STEVE Tilson does not regret sticking with Southend United for so long – despite now finding himself out of football.

Tilson is regarded by many as the best ever manager of the Shrimpers after an incredibly successful spell in charge. The 53-year-old led Blues to two successive promotions and attracted interest from Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Norwich City.

But Tilson never wanted to leave due to his close connection to the club.

“Southend’s my team, I stood and watched them in the North Bank when I was a kid and it’s hard to walk away from that,” said Tilson.

“I stayed loyal and loyalty gets you nowhere in football but I don’t regret my decision. Outside of playing, that spell I had with Southend was the best I’ve had in sport and they’re my club even now.

“I had 10 years as a player, then went into the centre of excellence, the youth team, the reserves and then the first team and I didn’t want to go.”

Tilson enjoyed a number of memorable moments while at Roots Hall with the Shrimpers, including beating Manchester United in the League Cup and drawing at Chelsea in the FA Cup.

However, after severe financial problems, Blues were relegated from League One back in 2010 and chairman Ron Martin opted to remove Tilson from the Roots Hall hotseat.

A few months later, Tilson returned to management with Lincoln City - who Southend visit on Saturday - but he was unable to secure success with the Imps.

“I went up with Paul (Brush) and everyone knows how hard we work and we tried everything we could but it just didn’t work unfortunately,” said Tilson.

“We brought in some loan players who did really well but once they went back we had to bring others back in who were a bit disgruntled they hadn’t got a chance ahead of the loan players. There wasn’t the money there to pay up players and people didn’t want to go there to play at that point so it was tough.

“We ended up getting relegated and there was just nothing we could do because we really did try everything. They have new people in charge now and the investment is there.

“Danny Cowley is doing a great job to be fair to him and I fancy them to be in and around the top six this season.”

Tilson now heads up the football academy at Southend College but is still hopeful of having another crack in football.

“I do still feel I have another go in me,” said Tilson.

“I am nervous about it because the way the game is you can have five or six bad games and you’re out. Being out of the game is hard to swallow to be honest but I do really hope that one day I can be back at Southend in some capacity.

“I still love the club and support them and I always want to see them doing well.”