National League
Southend United 2 York City 0
JOHN CHUBB at Roots Hall
@JohnCphoenixfm
Southend United is a football club in chaos at the moment.
Having gone through back-to-back relegations in recent years and seen their club drop out of the Football League for the first time in over a century, the club’s loyal supporters are still turning up in their thousands, but they may not have a club to support after March 1st.
That’s the deadline by which Shrimpers chairman Ron Martin has to pay an outstanding tax bill – rumoured to be as high as £5 million – to HM Revenue & Customs, otherwise the club could go out of business.
Before the match against York, some fans staged a protest march from the city centre to the stadium and there were occasional chants of ‘Martin out’ and ‘get out of our club’ from the home supporters in the West Stand during the match.
A visit to Roots Hall shows the general state of decay surrounding the club at present.
Three of the four stands date back to 1955, when the ground was first built and at the moment, the proposed move to a new stadium at Fossetts Farm seems a pipedream.
No matchday programme was produced for the fixture, electronic turnstiles were out of operation and only limited refreshments were available for spectators.
But amongst this gloomy backdrop Southend head coach Kevin Maher, his coaching staff and players have performed minor miracles in recent times, despite a transfer embargo meaning no new signings can be made at present and the players, along with other staff at the club having not been paid this week.
The Blues welcomed Rhys Murphy back to their starting line-up for the first time since January of last year, having recovered from injury problems that resulted in a long lay-off. Jack Bridge was employed in central midfield, as opposed to his regular wide role.
With almost five minutes gone Southend nearly went in front when Murphy’s strike was parried away by York goalkeeper Ethan Ross.
Blues came close again on the quarter of an hour mark, with another Murphy effort before Noor Husin turned his man and narrowly fired the ball wide.
York’s first really decent chance came midway through the first half, when Lenell John-Lewis glanced a header just wide of the post to the left of Shrimpers keeper.Blondy Nna Noukou, who this week had his loan from championship club Stoke City extended until the end of the season.
With six minutes until half-time Southend striker Harry Cardwell had a decent chance at the other end, his looping header going narrowly over and the match remained goalless at the break.
The visitors made a spirited start to the second half, and just over six minutes after the restart John-Lewis forced a good save from Nna Noukou with his right-footed strike, but the Shrimpers gradually started to dominate proceedings.
Then just before the hour mark, Southend had a golden opportunity to break the deadlock when a Cardwell cross sailed across the face of the goal, but Murphy was unable to connect.
In the 63rd minute Bridge was tripped inside the area, and after the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Bridge stepped up to take it, firing home to the right of Ross to make it 1-0.
Then Bridge got his and the Shrimpers’ second with 20 minutes to go with a quite magnificent goal, twisting and turning his way round a York defender on the edge of the box before unleashing a curlingeffort that looped over Ross and into the net.
Southend nearly scored a third late on, when a Cardwell shot was pushed away by Ross and the visiting keeper caught the rebound from substitute Jake Hyde.
The thoroughly deserved win took Blues back into the National League play-off spots in seventh place, and they face York at home once again this coming Saturday in the fifth round of the FA Trophy.
SOUTHEND UNITED: Blondy Nna Noukou, Gus Scott-Morriss, Nathan Ralph (c), Shaun Hobson, Ollie Kensdale, Jack Bridge (Harry Taylor 88), Noor Husin, Rhys Murphy (Jake Hyde 80), Cav Miley, Caspar Lopata, Harry Cardwell (Calum Powell 90).
YORK CITY: Ethan Ross, Ryan Fallowfield, Maxim Kuougun, Fraser Kerr, Alex Hurst, Olly Dyson (Manny Duku 81), Alex Whittle, Lenell John-Lewis, Mitch Hancox, Dan Pybus, Nathan Thomas (Ollie Tanner 33).
Attendance: 5737 (including 287 York fans)