Seasiders Sail Into National League

After two seasons of fighting for League Two survival, Southend United's stay in professional football is finally over.

After the mess Mark Molesley created with Tom Clifford, James Olayinka and Timothee Dieng being the top scorer with three goals, Phil Brown was reappointed after a year and a half spell in India with Pune City. Despite having managed ex-Premier League team Hull City and getting mocked by Jimmy Bollard, Phil Brown didn't do enough to keep the Blues up.

The Blues officially went down after a 2-1 win to 21st place Barrow who narrowly missed relegation. The win wasn't enough for Phil Browns boys.

The Seasiders impressively got a 1-1 draw to playoffs team, Newport County allowing Southend to stabilize a 23rd place finish, finishing just above Grimsby Town with an extra two points to their name.

In this League Two season where Southend struggled to pay club taxes and players contracts and had to play with a team with a combined age of 23 years old, the blues gained an underwhelming 10 wins, 15 draws and a staggering 21 losses. The Colchester United rivals also had a goal difference of -29.

Now Southend United see themself out of the football league for the first time in 101 years. Southend fans expected a longer stay in the football league, especially after the Stephen Humphrys goal against Sunderland back in 2019, where Southend won 2-1, but this wasn't meant to be for the inexperienced squad in the 2020/21 season.

The worst part for the Blues is that it was Essex rivals, Colchester United that sent the Seasiders down after a 1-0 win against Salford City. Lincolnshire side Scunthorpe also played part in the relegation after a 0-0 draw away to Bradford City.

Even though Southend got relegated, they have gone out strong with the 2-1 against Barrow with goals from experienced centre-half John White and Terrell Egbri. Now the side from Southend have been relegated though, this means Colchester United are the only Essex side left in the English League, sad times for football fans living in Essex.

Southend was officially relegated to League Two after the 2019-20 season because of the pandemic. The pandemic ultimately caused Southend to be relegated on a points-per-game basis. Ex-Arsenal centre back Sol Campbell spent some time at Roots Hall as well after constant financial issues had altered the ex Tottenham mans time at the club.

The double relegation has been harmful enough, but the financial issues was a huge reason why this double relegation took place. The Essex side went through three months of transfer embargos due to unpaid tax bills, which did end up getting resolved in October. The problem is after this embargo the Blues only picked up two points in their first 11 League Two games, which is two points out of a possible 33.

At this point, chairman Ron Martin was already on the brink with fans, but after the controversial chairman commented on the work ethic of his players, it only got worse. On top of this, after a 6-1 defeat to Colchester United in the Papa John's trophy, Southend fans locked out the Southend Team from the ground.

Throughout the season, Southend United felt a goalscorer was needed if there was any chance that they'd be playing League Two football next season. Mark Molesley's answer to this was ex-Blue and troubled Newcastle youth player Nile Ranger. After Nile Ranger was out of football for some time, Mark thought he was the perfect candidate, but after 12 minutes on the pitch, he obtained a season-ending injury.

When Phil Brown was appointed, he had a lot of work to do, ultimately he had to overturn a five-place deficit in six games. The South Shields man started with two goalless draws and then lost a massive derby against Colchester United. The game against Colchester proved to be the most crucial as this saw them fall from the English League for the first time since 1920 despite grabbing wins against Leyton Orient and Barrow.

In an interview, Phil Brown told BBC Essex about the journey and how the challenge ended: "It's not time for tears or anything like that, It's time for looking back at the season and asking yourself first and foremost 'could I have done more, individually and collectively."

"I feel responsible - I honestly thought six games was going to be enough - I set myself a point tally and, the Colchester United game put paid to that tally."

"I always like to be a part of a challenge, but I have to make it realistic - we have to understand about budgets, contracts and my situation - it's totally changed from the last time I was at Southend United."

"I left knocking on the door of the Championship and now all of a sudden we're in the fifth tier, which is a sobering thought, to say the least."

"The realism of it is if we can be competitive from a budget point of view that might just be enough to attract me and enough to attract players to the football club who can compete."

Phil Brown is not getting the blame for the mess Southend United have found itself in and, it's more pointed towards Ron Martin. A protest took place two weeks ago on Saturday against the Southend chairman and, in a video, you can see the Southend fans aggressively chanting towards Ron Martin as he's packing up his car.

Southend fans wish their stay in the conference is a short one and wish to be in League Two for the 2022/23 season.