Green light for Blue Flag?

Colchester's Weston Care in the Community stadium has been nominated for a prestigious award.

The Third Division side's pitch was last night unveiled in front of the national TV cameras as amongst the finalists for this year's Blue Flag awards. The Blue Flag awards are handed out yearly to beaches that meet a strict quality control criteria.

As usual Colchester is lagging behind it's more illustrious neighbour in the south of the county, as a number of Southend beaches have already been awarded this honour, including the Three Shells beach, East Beach and Shoebury Common Beach.

It is hoped that the awarding of the internationally recognised honour will boost tourism in the north of the county, which has yet again seen disappointingly few people turn up this year to the newly opened beach. Even the addition of perennial seaside favourites, the donkeys - Clive Platt and Kayode Odejayi foremost amongst them - have failed to boost visitor numbers, with attendances in North Essex remaining embarrassingly low.

The sight of a blue flag fluttering above the stands would provide a big boost for Colchester fans deprived of entertainment and who, because of manager Aidy Boothroyd's hoof-ball tactics, already spend an inordinate amount of time starting up in the air.

The move is however not without controversy, as debate has ensued over whether the Care in the Community pitch is a beach, or as some critics claim a ploughed field. Others have claimed that the presence of so much rubbish in Tesco's carrier bags on the Weston Care in the Community pitch also make it unworthy of such an award.

Another day, another job: Tilson linked with move

The internet went into overdrive, again, today as Southend supremo Steve "Tilly" Tilson and assistant manager Paul Brush found themselves again being strongly linked with yet another vacant position in the latest in a long-running saga of unfounded speculation.

Tilson was strongly linked to another job back in November, as first reported by the Southend Afternoon Echo Sportsdesk.

Blues chiefs are yet to deny that they have received an official approach, but the Southend Afternoon Echo Sportsdesk understands that this could change if someone was to get in touch for talks, although the club would resist any such approach and Tilson himself might be reluctant to give up his job security at Roots Hall.

The speculation comes just hours after Lord Hanningfield quit as leader of Essex County Council after being charged with dishonestly submitting expenses claims. Tilson, with his outstanding managerial record, his strong Essex roots and as a life-long Blue could be a tempting choice as Essex County Council seek a new leader. Speculation is therefore mounting that Tilson could be tempted away from Roots Hall.

Said a source who has not spoken to either man about it: “Southend may have paid off the £2.1million to the tax man to avoid administration but their position is still precarious,” back in November, when he had not heard anything about the job speculation until we telephoned him. Another source stated: "He could be tempted, this makes more sense that half of the jobs he is linked with".

Appointing Tilson would however still be seen as controversial in parts of the county. Tilson led the chants of "One Team In Essex" when Southend United pipped their inbred neighbours to the League One title in 2005/06, a move that is unlikely to go down well with either Col Ewe fan. He and assistant manager Paul Brush, were also both members of the squad in 1989/90 that sent Col Ewe down to the Conference, a level Southend have never stooped as low as - a fact both Col Ewe fans should remember especially on Monday as the mighty Shrimpers visit the Care in the Community Stadium for the Essex derby.