Clifford’s decline always surprised me. When he first broke into the first team he looked like he had a real chance and had the makings of a really good player. Didn’t look out of place in our last few seasons of league football, admittedly in a poor team, but just seemed to really drop off in the national league.
The gap between holding your own in L1 and NLS isn’t all that much. We’ve had countless fullbacks flit between the two of them - Che Wilson, Ben Coker, Sean Clohessy, Leon Davies etc. Until you get well over 100+ games under your belt initial promise can easily evaporate before you’ve properly established a reputation that can sustain a loss in form.
The drop down to Isthmian South East is more surprising and is almost certainly a bigger gap than between the bottom of L1 and the top of NLS, particularly with the way the pyramid spreads out.
It can’t however be easy having your dreams taken away from you and I’m not surprised if time at Southend then soured people on football.