PIERS Hewitt is the latest fan in the stand to have his say on Southend United.

I find real interest in certain parts of Southend’s history that were before my time of supporting the Shrimpers.

The Dave Smith era most certainly, for obvious reasons, and also, some of the dark days of the mid-80s, for the experiences at the other end of the scale.

One such time which has made conversation a few times over the years is the shortlived time of Dick Bate, not just for sheer amount of goals we conceded in that time but also for him seeing the axe before a League win had been notched.

It goes without saying Kevin Bond has found a couple of wins as Southend United boss, one of which will live in our memories forever, but sat watching our display against Peterborough on Tuesday night brought the run of Dick Bate right back into our consciousness because this particular managerial stint of Bond’s looks like it could become as equally etched in the history books and for all the worst reasons.

It feels like a very difficult time to judge some of our personnel at the moment with ever changing systems and apparent levels of disorganisation not seen with these eyes for some time.

Players on occasion being thrown in with little fitness or experience, sometimes even in the wrong position, and then amongst all this getting to the end of the day and seeing their names dragged through the dirt after the game.

And the desperate hunt for just obtaining a clean sheet culminating in seeing five at the back for large parts of Tuesday’s game with a deep lying midfielder sitting in front for a home game against a team yet to win is a recipe for swathes of fans not returning to Roots Hall in the very near future.

An atmosphere of resignation is clouding the fanbase at the moment, and this last game was midweek and a lot of attendees were still wearing shorts. That should tell you enough about how the beginning of this season is simply one of the worst in living memory.

Under almost all circumstances, a constant cycle of managers at any club will send you down an extremely rocky road and, as I have stated before, to his credit Ron Martin has often known when to push the red button - and also when not to - but it is hard to see many other outcomes to this scenario if, as it looks like, we continue on this Dick Bate-esque run of appalling form.

Confidence is the key to almost all aspects of being successful and across the board this is getting depleted by the minute - on the pitch, on the bench and most certainly in the stands.

If that is running out in the director’s box too then hold on to your hats.