Brighton deserve credit for moving quickly to ban four supporters who allegedly caused trouble during a recent match at Roots Hall, but I question whether their decision can be successful.

The four were allegedly at the forefront of some pretty ugly and frightening scenes, but I cannot see how a ban, unless backed by some positive court and police action, can work.

How can you stop determined trouble makers getting tickets for games? It would be well nigh impossible for turnstile operators to identify the bad boys.

The only solution I can see is for the clubs, supported by the courts, to give sentences which make it impossible for hooligans to tarnish the game in future.

I would suggest community work for the culprits during the hours that matches are being played and not just for a month, but at least a whole season.

That way you could ensure that decent people have a chance to watch a game in peace and safety free from the threat posed by yobs. It was great to see Blues striker Barry Conlon ram jeers down a lot of throats with a sizzling show against high-flying Swansea on Saturday.

Things had got so hard for the youngster since his £90,000 move from Manchester City six months ago that boss Alvin Martin even kept him out of the team at Roots Hall to save him from the boo boys.

It has amazed me that fans have got on Conlan's back because, despite a lack of goals, he has always given 100 per cent for the team - an attribute which normally endears a player to supporters.

I have always felt he has deserved better backing from the home crowd and Saturday proved that perhaps too many were quick to rush to judgement.

Conlon paired up with another kid who looks to have bags of promise - Neville Roach, who could prove Martin's shrewdest buy yet having paid what looks a bargain £30,000 for his services from Reading.

They both deservedly got on the scoresheet to put the skids under Swansea's play-off ambitions and for once I agreed with the sponsors man-of-the-match choice - hero Conlon.

The very likeable Irishman told me after the game that breaking his home scoring duck was a huge relief.

"It's been tough trying to win over the fans, but they were great to me today even before I scored, which is a big help," he said

"My confidence has taken a real battering, but hopefully that's I all behind me now and I can help take Southend to a much healthier league position."

Roach, too, is sure that he and Conlon can develop a lucrative partnership and reckons his decision to join Southend was certainly the right one.

I am always one of the first to say that one swallow does not make a summer, but I feel confident that Conlon has turned the corner and his career can really start to blossom.

He reminds me a lot of another Blues player who was often the butt of fans' displeasure, Roy McDonough. Conlon is, like McDonough, a hard grafter who brings other players into the game and makes space for his fellow strikers.

If his link up with Roach proves as good as McDonough's partnerships with Richard Cadette and David Crown then I do not think there will be many more moans from the terraces.

Surely having two such exciting young talents must augur well for Southend's future.

Let us hope the dark, dismal days are behind us and that the team can get back to a position they should rightly hold... nearer the top than the bottom of the table.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.