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SOUTHEND UNITED are a relatively small club, but they have a loyal following and over the years the club have had some high profile players such as Stan Collymore and Chris Powell...

The Club and The Ground

SOUTHEND UNITED have, over the years, had several players who have been famous footballers, either coming to the end of their career, such as Ronnie Whelan, a Liverpool legend and Republic of Ireland international, and Stan Collymore, who was plucked from Crystal Palace's reserves and then sold to Nottingham Forest for £3 million (and later played for Aston Villa and Liverpool).

Nicknamed The Shrimpers, shrimps aren't actually caught locally in any great numbers, although shrimp boats did operate on the Thames until the 50's using cotton nets to catch the shrimps and boiling them on board over braziers to sell to the day-trippers. Cockles are the local delicacy, so Southend United could have been the Cocklers.

However, Southend's board of directors favour the nickname "The Blues" and so local directional signs, car stickers and the like refer to 'The Blues', but with so many teams called Blues, most die hard supporters prefer Shrimpers as it much more distinctive.

Roots Hall is a very compact little ground.  At one end of the ground is the relatively new HI-TEC South Stand. This stand replaced a former open terrace and greatly improved the overall look. It is a small 'double decker' type of stand, the upper tier hanging over the lower. It is all-seated and covered, but unfortunately has a few supporting pillars. On its roof is a small clock, dedicated to former player, Director & Chairman, Frank Walton. There are a couple of blocks of flats that overlook the ground from behind this stand. Hatters fans are now housed in what was originally the home end, the North Stand, which is a covered seated stand at the other end of the ground. This stand, like the West Stand at one side of the pitch, are both single tiered and have old looking 'barrel' shaped roofs. The West Stand extends around to the North Stand so that one corner is filled with seating. The West Stand has a number of supporting pillars right at the front of it, which may hinder your view of the action. It also has the most precarious looking TV gantry, that stands on stilts at the front of the stand and is accessed by a long ladder. On the other side the East (Main) Stand is another single tiered, covered stand, that has a row of executive boxes running across the back of it. To the front of this stand are some strange looking dugouts, which has the management team standing at the front leaning on a wall, with the players sitting behind. The club have an unusual looking club mascot called 'Elvis The Eel'!

Southend United are still looking to build a new ground.  The answer in August 2003, was once again probably. It is proposed to move to the current training ground in Eastern Avenue, behind Boots + Laces. Southend's owners exchanged contacts to acquire the necessary land in August 2002, the agreement being subject to a successful planning application to build a B+Q store on part of the site. Southend Council resolved to grant planning consent in December 2002 and as matter of course the application was referred to the Secretary of State for his approval. He has requested a public enquiry which will start in January 2004 and the outcome should be known by May 2004. If it is approved the detailed stadium plans will then need to be prepared, submitted and approved and construction details prepared so it is most unlikely actual construction would start until late 2004.

Historically the current owners sold Roots Hall in March '99, although Southend could continue to play there for a maximum of 4 years i.e. March 2003. That deadline has now been moved to December 2005. The club can legally be asked to leave at any time, although SUFC have assured fans this will not happen before a new stadium is built.

The earlier plans submitted for planning consent included a leisure complex and hotel so a regular income from the site could be achieved. The plans showed a main stand with a curved roof like the McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, and smaller two-tier stands on the other sides giving a capacity of around 15,000. Public consultation threw up the usual NIMBY's, but just when it looked as though consent might be granted in June 2001, the plans were withdrawn by Southend's owners to reconsider the leisure use and include more retail units. A worrying side issue was that the problems with traffic flows to the ground were not answered to the council's satisfaction.

Ground Guide courtesy of the excellent Internet Football Ground Guide.

History - Southend United Football Club

SOUTHEND never did lack football teams – it just didn’t have any good ones.  By 1906, when it finally did get the side its 50,000 population merited, any number of senior clubs had already taken the town’s name – most of them fairly nondescript outfits like Southend Victoria, Southend Corinthians, Southend Ramblers and even Southend Wesleyans.  The top local amateur side, Southend Athletic, had been through some good times, but were hardly setting the world on fire either.  They’d once played at Roots Hall Fields in Prittlewell, (the village whose ‘south end’ gave its name to the town) but now had a tenancy at Marine Park in the Kursaal, and played in red shirts and white shorts.

Athletics’ poor showings during 1904/5 in the lowly South Essex League against the likes of Barking and Romford brought them only third place in a first division of just seven teams.

The Athletic reserves, who managed to field just five players in one embarrassing 1906 fixture, fared even worse in the division below, and the team as a whole showed such abysmal cup form that supporters were sarcastically promising to light celebratory bonfires if they beat local works side Arc in the final of the Chelmsford Charity competition.  The fires in any case, were never lit; they lost 4-3.  Even in 1906 fans liked a good moan, but the Athletic really were getting nowhere fast, and they were losing money into the bargain.

At the club’s AGM on 16^th May 1906 members heard that total gate receipts had almost halved from £427.00 to £240.00 and the president, Robert Jones, mooted the idea of attracting better players by turning semi-professional – an idea he had first brought up in 1903.

Little support was forthcoming, and although his plan (along with a possible move back to Roots Hall) was mulled over at great length, amateurism won through.  In the face of what was nothing short of a crisis, the boldest move members could agree was a change of team shorts from white to blue.

With hindsight, that dithering AGM signalled the death of Athletic.  The amateur game at the time was retreating, into it’s own socially exclusive world, unable to cope with the rise of professionalism, and even though Athletic members knew moves had been afoot since April to create a strong professional club in the town, they chose to look the other way.  It was a decision they were to regret, for within three days Southend United had been born.

Since these early days, Southend United have made one Wembley appearance, on 6th December 1930 against Clapton Orient who used Wembley to stage two home League matches while their ground was being upgraded. Southend lost 1-3.

Sandy Anderson (1950 - 63) made the most League appearances (451), Alan Moody (1972 - 84) made most in total (502) and Roy Hollis scored the most goals (122 between 1953 - 1960).

Southend's highest-ever League position was top of Division 1 for 3 hours on New Years Day 1992 after beating Newcastle United 4-0.  There cup successes have been limited, reaching the 5th Round of the FA Cup three times, never beyond the 3rd round of the League Cup, but they did get to the National Finals of the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1994, but lost on penalties to Notts County.  The club also played against Fiorentina, who included Gabriel Batistuta (Argentine / Serie A superstar , European Player of the Year, etc) in the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1993 (lost 0-1).

The club have, however, spent the majority of their history in the lower Divisions, their most successful periods arguably under the guidance of David Webb and Barry Fry.

However, former player Steve Tilson has emerged as a real hero to the Shrimpers supporters as he took over the club as they struggled near the foot of League Two.  After an amazing run of results under Tilson's management, thanks mainly to the goal scoring of Tilson's striking sensation Freddy Eastwood, Southend gained promotion from League Two after winning the play-offs.  Miraculously, they followed that up by gaining automatic promotion the following season and they begin the 2006-07 campaign in the Championship - a fairytale story for the Shrimpers boys.

The club have had some famous players, the most notable being Stanley Victor Collymore, discovered playing in Crystal Palace reserves and sold to Nottingham Forest for about £3 million and Ronnie Whelan at the end of his League career. The 90's produced a crop of players who went on to appear in the Premiership, such as Chris Powell and Simon Royce.

Luton Town v Southend United...

A full rundown of all of the past meetings

Home Matches   May 2 1921 D3S W 4 0     Nov 5 1921 D3S W 3 0 6000   Mar 3 1923 D3S W 2 0 7000   Dec 29 1923 D3S D 4 4     Apr 25 1925 D3S W 4 0     Apr 3 1926 D3S W 2 0 7239   Feb 12 1927 D3S D 0 0 4334   Dec 31 1927 D3S D 0 0 5402   Sep 8 1928 D3S W 4 2 10600   Sep 7 1929 D3S L 0 3 9992   Sep 13 1930 D3S W 2 1 6347   Sep 5 1931 D3S L 1 3 9179   Apr 29 1933 D3S D 3 3 2969   Mar 24 1934 D3S W 3 1 6313   Aug 25 1934 D3S D 1 1 12255   Sep 7 1935 D3S L 1 2 14379   Aug 29 1936 D3S W 1 0 14461   Oct 26 1963 D3 W 4 1 5337   Nov 28 1964 D3 L 0 1 5020   Apr 12 1967 D4 W 1 0 4666   Sep 27 1967 D4 W 3 1 13332   Oct 31 1992 ND1 D 2 2 7256   Apr 30 1994 ND1 D 1 1 7504   Aug 27 1994 ND1 D 2 2 5918   Jan 13 1996 ND1 W 3 1 6566   Aug 18 1997 ND2 W 1 0 5140   Aug 27 2001 ND3 W 2 0 6496 Report Statto's Corner

Away Matches   Feb 12 1921 D3S D 1 1 7000   Nov 12 1921 D3S W 1 0 6000   Mar 10 1923 D3S W 3 1 7296   Jan 5 1924 D3S D 1 1 7000   Dec 20 1924 D3S L 1 2     Nov 21 1925 D3S L 0 2 6706   Sep 25 1926 D3S L 1 2 9211   Aug 27 1927 D3S L 0 1 11186   Jan 19 1929 D3S L 0 5 6153   Jan 4 1930 D3S D 1 1 5859   Jan 17 1931 D3S W 2 0 4857   Jan 16 1932 D3S D 1 1 5508   Dec 17 1932 D3S L 1 2 6057