Being the Best Essex Football Team is no great achievement, in truth.  There’s only two professional teams in the county who have ever competed in the top 4 divisions: Colchester United.  and Southend United.

Both are amongst the perennial strugglers, varying between the lower 2 leagues, with a few brief visits one step higher, and also visits to non-league football.  Both have trophy cabinets are largely empty.

Essex’s country cousins to the north, Suffolk, boast one team that has played at the highest level, and won major trophies : Ipswich Town. Essex can’t match that. Part of the problem is the proximity to London.  When it comes to football, Essex is an extension of North London.  Most fans follow one of the 2 big north London clubs, Arsenal or Tottenham Hotspur.  The strong rivalry between the 2 clubs adds a bit of spice to the football debate.

Colchester United

The club currently competes in EFL League Two, though it has been higher in the past, including brief stays in the Championship.  It has a modern stadium on the outskirts of the city, currently called the JobServe Community Stadium.  It’s capacity of 10,000 is rarely used on match days.

Colchester fans like to see them as local rivals to Ipswich, even though the two teams have rarely been in the same league.  Ipswich fans see Norwich as their rivals, and often look quite kindly on Colchester, because of the number of Town players who have retired from Town to play out a few more seasons in Colchester.  They sometimes refer to Colchester as the “donkey sanctuary”, where has-beens are put out to grass.

Southend United

Southend count both Colchester and Dagenham as local rivals. They have won the Third Division once, and the Fourth Division once.  Those were happier days: they are currently in National League One. Not much of note has happened in their history, but their determined local fans keep the club in business, despite recurring financial crises.

Their home has been Roots Hall since 1955.  It’s a traditional old stadium, little changed over the years.  Like Colchester, the capacity of 11,000 is rarely needed.