THIS week, Lewis Hobday shares his views on the latest goings on at Southend United.

Towards the start of the season, a friend jokingly said “Imagine if you lose seven League games in a row! At least you will have a good headline for your fan column – Bond: 0-0-7”.

I laughed off the idea; “It’s only week two, I really don’t think we will get to that stage”.

As the games passed and our goal difference worsened, it was that conversation that kept haunting me.

My initial laughter had now turned into sighs of despair.

If social media is anything to go by, it is very clear what the majority of our fans blame for the worst start to a season in the club’s history.

The manager.

Initially, I thought that Bond might be afforded some further time. However, football is a ruthless, results-driven industry.

After the Leyton Orient defeat, I unfortunately had the feeling that a change was imminent and unavoidable given the scenario.

I say unfortunate because we all must remember that there is a person at the centre of all of this who, of course, did not want things to end up how they have done either.

We have to thank Kevin Bond for his part in last season’s great escape, for one of the most dramatic games we have all witnessed, for his hard work and for proactively resigning with the club’s best interests clearly at heart.

I personally preferred Bond’s possession based style of play; particularly in comparison to last season’s hopeful, long balls to our small strikers.

However, it lacked two fundamental features – the ability to score goals and the ability to keep clean sheets.

This was most evident in the Peterborough defeat where we had the majority of possession but still lost.

You could argue that this style of play is not effective in a physical League One and is better suited to Championship level and above.

However, Rochdale’s second goal last week has proven that it can work with the right team.

So is it that we do not have the quality of players to make it work or the quality of players to compete within an increasingly competitive league?

Analysis of recent performances could lead you to that conclusion.

Some of the defending so far this season has been nothing short of unacceptable.

If we are going to concede three to four goals per game, we may as well give up now and save ourselves a season of pain.

It is essential that we go back to the basics of a clean sheet mentality; the same one that saw us promoted from League Two.

In terms of attacking, we look okay so far.

Simon Cox works hard, Stephen Humphrys has an eye for goal and Brandon Goodship looks a real talent.

The problem is that we lack the creativity in our final ball which limits our opportunities.

We must now hope that a new managerial regime can spark the players and the club we love back to it’s best.

After all, we are still in a position that a few wins could get us out of trouble...for the meantime at least.