Former Portsmouth assistant manager Kevin Bond appointed permanent Southend boss

That’s after the 61-year-old left his role at Pompey to take charge at Roots Hall in a caretaker capacity last month.

Bond successfully steered the Shrimpers to League One survival, with their 2-1 victory over Sunderland on the final day of the season keeping them up.

The former AFC Bournemouth manager had three spells at Fratton Park.

He was twice assistant to Harry Redknapp before returning in a part-time scouting role under Kenny Jackett.

Speaking after his Southend appointment, Bond said: ‘I couldn’t be more pleased.

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the last few weeks of the season, although it was a pretty tense experience, and I can’t wait to get started on planning for what we all hope is a bright future for Southend United.

‘To a degree when you come in, in difficult circumstances, you’re firefighting a little bit and you haven’t really got enough time to make many changes, so you have to deal with what’s in front of you and put one or two things in place which you think may make a difference.

‘Thankfully we got what we needed to get to stay in League One which is great and now we’ve got a longer period of time in order to put things in place which will hopefully move the club forward," said Bond.

‘That work starts right now on the playing staff side and the planning for pre-season.

‘This is a really busy part of the season and it’s all about organising this period leading up to the first game of the season.’