No Thanks – Steve Tilson
There was only ever going to be one person I could put at the top of the list. Steve Tilson’s legacy at Sincil Bank is perhaps as much a reflection of where we were as a club at the time as anything, but in truth his impact on us reached further back than 2011.
It was his side that beat us in 2005 at the Millennium Stadium, a game I believe ended Keith’s era. Over three years Keith had moulded a team worthy of promotion, yet on that warm afternoon in Wales Steve Tilson’s effective Shrimpers side put us in our place. I have lots of thoughts about that season and that afternoon and although Tilson only did his job, he was a key part of our downfall.
Fast forward to 2010 and I was utterly delighted to see him arrive as manager. He had the pedigree and I firmly believed he’d keep us up. Ironically, on the afternoon we beat Southend 2-1 in March 2011, I felt we were destined to stay up. we weren’t.
I’m told from those in the know that the downfall was more to do with Paul Brush than it was Steve Tilson, but he was the manager; the buck stopped with him. He was let down by Sunderland recalling Trevor Carson, by Delroy Facey getting injured, by Ben Hutchinson being crap, but the buck still stopped with him.
He even assembled a decent squad for that first season in the National League, but he looked hapless and devoid of ideas long before that 4-0 defeat against Tamworth.
Thanks Southend, for passing us your soiled goods. Thanks a lot.
Small criticism: I’m not sure that making jibes about well-written pieces and then proceeding to litter your own piece with spelling, grammatical and formatting errors is the wisest move…
I appreciate the feedback; the joke was actually at my own expense as I appreciate that I make the odd formatting & proofreading error.
I’d argue the piece isn’t ‘littered’ with errors, but do accept my apologies for those that are there.
I am a freelance writer who produces upwards of 15 / 20 articles per day for which I get paid. This is my ‘labour of love’ and often I’m squeezing content creation in late in the day. Sadly, as a consequence, I do make the odd error.
I hope you still enjoy the site.