Football Season Review

Southend are coming from what will live in the memories of their fans as a bittersweet season, as they had moments of brilliance and battled for a play-off place, only to end up narrowly missing out on their target. Things looked gloomy for the Shrimpers going into the new campaign, as they missed out on a play-off place after badly struggling for form in the late stages of the previous season and the negative momentum that they had was carried out into the new campaign, with only two wins being recorded in their opening nine matches of the season. Phil Brown needed some time to get his side to play the way he wanted them to, but signings such as Anton Ferdinand and Nile Ranger proved to have been excellent additions, with the former becoming the side's skipper and their most important defender and the latter looking excellent in two spells, although he also had a period in which he struggled for form, arguably due to the legal problems that he was facing. After enduring their difficult start, Southend went on to lose only one game between early October and early January, with this run putting them firmly in the hunt for a play-off place. However, they have only themselves to blame for failing to make the top six, as they fell to back-to-back late season defeats to MK Dons, who had nothing to play for, and Shrewsbury, who were battling to escape the drop. A total of a point from these two games would have been enough for the Shrimpers to finish above Millwall on goal-difference but, with things being the way they are, the Lions will be playing Bradford at Wembley on May the 20th, while Brown faces a battle to keep the core of his squad together and will hope for his men to finally make the step up next season, having narrowly failed to do so this time around.

Player of the Season: Ryan Leonard