.
“Those are the attributes tes we are going to need at Southend, thend, and I’m not frightened of the challenge,” added Molesley y (right, second top, scoring Aldershot’s rshot’s winner against Portsmouth h in the FA Cup in 2014).
Sol Campbell was unable able to turn the tide last season, n, but Molesley draws encouragement ement from Southend’s pedigree. . After all, past Shrimpers’ player of the year winners include Stan Collymore, Chris Powell and Ronnie Whelan. He
Tough times make tough people. If we come out the other side we can grow
does not accept he was handed an impossible task, saying: “A hospital pass? Absolutely not – the chance to manage a league club with 114 years of history and real potential was a massive opportunity. “Tough times make tough people and, if we draw on the experience of the last couple of years, and come out the other side, there is a chance for real growth. “I’m a firm believer that we will get what we deserve in the end.” WALLY MEETS MIKE WALTERS EMBATTLED SOUTHEND BOSS MARK MOLESLEY