Beloved Blues Saved!

Talk about last-minute reprieve. On the doorsteps of the courtroom, it was announced that the chairman Mr Ron Martin would settle the outstanding tax bill this Friday. Ron had promised that it ‘would go down to the wire’ and he wasn’t wrong. The more cynical side of me is thinking that maybe our media-hungry chairman had the money the entire time and the last-minute shenanigans were a bit of a PR stunt. The fans were not happy with Mr Martin being in this predicament in the first place. Especially as there was a promise made earlier in the year that we would have no problem in settling this bill. I’m hoping that this will be an end to the matter and that after Friday we can close this chapter on Southend United’s darkest hour….watch this space.

Southend join several other clubs named recently as being taken to court by HMRC. Is it just the current global economic climate that so many clubs find themselves in this situation or is this the Government being tougher in an attempt to re-coop funds to make inroads in the country’s huge deficit? Either way, I believe although on the face of it football could be seen as a luxury item, it needs to survive for the sanity of everyone. With nothing but doom and gloom on every corner, it’s great to spend at least an hour and a half every week away from it all.

As a club, we’ve never been excessive in any way. Our biggest-ever signing was Mike Marsh from Galatasaray in 1995 for £500k, we’ve been at the hall for over 30 years and have a history of selling on our biggest assets (most recently Freddie Eastwood and Nicky Bailey). The only reason we’ve come to this is that we’ve been trying to move the club forward into a new stadium. Then the economic meltdown happened…typical. The next hurdle for us is survival which even with our 10 points intact is still going to be a big test. Our fragile squad was tested last week, with Steve Tilson (our manager) dusting off the boots to take part in a mid-week Essex Senior Cup tie.

Friday’s showdown with Gillingham was always going to be an uphill struggle. For once though luck was on our side. The Gills had a shot cleared off the line (which looked dubious) and a perfectly good free kick chalked off for pushing. The second half was completely dominated by Gillingham who brought on 3 subs and looked the fresher side. Then in the 92 minute, an intricate control/shot from Lee Barnard lifted all the blues supporter’s spirits, and the administrative hearing was forgotten (well at least for a brief moment). This blogger started hugging the old man next to him and it seemed appropriate at the time. So the FA cup is next up but we need something nearing a miracle as without top scorer Barnard and midfield lynchpin Alan McCormack I cannot see us getting anything at Gillingham. A real shame as the money from a Cup run could be very handy at the moment.