Former Southend United centre back and living legend Spencer Prior is willing the Shrimpers to succeed in the League One play-offs. But so hectic has his life been since moving to Australia at the end of last season it seems strange he still has time to keep an eye on their progress.
The 37-year-old, who made 245 appearances and won four promotions during two seperate spells with the Shrimpers, is now based near Sydney. And he has adjusted well to working and living down under after opting to hang his boots up last May.
"It's certainly a different way of life over here and we've been finding our feet," Prior told the Southend Evening Echo from Australia. "It's been just under a year now but it's been good and we really like it. We've had friends and family over to visit and had lots of challenges, but it's been fun. I'm doing my A license at the moment in Canberra. It's run by the Australian Football Feder-ation but is recognised by Fifa, so instead of coming back to England to do it I thought it would be better here even though it isn't the most exciting of places."
That is not Prior's only involvement in the game these days however as he has also become a star of the screen. For the ex-Greensward School pupil, who also played for Manchester City, Leicester and Norwich during his successful career, now works for television station Fox Sports who cover the English Premier League.
"I'm doing the analysis and I'm enjoying that side of things even though I have a face which is more suited for radio," he joked. "I would like to think that I put a different angle on the games and it's definitely something I like doing."
On top of that however, Prior has begun coaching and that is an area he is keen to continue working in.
"I've been coaching at Sydney Grammar School which is beautiful and have also been getting involved with a local non-league team in Mossman," he said. "I'm the director of coaching there now and we have 1,500 kids on the books which is fantastic. I want to try and help improve the standard of coaching for the youngsters in this area if this is where I'm going to be living. We need to start the coaching when they are as young as six and start getting more of them into football."
But, despite switching countries, Prior has remained close to his roots and regularly tracks Southend's results online.
"I still keep up to date with what's happening through the internet," he confirmed. "They had a terrible start but thankfully it's going much better now and it's brilliant they have got into the play-offs again and hopefully they will go up. I still speak to Mark Gower and Adam Barrett left a voicemail message for me the other day but there have been a lot of changes since I left. It was great news about the stadium though and I hope the club keep on doing well on and off the pitch."
Prior, who was in the Shrimpers side when they won the League Two play-offs in 2005, will be back at Roots Hall in August for his benefit match, but he has yet to confirm the opponents.
"It's hard to organise from the other side of the world but it looks like it will take place on either Friday, August 1, or the following Saturday," he said. "It would be great to get a big team down because lots of the money raised is going to Little Havens and they're a wonderful charity."
Would be a big crowd Spinner even if we played Canvey Island.
Oh Lord, Lee Barnard speaks
The Shrimpers are currently on a 13-game unbeaten run following their 2-1 victory over promotion rivals Carlisle on Saturday, and the former Tottenham striker insists they are the side to be feared.
Barnard told the club's official website: "None of the other teams in there should want to play us at this stage. We're just so confident we're on a great run of form. We're unbeaten in 13 games and have lost just one of the last 17 and that's superb. That has made sure of our place in the play-offs now and we want to keep the run going."
He added: "People keep asking me who we want to play and all those kind of things, but we will just concentrate on what we are doing."
Carlisle withdraw red card appeal
Carlisle United manager John Ward has decided not to appeal against David Raven's red card in Saturday's home defeat to Southend United after watching a video of the incident. (Read my day trippers John, could have saved you the time.) Raven will now be suspended for United's next three matches but Ward is confident his side will be able to cope without the influential defender's services.
He said: "The problem with appeals is that they can go the other way, and we don't want to run the risk of adding to the number of games that David will miss. In cases like these, you have to argue that the referee has made a serious error, which is always difficult to do, so we've reluctantly decided not to pursue the matter. We've not got the biggest squad but they're an honest group and they've come through thick and thin. We're going through a bit of thin at the moment. We have to pull it out in the next two games and despite losing David we'll be determined to do that."
Scannel has a stormer in the reserves as the youths thrash the Farmers
BLUES winger Damien Scannell shone on his return for the reserves at Luton Town yesterday. But the former Eastleigh flankster was unable to stop his side suffering a 3-1 defeat against the Hatters. The 22-year-old has been sidelined for nearly a month with a groin strain and earned praise from second string boss Dean Austin.
"Damian played the full 90 minutes and was our best player," said Austin. "He looked really sharp after a lay-off and it was good to see."
And, despite the result, Austin was also pleased with the performance of his side which again included strikers Charlie MacDonald and Alex Revell.
"We played well and have certainly been worse than that and won this season," he said. "We had plenty of chances and could have won the game 7-3 but we didn't put them away and that's what cost us in the end. We had long spells of possession but also gave away some bad goals which didn't help."
That ultimately swung the match in Luton's favour as three trialists worked their way onto the scoresheet. Andre McCollin broke the deadlock on the half hour mark and Gavin Tomlin made it 2-0 in the 54th minute of the match. Just seconds later, Brett Johnson increased Town's lead but Blues did manage a consolation 15 minutes from the end as defender Zoltan Liptak, who caused the hosts plenty of problems from set piece situations, rose to head home a corner from left back Johnny Herd. But the effort came too late to spark a Shrimpers comeback.
Southend: Collis, Grant, Liptak, Obaze, Herd, Revell, Moussa, Lokando, Scannell, Harrold, MacDonald.
SOUTHEND United's under 18 side put in a superb performance to thrash local rivals Colchester 5-1 in a rearranged fixture at Boots and Laces on Saturday.
Striker James Lindie led the onslaught, netting twice during a thrilling first half. His first arrived on 10 minutes when he struck low past the U's goalkeeper from Dan Harvey's cross, while he later calmly converted after being put through by Stuart O'Keefe for the fourth narrowly after the half-hour mark. Fellow second-year scholar Jamie Forshaw had begun the rout just three minutes into the contest as he finished with a confident effort after fine work from O'Keefe and Lindie down the right. Rhys Henry, who has just returned from a work experience spell at Harlow Town, was also on target, reacting quickest to tap in his own saved penalty.
Colchester briefly got back into proceedings when they pulled a goal back ten minutes after half-time, capitalising on a defensive mistake to leave Nathan McDonald with no chance. However, the Shrimpers had the final say, substitute Tashan Adeyinka touching home O'Keefe's centre.
Southend: McDonald; Harvey, Rieck, Obaze, Morris; Forshaw (Adeyinka 77), Abbey, Abalimba, O'Keefe; Lindie (Marcus 50), Henry (Ljungström 64).
Season ticket deadline approaches
Existing Southend United season card holders have until Saturday to renew their seat for next season. Fans can also sign up for the first time and those willing to take a gamble before the deadline could potentially save money as an adult season ticket will rise £70 if the Shrimpers go on to win promotion into the Championship.
Blues have now qualified for the play-offs and, as a result, season card sales will not resume after Saturday's deadline until Wednesday May 28 to allow the ticket office to manage sales for the two legged semi final. After this Saturday any seats that have not been renewed by current season card holders will go on general sale after the play-offs.
There will also be a week from Tuesday April 29 until Saturday May 3 for season card holders to move seats to any of those that have become available.