The former Tottenham Hotspur trainee is the only remaining member of the squad to have experienced United’s last season in the third tier of the English football pyramid – Steve Tilson was released prior to the beginning of the 1998/9 season and Andy Edwards and Spencer Prior had both left for pastures new in the early 1990s – and is desperate to avoid suffering the same fate as Alvin Martin’s team did in 1997/8.
Maher, who made his debut in a 5-0 thrashing at Burnley on New Years Eve in 1997, told the Southend Evening Echo, “We worked so hard to get out of League Two and we certainly don’t want to throw all that away by coming straight back down again.” The omens are reasonable for the Seasiders, having spent at least one campaign in the higher division after their six promotion seasons.
The Irishman, who scored on his sixth appearance for the club and has gone on to feature in over 275 matches for Blues, continued to say, “It’s going to be tough and we will be up against some really good teams, but we will certainly be giving it a real go. We want to win and I’m confident we will be able to hold our own – we all are.”
Maher, who jetted to his brother’s wedding reception straight after the League Two Play-off Final last season, has improved with age, and the Ilford-born former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international was a key figure in Southend’s 2-0 Millennium Stadium triumph over Lincoln City. The fixtures for 2005/6 are released on Thursday at ten o’clock.
Robert Craven
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