On a bitterly cold and damp Saturday afternoon the season ended with Saints on 73 points secure in 7th place. It might all have been very different!
It was at one stage possible that the club would go into liquidation. Had we been taken over by a consortium bidding at the upper end of their budget, no money for development would have been available. The assets such as the training ground and the farm may have been sold off.
As it is, we finish with a points tally that in any other season would have given us a place in the play-offs - never mind the 10 points we were docked! The training facility at Staplewood is receiving a major redevelopment, the squad is strong, we have an excellent Manager and the team running the business know what they are doing and have the resources to back it up. As I said it could all look very different to the reality we now face.
The game was even in the first half. Southend play good football on the ground with good moving and passing. Aaron Martin was handed his second consecutive start in central defence alongside Jaidi and both looked assured and were pretty efficient at cutting out any attacks. As a team, we sometimes still become mesmerised when players are dribbling towards the penalty area - we back off and back off and fail to make a challenge thereby inviting a shot on goal. Same again yesterday as Moussa scored a good goal.
As is usually the case, conceding galvanises the team into making a response and Rickie Lambert took his tally for the season to 36 just 3 minutes later. He then scored again from the penalty spot - although Lallana wanted to take it to give him a tally of 20 for the season. He needn't have worried as he scored in the 91st minute by waltzing through the Southend defence.
There were repeated notices on the big screens and over the PA telling fans not to invade the pitch afterwards, otherwise the players wouldn't come out for a lap of appreciation. This was repeated ad-nauseam which really raised the fans ire - with due provocation. There were so many police and stewards around the perimeter of the pitch by the end. that it would have been virtually impossible to invade in any case.
A good end to a very good season.
Thank you Markus Liebherr, Nicola Cortese, Alan Pardew and the rest of the Saints team - on and off the pitch. A great effort.
Looking forward to next season already. Apparently we have signed Calderon from Brighton so it seems the commitment to build and develop is being manifested in real terms. Onward and upward.
COYR
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