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Norwichshrimper

Can you hear Talvin Singh
Couldn't sleep last night and my mind started drifting back. I started thinking about Southend performances that just shouldn't have happened. Who else has not gone to a game knowing full well there is absolutely no chance of us getting a result, then heard the score and found out we have defied all the laws of probability and won.

With honourable mentions to away wins at places like Derby, Leicester and Coventry in our post Stan Div 2 days and Rotherham United in the past two seasons, my candidate is game from around December time in our relegation season in 88/89. We travelled up to Bramall Lane to play Sheffield United who I'm pretty sure were top of the league or near as damn it. This was in the days before t'internet and Sky Sports news etc, so it was spend the day shopping or watching a bit of non league football and wait for Grandstand Final Score or the results on Sports Report. I remember being in the car somewhere with Sports Report on, we were rubbish they were far too good for Div 3, so with dread I waited for James Alexander Gordon to get down to the end of Division 3. Is it going to be 5,6,7 how many are we gonna get beat by? (I think around that time the previous season we lost a similar game at Roker Park 7-0). But no..do my ears deceive me or do I hear Sheffield United 1, SOUTHEND United 2..no I can't have misheard he raised his voice and everything. After further investigation it is proved correct Sir Martin Robinson and an own goal have given us the most unlikely victory. We still got relegated, they still got promoted despite IIRC us beating them again at Roots Hall in the spring.

So which Southend League victory was your most unexpected?
 
I was at that game Norwich .. IIRC Sheff had won every home game in the league that season, and had drawn a cup game with Chester so 12 wins from 13

Against the run of play we took the lead and after heaps and heaps of pressure they finally levelled and the 50 or so Blues in attendance expected the usual capitulation .. it didn't happen and a freak own goal about 15 minutes from time handed us the points. This was about the time that they used to show the tapes of the away games in The Shrimpers in the week following the game, the commentator was so scathing of the Blades it would've put ldnfatso to shame with such classics as "I really don't know what Tony Agana was thinking of then" as he missed yet another easy chance, all delivered in a drooling Yorkshire twang

A couple of other notable away successes were one time at Bury, we were dire at the time and them flying high with some guy called John Newby i think scoring for fun, i predicted a hat trick and 5-0 but instead we turned a 1-0 half deficit around with 3 goals in about 5 minutes at the start of the second half .. also last season at Rotherham where'd we'd decided to leave once the hosts were 3 up, 12 minutes in and 2-0 Blues shock horror
 
I was at that game Norwich .. IIRC Sheff had won every home game in the league that season, and had drawn a cup game with Chester so 12 wins from 13

Against the run of play we took the lead and after heaps and heaps of pressure they finally levelled and the 50 or so Blues in attendance expected the usual capitulation .. it didn't happen and a freak own goal about 15 minutes from time handed us the points. This was about the time that they used to show the tapes of the away games in The Shrimpers in the week following the game, the commentator was so scathing of the Blades it would've put ldnfatso to shame with such classics as "I really don't know what Tony Agana was thinking of then" as he missed yet another easy chance, all delivered in a drooling Yorkshire twang

A couple of other notable away successes were one time at Bury, we were dire at the time and them flying high with some guy called John Newby i think scoring for fun, i predicted a hat trick and 5-0 but instead we turned a 1-0 half deficit around with 3 goals in about 5 minutes at the start of the second half .. also last season at Rotherham where'd we'd decided to leave once the hosts were 3 up, 12 minutes in and 2-0 Blues shock horror

Was theer too and Blueblood is perfectly correct Sheff U had won every home game in the league up to that point. The final whistle sounded and a S. Yorks policeman (known for their efficiency with football fans) concluded "good luck getting back to your car alive"
 
Leicester away 1995 , We were struggling at the bottom and they had just been relegated from the top flight

Equally as improbable as the win was Julian Hails getting a hattrick

We went on to finish 14th , Leicester went back up at the first time (aleit via the play offs)
 
So which Southend League victory was your most unexpected?

Probably our 2nd ever away game at Sunderland when we won 2-1 with goals from Brett Angell & Pat Scully. Even though we had a pretty good team I never expected us to win and of course we went on to win our next 3 away games at Roker Park as well.

Also up there in Dec 1986 our first ever League match at Wolves when we won 2-1 with goals from Martin Ling & Big Roy in front of only 4,129 fans, I think that crowd is still one of Wolves lowest ever home crowds.
 
1-0 v Man United ranks pretty high. As does a win at Carlisle spurred on by the newly-signed magnificent Mark Bentley.
 
I remember going to Rochdale quite some years ago and we had been on an awful run of not winning an away game. I fully expected to get turned over when Mark Rawle claimed a couple of goals (I think).
 
I remember going to Rochdale quite some years ago and we had been on an awful run of not winning an away game. I fully expected to get turned over when Mark Rawle claimed a couple of goals (I think).

Rawle & Bramble scored at Rochdale on 31st August 2002 (details from SUFC Database) was that the match? Mind you I dont think Rochdale were doing that well either. We had drawn at Hull on opening day & just beaten Oxford away as well, so maybe not that match?
 
Let's be honest who expected Southend 1 West Ham 0?

You're right. Who'd have thought we'd only get 1!

1-0 v Man United ranks pretty high. As does a win at Carlisle spurred on by the newly-signed magnificent Mark Bentley.
Although not a league game of course.

Others I remember are pretty much all of our first 4 or 5 games in 90/1 when the Right Honourable David Crown had just squeezed us up out of the basement. I think I'm right in saying none of us expected to go right through Div 3 as well as we'd pretty much been a yo-you team for most of our living history. But we went to Huddersfield first game and won 2-1 hugely unexpectedly. I think we also went to Cambridge Utd 4 or 5 games in and put 4 or 5 past them on their patch, that probably doesn't sound much now but at the time when you look at what John Beck and Cambridge were doing to much bigger sides than us at the time it was a hell of an achievement. In fact looking back that was one of the best Southend performances of my lifetime. (edit - just looked, it was 4-1!)
 
Makes me feel very old (and sad) but I was at almost all of these games mentioned! The one I missed was the Julian hails hat-trick game at Liecester because I was stuck in a traffic jam on the M1. We laughed and said that at least we wouldnt have to witness the battering only for the radio to crackle with news of each goal! By the time we arrived, we were already 3-0 up!

On a similar but different type of game you didnt expect to win, my mind is always taken back to Newport County at home in 1978 and Wigan at home in about 1987. Both times, we came back from two down with ten minutes to go, to win. The Newport game was particularly memorable, although i think i am right in saying that the Wigan game featured at least two goals from circa 30 yards from a certain David Crown!

Happy days!
 
the Wigan game featured at least two goals from circa 30 yards from a certain David Crown!

Happy days!

Martin Ling and David Crown from distance, and Roy McDonagh from the spot .. i don't wish to sidetrack the thread but i've seen us win from 2 down around a dozen times but only once (possibly twice due to a nagging doubt) have i seen us lose from such a position
 
No necessarily a game we shouldn't have won due to league placings etc. but I remember going to Brentford on a Sunday morning when Webby was manager (so must have been 90/91 or theerabouts). Benji scored early on, but then Ansah got sent off after about 25 mins, whereupon Brentford absolutely battered us for the remaining 65 mins. Somehow we managed to hold on, and it was made all the sweeter by their goalkeeper (Graham Benstead), getting more and more irate as each chance came and went....
 
No necessarily a game we shouldn't have won due to league placings etc. but I remember going to Brentford on a Sunday morning when Webby was manager (so must have been 90/91 or theerabouts). Benji scored early on, but then Ansah got sent off after about 25 mins, whereupon Brentford absolutely battered us for the remaining 65 mins. Somehow we managed to hold on, and it was made all the sweeter by their goalkeeper (Graham Benstead), getting more and more irate as each chance came and went....

Not quite BB .. battered we were but Benji got a late winner i'm sure (78 mins or thereabouts) .. he did it often through the season about the same time .. Rotherham was another and most famously at Gigg Lane on May 4th .. a shimmy and a shot ....
 
BLUEBLOOD said:
Not quite BB .. battered we were but Benji got a late winner i'm sure (78 mins or thereabouts) .. he did it often through the season about the same time .. Rotherham was another and most famously at Gigg Lane on May 4th .. a shimmy and a shot ....
Haha, we're both wrong. According to the SUFC Database, Benji scored after 38 mins. I think you may be right that Ansah was already sent off by then though...
 
No necessarily a game we shouldn't have won due to league placings etc. but I remember going to Brentford on a Sunday morning when Webby was manager (so must have been 90/91 or theerabouts). Benji scored early on, but then Ansah got sent off after about 25 mins, whereupon Brentford absolutely battered us for the remaining 65 mins. Somehow we managed to hold on, and it was made all the sweeter by their goalkeeper (Graham Benstead), getting more and more irate as each chance came and went....

speaking of sendings off, what about Swansea away , 2-1 up and down to 9 men then Gower gets his marching orders whilst being subbed. The First thing Marc Warren did when he eventually got on the pitch was to get our third and we hung on for 3-2
 

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