PUT simply, it is as bad as it has ever been for Southend United.

The Shrimpers sit bottom of the League Two table and a dire season plunged to new depths of despair with a diabolical 5-1 defeat at Port Vale on Saturday.

The pitiful performance saw Blues concede four goals during a horror show of a first half.

And, with the club’s Football League future seriously at stake, it is now decision time for the Roots Hall hierarchy.

The first call surrounds manager Mark Molesley and whether or not he should be given time to try and turn things around.

The Shrimpers chief had his hands tied behind his back for the early part of the season.

But he has now brought 14 new players to the club since taking charge last summer and definitely needs to be scrutinised.

After an impressive December, albeit against sides also out of form, Blues have bizarrely changed their style of play and are now lining up with five at the back, something which has not gone well.

Saturday’s defeat was the fourth in succession but the three previous setbacks all came against sides in form or pushing for promotion.

However, Port Vale went into the weekend having triumphed just once in 11 games and were still able to brush Blues aside with embarrassing ease.

There was no fight, no passion, no energy, no organisation or any semblance of anything remotely positive from the Shrimpers who produced one of the worst performances I have seen in my 31 years of watching.

Supporting and reporting on Southend, you expect defeats.

It is what following the lower Leagues is all about but the manner of Saturday’s setback was simply unforgivable.

With so much at stake, the Shrimpers should be a side scrapping and fighting for everything but those battling qualities were sorely lacking and it was incredibly sad to see.

Molesley himself admitted to fearing for his future at the club at the final whistle and chairman Ron Martin must now decide whether to back or sack his manager.

Would a different manager be able to get more out of the players and would a change be a help or a hindrance at this stage?

For me, the job remains among the very hardest in the game and just how the club have ended up in this sorry situation is solely down to those at the very top.

But this is about the here and now and somehow avoiding a second successive relegation, something which is looming large right now.

Blues are now three points from safety with a vastly inferior goal difference to the teams just above the relegation zone and have also played more games than those sides also fighting to stay up.

If Molesley does get given more time he will not need telling that performances like Saturday cannot be tolerated again and he may need to show a ruthless side by dropping some of the senior players who have been well below par in recent weeks.

The next decision will then surround strengthening the squad before the transfer window closes on Monday evening.

The Shrimpers are crying out for more creativity and quality in the final third and have netted just 17 goals in 26 League games so far this season.

That simply has to improve if Blues are to be anywhere near securing safety but, given the League placing, it will be hard to attract too many top talents.

Options will be in short supply, as shown by the lack of strikers arriving in the window so far.

But the Shrimpers do have one definite possible acquisition, Nile Ranger.

The controversial forward, who divides opinion perhaps more than any other player in the club’s recent history, has been training at Blues for the past few weeks.

And a return to Roots Hall could now be in pipeline.

Ranger scored 10 goals in 49 appearances during his eventful first spell with Southend but, after three years out of the professional game, what kind of shape will he be in right now and how many matches would he actually play?

That must be considered in any contract Ranger may be offered but, in my view, another striker is still needed even if the former Newcastle United frontman does return.

However, finalising his future is yet another big question facing the Blues board and their answers will ultimately decide whether or not the club are still in the Football League next season.