One hell of a side: The Talking Shrimpers Best XI

Put all eleven of them on the same Roots Hall pitch, at their best, and this is not a team worrying about life in the National League. It is a side with promotions in its legs, international quality at full-back, two wingers who could change the mood of a ground and enough goals to make the old place shake.

After four debates, five guest interviews and more than a few selections that could have gone either way, Phil and Charlie have completed the Talking Shrimpers Best XI.

The result is one hell of a side.

The Talking Shrimpers Best XI

Goalkeeper: Darryl Flahavan

Defence: Duncan Jupp, Chris Powell, Adam Barrett, Spencer Prior

Midfield: Mark Gower, Ricky Otto, Kevin Maher, Steve Tilson

Attack: Freddy Eastwood, David Crown

The shape began as an old-school 4-4-2, but the midfield developed into something closer to a diamond. Maher holds it together, Tilson plays ahead of him and behind the strikers, while Gower and Otto provide the width and the licence to attack.

It is not a computer-generated team and it was never meant to be. The series covered the roughly 35 years Phil and Charlie have spent following Southend United. More importantly, the judgement was based on what each player did in a Southend shirt, not simply the level he reached somewhere else.

That rule shaped the whole side.

A goalkeeper built for the big night

The first debate began with four very different goalkeepers: Paul Sansome, Simon Royce, Dan Bentley and Darryl Flahavan. There was plenty to admire in every case, but there was no argument over the winner.

Flahavan was the unanimous number one.

His size was often discussed during his career, usually by people looking for a weakness. His answer was speed, power, agility and a determination to make his goalkeeping better than everyone else’s. In his Best XI interview, he described the demand he placed on himself in training: “Be the best one today.”

The night Southend beat Manchester United is the obvious picture. Freddy Eastwood’s free-kick provided the goal, but Flahavan produced the performance behind it. He remembered feeling calm rather than intimidated, welcoming the next cross and the next chance to make a save against some of the best players in the world.

That is exactly the keeper this imagined team needs.

A defence with its own history

Duncan Jupp’s inclusion says a great deal about how the side was chosen. Dean Austin, Simon Francis and Jason Demetriou all had serious claims at right-back. Jupp’s career might not settle the argument on paper, but his Southend story does.

He was part of two consecutive promotions and scored the goal that finally released the tension in the 2005 play-off final. In his interview, Jupp explained how the squad carried the disappointment of two previous Cardiff defeats into that day against Lincoln City. This time, the feeling was simple: “We’re not going to lose for the third time.”

His late run began as a diversion for Eastwood. Eastwood passed, Jupp kept going and the right-back who had waited a decade for a senior goal scored the one that confirmed promotion.

Chris Powell was a more straightforward decision. He had the quality to become an England international, but he belongs here because Southend supporters saw that quality before the rest of the country caught up. There is class on the left side of this defence, but no lack of edge alongside it.

Adam Barrett and Spencer Prior arrive as a partnership rather than two names pushed together for the exercise. When Barrett joined Southend, he was a young centre-half returning to his local club. Prior brought the experience of a long top-flight career. Their styles and personalities fitted.

Barrett said it best in the podcast interview recorded after their selection: “Sometimes it just clicks.”

It clicked during one of the most successful periods in the club’s recent history. Prior gave the pair authority and calm. Barrett supplied the heart, the goals and the sense that somebody from the stands had somehow found his way into the shirt.

Control, craft and a little chaos

The midfield is where the side becomes more than a collection of good players.

Kevin Maher is the anchor. He reads the game, competes, leads and gives everybody ahead of him permission to play. His selection was based on the midfielder and captain Southend supporters watched, not the head coach he later became.

Steve Tilson sits in front of him. The role brings together the player who first caught Phil’s eye on Friday nights and the Southend figure who would later lead another great side from the dugout. He could create, arrive, combine and see the pass before a defence had adjusted.

Tilson’s Best XI interview also explains why this team crosses eras so naturally. David Webb gave him his chance, offering a six-month professional contract worth half his building-site wage. Tilson took it because Southend was his club and the opportunity was too important to turn down.

Webb kept football clear, made sure every player understood his job and, in Tilson’s words, “got the best out of me”. That directness helped build the promotion side that provides several members of this XI.

Mark Gower offers the dependable attacking output on one wing. Goals, assists, delivery and two promotions made his selection feel almost immediate. Ricky Otto offers something less predictable on the other.

Otto could move a crowd before the final pass or shot had even arrived. The ball reached him and people stood up because something might happen. His conversation with the podcast captured that connection perfectly: “If you give me the ball, I’m going to try something.”

That was not empty showmanship. Otto spoke about playing forward, committing defenders and giving supporters the same kind of football they would want to play themselves. With Maher protecting the middle and a proven back four behind him, this side can afford that freedom.

It probably demands it.

The hardest decision was saved for last

The forward debate was really two debates.

David Crown and Brett Angell were the proven goalscorers. Freddy Eastwood and Stan Collymore were the players capable of producing something that did not appear to be available to anybody else on the pitch.

Crown got the first shirt. For Phil, the choice reaches back to his earliest Southend memories, when Crown and Tilson seemed to understand each other’s intentions before the ball had been played. Tilson recalled Crown living on the shoulder of the defence and being so reliable in front of goal that the job was often about finding the right weight of pass.

Eastwood got the second.

Collymore’s peak was extraordinary, and the final debate never pretended otherwise. The difference was the series rule. Eastwood gave Southend the debut hat-trick, the play-off goals, the title-winning season, the Manchester United free-kick and a much larger body of work in the shirt.

The question was not who had the biggest total career. It was who had the strongest Southend case.

Eastwood won it, and Tilson agreed that Crown and Eastwood would have made a formidable partnership.

My changes, if I am allowed them

The official Talking Shrimpers XI stands. It is Phil and Charlie’s team, built across the full series, and the choices make sense on their own terms.

But football debates are no fun if everybody simply nods.

Brett Angell would get into my side up front. That is a personal call, not an attempt to rewrite the result. If we change the rules again and select every Southend player at the absolute peak of his entire career, Shaun Goater and Ronnie Whelan force their way into the conversation too.

My manager is David Webb. Webby built a side with clarity, belief and the habit of winning promotion. Steve Tilson wears the armband on the pitch, linking that era to the great team he later built himself.

You may disagree with every word of that. Good. That is the point.

Nine episodes, one team and plenty left to argue about

The final XI only tells half the story. The choices were built across Debate Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3 and the final episode with Steve Tilson.

The interviews with Ricky Otto, Darryl Flahavan, Duncan Jupp, Adam Barrett and Steve Tilson give the selections their life. They turn famous names and remembered moments back into footballers talking about partnerships, pressure, belief and what the club meant to them.

No Best XI is final. Different generations saw different players, and every supporter carries a few choices that make perfect sense to nobody else.

But put this team on the same pitch, in its prime, and you would want to be inside Roots Hall to see it.

Have your say. Add your comments below with your own XI, the player we missed or the first change you would make.