(Original answer) We're a little better off than last season, mainly because the board have authorised a larger squad. Mind you, given we spent most of last season struggling to fill 16 spaces, they couldn't have made it smaller.
We still at times look a little thin on available substitutions, and there are a lot of very inexperienced players out there. We have five loanees that are our saviours though - three from Spurs, one from Swansea , one from Reading .
We're very erratic and very difficult to predict this season. We've probably done slightly better than most expected, but we have a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde nature to us, which I guess is typical of a lower mid-table side.
Away from home has generally been where the problem has been and within 15 minutes of the game kicking off, you can see how it's all going to pan out.
If we start well, we'll be OK, but we've had a few poor starts that have killed us.
Given Southend's league position and our position, I expect most Glovers will be happy with a draw on Saturday. A win for us would probably put us on the edge of safety.
Which youngster has made the biggest impression in your team this season?
(OA) Probably one of two loanees, Steven Caulker or Ryan Mason, both of whom are from Tottenham. We've got them for the full season, which is probably longer than we keep some of our permanent signings for.
Caulker is just 17 years old, but you'd never believe it. A third of the way through the season and he's yet to pick up a booking, which for a centre-back who is built like the proverbial outhouse is something else. If he isn't playing in the Premier League in two or three years time I'll be very surprised.
Steven Caulker has continued to look classy throughout the season and it took him 39 matches before he finally picked up his first yellow card of the season.
Ryan Mason started to struggle on the muddy pitches post-Xmas with a groin injury and has returned to Spurs.
The other player who has been very consistent other than Caulker is Swansea City midfielder Shaun MacDonald who is a Wales Under-21 international.
I don't think we've ever had the Player of the Season award being contested between two loan players before, but I can see Caulker and MacDonald going head-to-head this year.
What's your manager like and will he still be there at the end of the season?
(OA) Terry Skiverton is I'm sure well known to most Southend fans as a former central defender. He's officially a player-manager, but it seems clear that he has hung up his boots now.
He ought to be still with us at the end of the season, as really keeping us in League One would be an achievement, but odder things have happened with this club.
Terry Skiverton is still here, and I hope that with eight games to go that he's not going to get his marching orders!
As I said earlier in the season, any manager who keeps Yeovil Town in League One should have a safe job.
Because of the position we're in, everyone seems to be behind Skivo and although everyone has their quibbles on substitutions and formations when we lose a game, his overall popularity is strong.
Are you happy with your chairman/backroom staff?
(OA) Bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, we're in the black with the bank, and so don't face the kind of worries that Southend fans have had this season.
However, there's a feeling that we've stalled as a club, and there's little communication with the fans to persuade people that there's future direction and planning going on. Far too much appears to be reactive rather than proactive.
Little change in my views from my answer earlier in the season!
Financially there appear to be few problems, (although apparently we're going to be announcing 'a significant loss' for last season), but there is little else changing off the field to get anyone excited about the future.
Your choices for this season's League One Champions, runners-up and the three play-off places and the four relegated teams?
(OA) Leeds United look a bit nailed on for the title, and I fancy Norwich City to take the second slot. MK Dons, Huddersfield , Charlton and Millwall are the likely play-off contenders.
At the bottom, we're rather relieved to find that Wycombe and Tranmere look to be drifting badly, and they've already pressed the panic button and changed their managers.
Stockport and Exeter would be my favourites to join them, although quite honestly, the last place could come down to any one of ten clubs, including ourselves. At present though, we're keeping our heads well above water.
Well, clearly from my earlier season prediction, I need to swap Norwich and Leeds around significantly!
I claim some kudos though for predicting Norwich's rise as they weren't even top two at the time we played the Huish Park game.
With Leeds, I suspect privately they want the season to end now. Millwall and Swindon are coming up on their backs like steam trains and it will be about who holds their nerve.
If Leeds bottle it for the automatic slot then I think they'll lose in the play-offs as well as there will be such extreme disappointment and deflation if that happens. The team that wins the play-off is usually the team in form, and that currently isn't Leeds.
Obviously I predict Norwich for the title, and I think Millwall will now pip Leeds, and I'll go for Swindon as play-off winners. But I could just as easily see Swindon and Millwall swap round and have Millwall win the playoffs.
So Norwich, Millwall, Swindon promoted and Leeds, Charlton and Huddersfield left as plucky minnows back in League One for another season.
At the bottom, not too much has changed. I predicted Stockport, Exeter, Wycombe and Tranmere as my four to go down and all four are still in big trouble.
Wycombe and Stockport I think we can accept are dead. Thereafter flip a coin and pick out two clubs out of the next eight - I don't think Yeovil are quite safe just yet.
To continue my brown-nosing of Southend United from earlier in the season, I think Hartlepool United are the team that you need to climb above, because I think them and Tranmere will drop, and Southend will grab a final day escape.
Just remember to record Sky Sports for that look on Jeff Stelling's face!
Any updated opinions on Southend United and particularly on their present financial situation?
(OA) Nice club and good manager (more brown-nosing) although the whole HMRC issue appears to have been handled in a bit of a kamikaze manner.
The information coming out of Roots Hall and into the public eye appears to be minimal, and if I was a Southend fan I'd be asking a few more questions of the club's financial position and whether the debt has merely been transferred from HMRC to another company, rather than eliminated.
The whole HMRC issue has been a huge distraction, and if anything does kill Southend on the field this season it will be the transfer embargos that Steve Tilson has had to deal with. Just when you need a few loan signings to lift your side, you're told you can't do them.
Battling with HMRC is the equivalent of a Roman-era Christian armed with merely a pen-knife, being stuck into a ring with a lion. It isn't worth the risk that such a battle entails, and no matter how hard you try and separate on the field and off the field issues, they become linked.
Similarly the problems with players wages will have not helped. No matter how professional a player may be on the field, what will his mindset be like if an hour before kick-off he's just got off the phone to his bank manager, trying to persuade him that a late mortgage payment isn't going to be a problem?
Finally, and this isn't a Southend-specific comment, I have no idea why Football Chairmen appear to wait until the local paper or website have stumbled across an 'exclusive' that uncovers something they've failed to tell supporters, before they finally prepare their official statement that starts: "Ummm, actually, I was meaning to tell you all this ...."
(Many thanks Martin, who can be found contributing regularly at www.ciderspace.co.uk)
In The Hot Seat: Yeovil Resit
What is your present squad like?