Southend United committed £38,000 to agents' fees in the first six months of 2008 according to the Football League's annual report.

The Blues were involved in 23 transactions between 1st January and 30th June 2008.

8 of those transactions were new transfers, 5 related to updated contracts, whilst 4 concerned cancelled contracts and 6 were loan deals.

That figure was down nearly £37,000 from the six months prior to that when United spent £79,410 on agents' fees during transfer dealings.

Coca-Cola League One sides committed a total of £1,531,337 on agent's fees since the turn of the year with 21 clubs using the services of a licensed agent.

Only three sides did not pay for the services of an agent in that period - Crewe, Hartlepool and Huddersfield.

Football League Chairman Lord Mawhinney told southendunited.co.uk: "In the last twelve months we've seen a resurgent transfer market with clubs spending significantly greater sums on players.

"It is encouraging that this has not been coupled with a similar increase in payments to agents.Instead, these are now at their lowest levels since we began publishing these figures four seasons ago.

"Football League clubs continue to make genuine strides towards putting their economic affairs in order.We have led the way in this regard, though more remains to be done."

To view the full report, covering the Championship as well as League's One and Two click here.