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.

Pride of place goes to Canvey Island, who hammered struggling Cray Wanderers 5-1 in their Ryman Premier League clash at Park Lane. The win lifts the Gulls into sixth, just a place and a point off a play-off berth.

The gap was closed due to struggling Billericay Town holding 5th placed Tooting & Mitcham to a fine 1-1 draw away. The New Lodge side are still third bottom, four points and a couple of places from safety, but their recent run of form augurs well for the battle ahead.

It’s a battle of a different kind for Conference South outfit Thurrock. The Fleet continued their unlikely promotion push by dispatching Bath City 3-1. Sitting pretty in fourth place, it seems as if the Ship Lane outfit really mean business.

Rounding off a good day locally were Ryman One North side Tilbury. They kept their own play-off hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over Redbridge at a windswept Chadfields. The Dockers task, however, is a little harder, being just four points off a coveted play-off spot, but having played up to six games more than their rivals.