Q . OK, so you are Southend United Football Club!

A. Yes, that's the team I support and its pronounced Sarfend United.

Q . Why Southend - South end of England, south end of Essex?

A. Neither, the town is to the south end of the village of Prittlewell (which having a priory was the biggest place in the area 200 odd years ago when Southend was named!!).

Q. Where is Southend-on-Sea?

A. On the north of the Thames Estuary, about 40 miles east of London, so we are not actually on the sea.

Q. Why United - Did two teams join together?

A. Not really, Southend United were formed following a meeting on 19 May 1906 when it was decided the town needed a semi-professional club, the former top local amateur team, Southend Athletic, contributed a few reserve players, but that was about it.

Q. Do they wear Blue because they are near the sea?

A. No, Southend Athletic wore red + they wanted to be different.

Q. Strange nickname 'Shrimpers', do they catch shrimps locally?

A. Not in any great numbers although shrimp boats did operate on the Thames until the 50's using cotton nets to catch the shrimps and boiling them on board over braziers to sell to the day-trippers. Cockles are the local delicacy, so Southend could have been the Cocklers.

Q. Isn't their nickname 'the Blues'?

A. For some reason Southend's board of directors favour this so local directional signs, car stickers and the like refer to 'the Blues', but with so many teams called Blues most die hard supporters prefer Shrimpers as it much more distinctive.

Q. Straight into the League?

A. Yes, Southern League Division 2 + bear in mind the Football League at that time was dominated by teams from the Midlands + North.

Q. So when did they get into the Football League?

A. 1920 when the league formed a third division from all the Southern League clubs. In 1921 this became the Third Division South when the Northern League clubs joined the Football League.

Q. When did they first get promotion?

A. We have moved forward many years now, but to summarise in May 1958 they finished seventh in Division 3 South. The league took the top 12 teams from Division 3 South and the top 12 from Division 3 North and put them in a new national Division 3. The rest went into a new Division 4 + so the Blues automatically started the next season in Division 3 proper. They were relegated to Division 4 in 1996 + were promoted for the 1st time ever in May 1972, runners up to Grimsby Town.

Q. Any Championships?

A. Yes, two. In 1981 they won the 4th division championship under the management of Dave Smith and in 2006 they won League 1 under Steve Tilson. 8 players in the 1981 squad made more than 40 appearances and 5 players in 2006.

Q. Didn't they go from the 4th division to the 1st division in consecutive seasons?

A. It's true, 3rd in Division 4 in 1989, 2nd in Division 3 in 1990, 12th in Division 2 in 1991 then founder members of Division 1 (when the Premier League was formed).

Q. Any Wembley appearances?

A. Well, one on 6th December 1930 against Clapton Orient who used Wembley to stage two home league matches while their ground was being upgraded. Southend lost 3 - 1. They have however appeared in two LDV Vans finals and a playoff final at the Millennium Stadium in the space of 14 months between March 2004 and May 2005.

Q. Highest League position?

A. Top of Division 1 for 3 hours on New Years Day 1992 after beating Newcastle United 4-0

Q. Cup Successes?

A. The highlight was the first major cup final in their 98 year history when the Shrimpers appeared in the LDV Vans Trophy Final at the Millennium Stadium Cardiff on 21 March 2004. Unfortunately they were beaten 2-0 by Blackpool. They appeared at Cardiff again one year later in the LDV Final, but lost to Wrexham 0-2 after extra time. In the FA Cup the 5th round three times, in the League Cup in all of its forms never beyond the 3rd round. They got to the National Finals of the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1994, although they lost on penalties to Notts County. On Saturday 28 May 2005 at the Millennium Stadium they beat Lincoln to win the League 2 playoff final 2-0 AET.

Q. Biggest win?

A. 10-1 on three separate occasions, most recently against Aldershot. There was also 13-0 win against Chesham Generals in South Eastern League Second Division in 1906.

Q. Any victories over teams from the top division?

A. 7th November 2006 at Roots Hall, Southend then at the bottom of the Championship took on "the Greatest Football Team in the World" Manchester United who were clear leaders of the Premiership and beat their team of 10 full internationals 1-0 with a stunning Freddy Eastwood free kick. Southend were the only team from the lower divisions to claim a 1st Division scalp in the first year the League Cup second round was played over two legs, beating Bolton 2-1 on aggregate in 1980. Then a 3-2 win over Tottenham, but lost on away goals + a 1-0 victory against Derby (and 1-0 on aggregate). Did I mention the Man U victory?

Q. Any famous players?

A. Two outstanding - Stanley Victor Collymore, discovered playing in Palace reserves + sold to Forest for about £3m. (different people quote different figures) + Ronnie Whelan at the end of his league career. The 90's produced a crop of players who went on to appear in the Premiership.

Q. Who were the best Southend players?

A. Well Sandy Anderson (1950 - 63) made the most league appearances (451), Alan Moody (1972 - 84) made most in total (502), Roy Hollis scored the most goals (122 between 1953 + 1960), but if you want the views of the visitors to this site follow this link.

Q. Famous Managers?

A. The aforementioned Ronnie Whelan (wonderful player, poor manager), Bobby Moore (great player, dreadful manager), Dave Webb (considered by most to be Southend's most successful manager) and Peter Taylor (former England + Leicester manager, who was told to go on holiday by Southend and they changed all the locks before he came back!!).

Q. Famous Opposition Players

A. Dozens and dozens of course as we have played (and lost to) quite a few top teams in our time, but two perhaps worthy of a special mention. Tony Adams (ex-Arsenal and England Captain) while he was serving time for a drink-driving offence as Dave Webb took the squad along to the prison for a practice match (Tony remembers Brett Angell gave him a hard time that day). Gabriel Batistuta (Argentine / Serie A superstar , European Player of the Year, etc.) played for Fiorentina against the Shrimpers in the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1993 (lost 3-0)

Q. The future?

A. Difficult one that. The answer in 2003 was that bad financial management appeared to have left them in dire straights, a development consortium, South Eastern Leisure (UK) Limited bought them out at the end of 1998 and there were immediately attempts to save a few bob, so that and a complete failure to employ any managers or coaches who could bring success saw them languishing in the mid to lower reaches of the third division with no real sight of promotion. Then they employed Steve Tilson as manager, Ron Martin, the effective owner and latterly Chairman got the football bug and things certainly picked up, both on the field and financially with back to back promotions in 2005 + 2006. However the club accounts published in 2005 show the Club £5m in debt with few assets. The rise to the Championship under Steve Tilson has dramatically increased the average home attendences and there is a real optimistic buzz around the Club and the town where 15,000 people turned out to cheer the players as they celebrated becoming League 1 champions.

Q. Did Southend ever play in blue and white stripes?

A. Yes. Southend moved from their traditional blue shirts with white trim to blue + white stripes from 1961 to 1965 + shortly afterwards decided to change to the navy blue of Scotland. The FA told Southend this was not allowed as it clashed with the referees kit (note to younger readers : referees once wore plain black kits). The protests of 'Well Scotland wear it', were ignored completely by the FA, so they changed back to their traditional blue. Southend flirted with stripes again from 1984 to 1990, but these were in two different shades of blue.

Q. Why was the Shrimp dropped from the club's badge?

A. It was an attempt by the former Chairman, Vic Jobson, to update the club's image and give him a badge on which he owned the copyright and therefore the royalties. The shrimp, known as Sammy Shrimper, was dropped along with the football in the mid-80's and replaced with the Lion + Anchor. Pressure was exerted by the fans to reinstate the old badge, particularly the supporter's club (which still continued to use it), the Southend mailing list and in its own small way this site. Finally at the start of the 2001 season the shrimp made a welcome return!

Q. Are Southend going to move to a new stadium + if so where?

A. The answer in May 2006 seems quite positive. It is proposed to move to the current training ground in Eastern Avenue, behind Boots + Laces. Ron Martin's company Martin Dawn, bought the other 50% share of the company that owns Southend on 3 March 2006. Now he wants to capitalise the Club and as part of that exercise significantly improve the Club's balance sheet. Architects are due to be appointed in May 2005 then a detailed planning application for the stadium will be submitted in late summer. Environmental, traffic and similar assessments to be considered, but the new Town Mayor is extremely positive and has promised a quick decision (but that still means around 4 months). Once approved the tender process will take around 2 months, then mobilisation and around 15 months to build. So around 21 - 24 months from planning to completion so the optimistic assessment is a new stadium for the start of the 2008 season.

Historically SEL exchanged contacts to acquire the necessary land in August 2002, the agreement being subject to a successful planning application to build a B+Q store on part of the site. Southend Council resolved to grant planning consent in December 2002 and as matter of course the application was referred to the Secretary of State for his approval. He has requested a public enquiry which gave in principle approval to the whole development. This was given in January 2005, then the development partners in SEL took differing views as to the economic viability of proceeding which was not resolved until Martin Dawn brought out Delancey in March 2006.

SEL sold Roots Hall in March 99, although initially Southend were told they could continue to play at Roots Hall for a maximum of 4 years i.e. March 2003. That deadline was moved to December 2005 and although SEL can legally ask the club to leave at any time, SUFC have assured fans this will not happen before a new stadium is built.

The earlier plans submitted for planning consent included a leisure complex and hotel so a regular income from the site could be achieved. The plans showed a main stand with a curved roof like the McAlpine, Huddersfield and smaller two tier stands on the other sides giving a capacity of around 15,000. Public consultation threw up the usual NIMBY's, but just when it looked as though consent might be granted in June 2001 the plans were withdrawn by Southend's owners to reconsider the leisure use and include more retail units. A worrying side issue was that the problems with traffic flows to the ground were not answered to the council's satisfaction. Following the club's promotion to the Championship on 6 May 2006 Ron Martin formally announced that he was seriously considering expanding the capacity to 22,000.

During the summer of 2008 the news on stadium seemed to change on almost a daily basis and as the Wikipedia article seems to be kept up to date it is worth reading that.

There have been many attempts to explain how a club so deep in debt as Southend and with a comparatively small set of loyal fans could actually afford a large stadium, but although there is no public explanation every fans representative that is given a confidential briefing by Ron Martin seems assured that he knows what he is doing. The essence seems to be 'the Club will benefit from non-football related income so as to assist its continued success and longevity'.

Q. What was Southend's worst league and cup defeat and who were they against?

A. Southend lost 1-9 away to Brighton on 27 Dec 65 which was the season they were relegated for the first time in their history. They lost 0-8 away to Crystal Palace in the Rumbelows Cup on 25 Sep 90, but Southend scored at Roots Hall after having gone a further two behind so the ever optimistic North Bank started to chant 'We're all going to Wembley'. The final score was 1-10 on aggregate over the two legs.

Q. Are there any books about Southend United.

A. The wonderful 'Southend United - Official History of the Blues' by Peter Mason with statistics by David Goody is no longer available new at less than about £40.00. However David has produced four new books with Peter Miles one called 'Potted Shrimps - Southend United Encyclopedia and History Update 1992 to 1999' which is available at the club shop as are 'Images of Sport - Southend United Football Club', '100 Greats - Southend United Football Club' + 'Fifty of the Finest Matches'. Another great buy is 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' by Bob Sills published by Rambling Bear and available from the Shrimpers Trust at £5.00. It is a personal account of the fortunes of England and Southend in 1996 and is highly recommended. Finally, first published in in May 2005 is 'Press On' edited by Keith Roe, a look at the Blues thro' the eyes of the local press, which is brilliant.

Q. What is Southend's address + phone nos.

A. Southend United Football Club Limited
Roots Hall Football Ground
Victoria Avenue
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA
Essex
SS2 6NQ

T: 01702 304050 (Club)
F: 01702 330164
E: info@southend-united.co.uk

Q. Don't Southend hold a league record for missing the most penalties in a row?

A. Oh yes! On 28 Sep 91 at Wolves we missed our 7th penalty is succession thereby setting a new record.

Q. Any other league records

A. Southend's 3 draws in the 2002/03 season equalled the record for fewest draws in a 46 game season.

Q. Do you have a question?

A. If so follow this link and I'll do my best to give an answer.

Q. Do you have an interesting fact to include here?

A. Again please contact me or become a contributing author.

Page last updated 11 August 2008