Views on the Blues: Fans letters (From Echo)

Views on the Blues: Fans letters

11:01am Thursday 18th March 2010 in Blues

Steve Tilson - has a tough task in charge of the Shrimpers

SOUTHEND boss Steve Tilson readily admits it will now take something approaching a miracle to avoid the drop after the latest sad debacle against Exeter.

But why has it taken him so long to see what many of us reluctantly predicted much earlier in the season?

The atmosphere both on and off the pitch has been gloom and doom while the club’s owner Ron Martin continues to bury his head in the sand and fails to accept even some of the blame.

Surely Mr Martin must see that the cash chaos is at best down to poor financial management. How many other clubs at this level are in the same sad state that Blues are in and on less than half the crowds seen at Roots Hall and without recent influx of decent transfer fees, good cup runs and TV revenue that Southend have enjoyed?

Fans are rightly asking, and still waiting for a reply, where has all the money gone?

And Tilson bemoans the lack of goals and yet what should he expect with a Rochdale reject and players that Colchester and Southampton have realised are not good enough as his main strikers.

He has been unable to bring in any quality men even on loan and this coupled with players not getting paid has taken its inevitable toll.

David Webb has now come in and while he has been an undoubted motivator in the past, even his skills can hardly be expected to breathe life into a bunch of dead sheep.

No doubt Martin will, like a good politician, try and climb out of the giant hole he has dug for himself when he hosts a promised fans’ forum next week.

But supporters, like those who demonstrated on Saturday, are starting to see through all the spin and will rightly demand honest answers to what should be some pretty pertinent questions.

So hopefully Martin will come clean and not try to pull the wool over the eyes of people who have been driven to voice their unrest at things beyond their control and which threatens the very existence of their beloved club.

Howard Southwood Canewdon

ONE mystery at SUFC, why do strikers start scoring as soon as they leave?

Billy Paynter, Charlie Macdonald, Matt Harrold, Gary Hooper, and now Roy O’Donovan.

This is more than coincidence. Coaching, management, style, system?

There must be an answer.

L Pemberton Hawkwell