Southend

Southend United exists because a group of local businessmen and players wanted more than the town's existing club, Southend Athletic, was prepared to offer. When the Athletic's members turned down a move to a fuller professional footing at a meeting on 16 May 1906, the dissenters gathered soon after at the Blue Boar Hotel and set up a rival outfit instead. Southend United was formed on 19 May 1906, signed twelve professionals before a ball had been kicked, and was voted straight into the Southern League.

The new club wasted little time making its mark, taking the Southern League Second Division title in successive seasons, 1906-07 and 1907-08. Election to the Football League followed in 1920, as one of the founder members of the new Third Division, and the club has stayed within the professional pyramid ever since.

Roots Hall has been home throughout, though its shape has shifted with the times: safety restrictions and rebuilding work through the 2020s cut into the ground's usable capacity, and it was only with the reopening of the North West corner in April 2026 that Roots Hall returned to holding 10,500. The nickname, the Shrimpers, comes from the fishing and seafood trade that once defined Southend-on-Sea, and the team still turns out in navy blue and white.

Promotion has come in different guises down the years - as champions of the old Fourth Division in 1981, and of League One in 2006 - but May 2015 stands apart, won through the play-offs for what was the club's first trophy lifted that way. The rivalry with Colchester United, the Essex derby dating back to a first meeting on 14 October 1950, still carries an edge whenever the two sides meet.

Southend United begin the new season as holders of the FA Trophy, won on penalties against Wealdstone in the 2026 final.