Southend United F.C.
Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference to the area's maritime industry that is included as one of the quarters on the club badge. The club has a long-standing rivalry with Colchester United, with which it contests the Essex derby. Southend United is based at Roots Hall Stadium in Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea.
Founded on 19 May 1906 in the Blue Boar pub, Southend won the Southern League Second Division in both of its two initial seasons and was admitted into the Football League in 1920. It spent the next 44 years in the third tier of English football, before dropping into the Fourth Division in 1966. They spent the next 24 years moving between the third and fourth tiers, winning promotions in 1971–72, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1986–87 and 1989–90. They were promoted into the Second Division for the first time at the end of the 1990–91 season. After six seasons in the second tier they suffered a double relegation in 1997 and 1998. Under manager Steve Tilson, Southend again secured a double promotion in 2004–05 and 2005–06 to win a place in the Championship as League One champions. However, they only lasted one season in the second tier and then, after two top half League One finishes, were relegated back to League Two in 2010. They secured promotion as play-off winners in 2015, but suffered another double relegation in 2020 and 2021, amid deep financial problems that several times pushed the club to the brink of liquidation, to drop—after 101 years in the Football League—into the National League, where they remain.
History
1906–1920: Foundation and early years
Southend United Football Club was founded on 19 May 1906 in the Blue Boar Hotel after landlord Oliver Trigg invited a group of footballers and businessmen to discuss setting up a new professional club. The new Southend United would displace the more prominent Southend Athletic in the town, who later disbanded. A prospectus for shares in the club issued in August 1906 noted the club had been elected to compete in the Second Division of the Southern League and in the South Eastern League, and a seven-year lease had been agreed to play at Roots Hall Field in Prittlewell.Robert Jack was appointed as manager, secretary and player, and 12 professional players were recruited, including two - outside left Alfred Ernest Watkins and back George Molyneux - listed as internationals. Other signings included goalkeeper Charles Cotton from West Ham, outside right Arthur Holden from Portsmouth, and centre-forward Harold Halse from Wanstead, plus players from Southend Athletic, Grays United, South Weald and Leigh Ramblers. In the Southern League Second Division, Southend would primarily compete against reserve teams.
In their first season under Jack's management, Southend won the Southern League Second Division title for 1906–07, then repeated the feat the following season, gaining election to the Southern League First Division in 1908. The club first entered the FA Cup in 1907–08, where they met East Ham. When Jack left Southend in 1910, he was succeeded as player-manager by Molyneux. Southend were relegated back to the Second Division after the 1910–11 season, but returned to the First Division two seasons later as runners-up. However, World War I disrupted the club's progress. To aid the country's war effort, parts of the club's ground Roots Hall were dismantled and requisitioned to a nearby timber yard where buildings had been destroyed by bombs. After the war, Roots Hall was unusable so Southend moved to 'The Kursaal'.
1920s–1980s: Establishment in the Football League
The club remained in the Southern League until the first post-World War I season of 1919–20. The club then joined the Football League's new Third Division and finished 17th in their first season. In 1921, the Third Division was regionalised with Southend United joining the Third Division South. In their second Football League season, Southend had to apply for re-election. However, from 1922, under new manager Ted Birnie, the club began to stabilise and began to challenge for promotion to the Second Division, finishing third in 1932. After a successful twelve years, Birnie left to be replaced in May 1934 by David Jack, son of the club's first manager, and the Shrimpers moved from the Kursaal to the Southend Stadium. A highlight of Jack's six-year tenure saw Southend draw 4–4 in the FA Cup third round at White Hart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur in January 1936 before losing the replay. Following the start of World War II, the 1939–40 season was abandoned. In the 1948–49 season, the Shrimpers narrowly avoided a re-election vote. Southend came close to promotion when they finished third in 1950. Southend remained in the Third Division South until the re-structuring of the Football League in 1958.Southend United joined the new national Third Division in 1958, where they remained until 1966 when they suffered their first relegation, into the Fourth Division. The club had to wait six seasons until 1972 to experience the club's first promotion, as runners-up behind Grimsby Town. In 1976 Southend suffered relegation again before taking another runners-up spot behind Watford in 1978. Another relegation in 1980 was directly followed by one of the most successful seasons in the club's history as they won the Fourth Division Championship in 1981, breaking a series of club records in the process. Despite success on the pitch and low admission prices, the club's gates were low and condemned as "a bad reflection on the town".
1984–2000
In 1984, the club was relegated to the Fourth Division with Bobby Moore as manager, and the following season finished 20th, narrowly avoiding having to seek re-election to the Football League. However, Southend gained promotion in 1987. Although relegated again in 1989, successive promotions in 1990 and the 1991–92 season saw Southend United reach the second tier of the Football League; in 1992, under manager David Webb, the club finished 12th in the old Second Division, having briefly topped the division on New Year's Day, 1992.Southend United were then managed by Colin Murphy and Barry Fry. Fry moved to Southend United in 1993 with the club bottom of Division One. Fry kept Southend up, but later in the year moved to Birmingham City. He was succeeded by former Shrimpers player Peter Taylor in his first managerial role in the Football League. He spent two years between 1993 and 1995 as manager, but quit at the end of the 1994–95 season after failing to get them beyond the middle of the Division One table. In 1995, former Liverpool player Ronnie Whelan became player-manager. Southend finished 14th in Division One in his first season as a manager, but were relegated a year later and Whelan left the club, later winning a case for wrongful dismissal. He was replaced by Alvin Martin who was unable to avoid a second consecutive relegation.
Martin Dawn PLC and Delancey Estates, together forming South Eastern Leisure, took control of Southend United in November 1998, buying the club and its centrally located Roots Hall ground for £4 million from then chairman Vic Jobson, who at the time owned 55% of the issued share capital of the club. Jobson had previously sold part of the ground's South Bank for housing, and SEL's plan was to continue the redevelopment and move the club to a proposed 16,000-seat ground, Fossetts Farm Stadium, in a leisure redevelopment in the northern part of Southend.
Alvin Martin left in April 1999, with Southend fifth from bottom in the Football League.
Early 21st century
was manager for a brief spell, helping them to avoid the drop into the Football Conference and also helped them survive a serious financial crisis by slashing the wage bill and rebuilding a much cheaper side. The club's first flirtation with the High Court came in July 2000, when a debt to the Inland Revenue was paid off shortly before a scheduled winding-up petition hearing. Little's dismissal in September 2000 came as a surprise as, despite a poor start to the season, it followed a five-game unbeaten run that saw 'the Shrimpers' rise to 10th in the Third Division. He was replaced by David Webb on 2 October 2000, soon after Ron Martin had taken over as chairman. The club then turned to Rob Newman, Steve Wignall and, in late 2003, former Southend United midfielder Steve Tilson.Under Tilson, Southend reached their first national cup final, meeting Blackpool in the 2004 final of the Football League Trophy at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Over 20,000 Southend fans travelled, but the team did not rise to the occasion and Blackpool won 2–0. Tilson then led Southend to promotion to League One in 2005, while making a second successive appearance in the Football League Trophy final, which the Shrimpers lost 2–0 to Wrexham, but the third appearance at the Millennium Stadium in the League Two play-off final against Lincoln City brought success giving the club its first promotion via the play-off system and their first major silverware since 1981.
In May 2006 Southend became League One champions after beating Bristol City 1–0 at Roots Hall in front of over 11,000 fans - the club's first title in 25 years. Southend started the 2006–07 season well but then did not win a league game for 18 games until December 2006. In the meantime, however, Southend did beat trophy holders and Premier League Champions Manchester United 1–0 in a League Cup fourth round tie, with Freddy Eastwood scoring the winner. Southend briefly escaped the relegation zone in March 2007 but only 10 league wins in the season meant the Shrimpers were relegated back to League One. Southend finished sixth in League One at the end of 2007–08, qualifying for a play-off place. Against Doncaster Rovers, Southend drew the home leg 0–0, but lost the second leg 5–1. The following season, Southend finished 8th, missing out on a play-off place, but the 2009–10 season was tougher: a run of just one win in 2010 left Southend deep in trouble, and relegation to League Two was confirmed on 24 April 2010. On 4 July 2010 manager Steve Tilson was put on gardening leave, ending his seven-year stint as manager.