âAgainst a backdrop of mutiny and discord Maher has heroically built a competitive team who would be on the verge of the National League play-offs without a 10-point deduction for breaking financial rules
On football’s Death Row, Southend United are back in the High Court on Wednesday, and Judge Sebastian Prentis has warned the Shrimpers are in the last chance saloon.
âIf under-fire chairman Ron Martin hasn’t settled a £275,000 tax bill, the club will be wound up – and 117 years of history will become an end-of-the-pier show. A club once managed by England greats Bobby Moore and Sol Campbell will be consigned to the past tense.
âAmid the soul-destroying gloom, there are shafts of hope. Martin hopes to conclude the sale of Southend to a consortium headed by Aussie businessman, Justin Rees, this weekend, but the fans ran out of patience with his brinkmanship long ago.
âEarlier this month, at the home win against Maidenhead, they held up play for four minutes by hurling plastic RATS on the pitch in protest at the soap opera. In a country where nobodies get a seat in the House of Lords and dressed in ermine, now we’ve got a football club owner being dubbed ‘Ron the Rat’ and lampooned as vermin.