Determined to improve on the last two seasons, where a flying start to the campaign was abruptly brought to a halt each time, new manager John Doyle has lined up a diverse set of pre-season opposition.

Doyle, assistant Mark Reed, and coach Paul Rogan will be looking for the formula in these games to make sure the winning habit lasts from start to finish next time around.

The Bees open their pre-season campaign on Saturday 10 July with a trip to Chadfields to face Ryman One North outfit Tilbury, themselves under new management. The following Saturday, 17 July, a longer trips awaits the Hive side when they travel to Suffolk based Ridgeons League club Hadleigh United with a 2pm kick-off.

24 July marks Basildon’s only pre-season match at Gardiners Close when they entertain Ryman One South team Met Police. Their pre-season schedule is completed the Saturday after, on 31 July, with a return trip to Suffolk where they play another Ridgeons League side, Long Melford Town.

With speculation mounting over possible new signings, and youth squads coming together for Eastern Junior Alliance campaigns already, as well as club secretary Richard Mann overseeing various ground improvements, Basildon United are making sure the summer break is anything but!

Another interesting campaign beckons.

Doyle is known throughout local non-league circles for his tireless work in the ESL and returns with the addition of Mark Reed as assistant manager and Paul Rogan as coach. The move is seen as an excellent choice for steadying the Gardiners Close ship, which over the past two seasons have started well but encountered stormy water thereafter.

Meanwhile the club have moved quickly to pour cold water over speculation of a groundshare agreement with struggling Grays Athletic. A club spokesman has stated that at no point during the 2009/10 season itself had talks taken place between the two clubs and, whilst acknowledging the Grays reserves outfit had played at The Hive on occasion, felt that the relationship between the two clubs is no better or worse than they have with others.

Speaking to the national Non-League News, however, the club’s secretary then confirmed that the club certainly would not object to a groundshare and that they’d welcome a club of Grays’ stature to The Hive

After looking to the past and addressing the present, the Bees are also looking to the future this weekend. The club are holding trials over the next three Saturdays at 9.30am, for any aspiring Under 15 players, at Whites Farm in Barleylands. They are looking for quality players in all positions as preparations for a new season in the prestigious Eastern Junior Alliance begin. For further information give Joe a call on 07778 381911 or Steve on 07717 502754.

The Under 16’s, after a successful inaugural season in the EJA, are also holding trials on the first two Saturdays in June. Get in touch with Dan Burgess on 07778 327648 for more details.

First of, though, hats off to Concord Rangers. Just two years after winning the Essex Senior League, the Thames Road outfit more than made up for their play-off heartbreak last year by winning promotion to the Ryman Premier. A 3-1 play-off final win over Enfield Town, in front of over 700 happy supporters, was just reward for Danny Heales’s enterprising Rangers side, having been comfortably clear in second place during the regular season.

Just one step from Conference football now, the recent progress of the Canvey based club has been phenomonal, with even more exciting times perhaps lurking just around the corner. Well done to all concerned.

Also an honourable mention should be given to Conference South outfit Thurrock who, although fading away at the end of the season, spent much of the time challenging for the play-offs. With resources scarce at Ship Lane, the Rocks efforts has been commendable, especially when you bear in mind their bottom two finish the season before.

For the rest, however, where do we start? In the Essex Senior League, Basildon United held sway for a good half a season as the men from the Hive made an unlikely title bid. The downfall, however, was equally surprising and perhaps even more spectacular. With the winter chill putting paid to most of the fixtures between Christmas and Spring, they were left to play almost half a season in six weeks.

Added to that players leaving en masse, a manager that didn’t turn up at all, with a swift departure hastened by non-football issues, the sorry Bees were finishing the season having to call games off or start matches with just 8 players. In the circumstances, 12th place was almost creditable. A huge rebuilding of club confidence is needed at Gardiners Close this summer, let alone players.

It’s depressing to think, however, that they were by some way the best ESL side in Basildon. Bowers & Pitsea could at least point to consistency, albeit consistently poor throughout the season. To finish second bottom, with just 8 wins all term (with two of those coming in the first four matches) was frankly an awful return for all the hard work that went into the club both on and off the pitch. Quite simply the players and management should have done a lot better with the resources at their disposal and have singularly failed.

Things were a lot brighter in the Ryman One North though, in their way, no less disappointing. East Thurrock United, you could almost feel, were suffering a hangover from their extraordinary end to last season, when they lost promotion with the last kick and then a subsequent play-off.

Despite being in the top 5 all season, you could sense that they feared another play-off situation, and it was no surprise when Concord disposed of them at the semi-final stage. One thing is certain though. John Coventry, a decent man and an excellent manager, will use this as motivation to make sure promotion is of a ‘third time lucky’ variety over at Rookery Hill next term.

Tilbury, by contrast, were the anthesis of this, motoring along in a lower mid-table position from much of their campaign. On the back of a sensational Ryman League Cup win in 2009, however, the Chadfields hierarchy deemed it unacceptable and manager Graham Chester was surpisingly dispensed with. Perhaps they should be careful of what they wish for, though, as it has a nasty habit of coming true.

In the Ryman Premier it was same as usual for Billericay Town. The New Lodge side spent half the season in the relegation zone, yet at the very time the management had put together the side they wanted and began to reach mid-table comfort, they too were sacked, similar to how the previous incumbents were treated the season before. Never a dull moment at Blunts Wall Road!

As for Canvey Island, the season, up until Christmas, looked like being one of play-off chasing daring-do. In a strikingly similar run of form to Basildon United, though, the second half of their campaign proved to be disastrous for the Gulls, with the Park Lane outfit finishing up just a handful of points above the drop zone.

Just a few short years after a previous owner said their avowed aim was to be the number one side in South Essex, they now find themselves not even the number one side in Canvey. Disappointing indeed.

The trough of South Essex despondency ran right through our professional clubs too. Grays Athletic finished rock bottom of the Conference, and are now homeless, with the owners of their New Rec ground turfing them out for development purposes. Instead of the Conference South, it looks increasingly like a groundshare with Tilbury or East Thurrock, and a return to Ryman League football for Julian Dicks, who will have to somehow cobble together a whole new squad.

It was equally depressing in League One, where Southend United combined losing football matches with visits to the High Court over unpaid tax bills, not paying staff whether it be players, managers, coaches or in administration, and flogging off their best player – the one who could have saved them from the drop – at way below market value. Relegation was inevitable as soon as Lee Barnard departed, and with no news of when the move to Fossetts Farm will materialise, things are looking bleak at Roots Hall.

Other than that, though, it was a hugely successful and enjoyable season for South Essex football clubs ….. Still, the one shining light was the magnificent promotion campaign of Concoird Rangers.

With so much politicial uncertainty at the moment, too, perhaps we should hark to the South Bank after election day in 1997, when the song rang out “Thinnnnnnnngs can only get betttttterrrrrr.” They better had or next season doesn’t bear thinking about! In the meantime, clubs, enjoy the summer – you all deserve and need a break.

Basildon United bounced back to their imperious best to brighten up a dank and drizzly Crofters End to record another impressive away win.

The Bees, having recently played 5 games in 11 days, were flat and uninspired in Saturday’s goalless draw with Mauritius Sport at The Hive. This, however, could not have been any more different with a fast, flowing and ultimately rewarding performance.

In the opening period, especially, Basildon looked as sharp as at any time this season. Their quick and incisive passing was complemented with excellent off-ball running and it almost reaped its reward as early as the fifth minute when a Dave Huzzy pile driver from 22 yards was palmed away for a corner. Soon after, from a free kick, Bees debutant Ricky Thompson’s looping header went just inches over the crossbar.

Then, at the other end, a real stroke of fortune for the visitors. Keeper Bobby Mason, another new signing, was cleverly beaten by Sawbridgeworth’s Phil Powers on the edge of the area. Then incredibly, as he rounded the keeper and nobody within five yards of him, with an open goal gaping, he amazingly shot wide from less than 10 yards.

The home side were made to pay for that calamitous miss when The Hive men deservedly took the lead in the 20th minute. After Will King had gone inches wide with a header, the resulting goal kick was instantly seized upon by Sean Merchant, whose magnificent lob from 25 yards nestled beautifully into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Sawbridgeworth, stung by that Bees strike, tried to find a way back into the game, but only a well directed Conlan header went anywhere near the goal, whilst Basildon’s constant breaking in the persistent rain was looking ever menacing and just before half time a centre in from the left by Paul Lander had the Sawbo defence in panic before it was scrambled clear.

It was inevitable, given Basildon’s dominance in the first 45 minutes, that the Hertfordshire side would come out all guns blazing at the start of the second half, and their determination almost brought dividends in the 51st minute when a Conlan shot from 15 yards rocketed off the left hand post.

The Black’n'Ambers, though, still looked menacing, and having weathered the early home storm – as well as the elements – struck again on 56 minutes with another superbly crafted goal. After an overlapping run down the left flank, full back Martyn Guest took a return pass from Dave Huzzy and smashed home a wonderful 22 yard shot to make it 2-0 to the jubilant visitors.

Basildon were enjoying themselves now, and Paul Lander was causing all sorts of problems with his crosses into the area. After Merchant was substituted, his replacement, another impressive signing Bobby Hardy, ran at an increasingly bedraggled home defence before shooting centimetres past the near post.

Football being football, though, from nothing Sawbridgeworth somehow found a way back into the game in the 74th minute. There seemed no danger as Bees keeper Mason went to kick the ball out of his box. Agonisingly, though, the ball hit a divot and bounced away from him. From the tighest of angles, home sub James Whitbread slotted home from almost on the byline to halve the deficit.

This sparked the hosts into life and five minutes later a rasping 20 yard shot was superbly palmed away by Mason. This save seemed to inspire the Bees and deflate Sawbo, though, as Basildon confidently ran the clock out, the only moment of consternation thereafter being a knock to the shin of Mason after bravely getting to a 50 / 50 ball first.

So a third win in 10 days has the Bees, as ever, buzzing again. If this season turns out to be one of what might have been, this impressive display and excellent victory over highly rated opponents will serve notice that Basildon United are a force to be reckoned with.

Team: Mason, Connolly, Guest (c, goal 56), McDowell, Poole, King, Lee, Merchant (goal 20, sub 66), Huzzy, Thompson, Lander. Sub – Hardy (66)

In tonight’s other ESL game, Bowers & Pitsea disappointingly went down to their 15th league defeat in 25 outings, when they lost 3-2 at Witham Town.

With just three league games having been played since then, however, due to the weather, and just one of those games at home in midweek, Gardiners Close has been in hibernation while others have played on.

From battling with the leaders, the Bees are now in a lowly 11th position, over 20 points off the pace. Incredibly, though, with having up to 8 games in hand on those around them, a late late run for the ESL championship is by no means out of the question – especially with 19 goal Wes Bocking in the Basildon ranks.

The Black’n'Ambers will, fingers crossed, host Barking tomorrow, who turned over Bowers & Pitsea 3-1 on another depressing night for the home side at the Len Salmon Stadium. Amidst much hype pre-season, it’s been a desperately disappointing season for the Crown Avenue based club.

True, they have only played the same number of matches as Basildon, but just 4 wins all season – and 2 of them against crisis torn basement side Mauritius Sports – tells its own story. 12 defeats out of 18 league games is an unexpectedly poor return.

Tomorrow, again fingers crossed, they host resurgent Sawbridgeworth Town, and regulars will be hoping for a turnaround in fortunes on the pitch sooner rather than later.

With two derby matches looming, Essex Senior League has rarely been so intriguing in this neck of the woods. Why not get yourself over to The Hive and the Len Salmon Stadium to find out? And if you do, expect the unexpected!