They’re Smiling At Southend Again As Ticket Sales Soar

Things are looking up at Roots Hall after Australian IT millionaire Justin Rees and his consortium finally clinched control of the Essex club.

The club has been blighted by off field issues but the days of transfer embargoes and docked points are now consigned to history.

Unsurprisingly, the Shrimpers supporters are fully on board.

Over 1,300 new season ticket holders will be cheering the team on - and manager Kevin Maher hopes the positivity translates onto the pitch.

“It's brilliant for the fans - there's a sign above the dugout which says 'Never Give Up' and they've done that," he told BBC Essex Sport.

"For all their hard work, everything they've done to stick with it and to back the club behind the scenes as much as they've done, I'm so delighted for them, and the supporters have now got their club where they want it."

Southend’s new owner is excited for the future and now the dust has settled he said: "As a club we’ve been treading water for a year so we needed to exit that phase.

There was a lot of turbulence right the way to the end. Now we’re really excited to do the real work to move the club forward."

The other consortium members hoping to bring the better days back are Tom Arnold, David Kreyling, John Watson, Gary Lockett, Paul Redbourn, Ian Redbourn, George Taylor, Jason Brown and Mr Lawrence.

"It’s going to be a challenge." Rees said. "But it’s the challenge that we wanted to be in, and we’re really looking forward to it.”