DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE NORTH-EAST
Darlo run riot against tired Southend

Southend United looked weary and tired as they failed to contain a rampant Darlington side at the Williamson Motor Stadium. A hat-trick from Alun Armstrong and a debut goal from Clive Winjhard sealed the win for the Quakers against the Shrimpers, possibly still suffering from the extertions of the epic battle with Colchester United earlier in the week. Custodian Darryl Flahavan continued to make his case for retaining the first-choice spot between the sticks with a number of saves that kept the score relatively respectable. But Southend now drop back to the 15th and manager Steve Tilson will need to lift his troops for the match against Boston United this Friday.

Match Report from Technician ...

With confidence high after some very good performances by our beloved Southend United, I left home at about 8 in the morning full of optimism that we could get a decent result against Darlington - in fact these were the same feelings I had at my last away match (the LDV Final).

Unlike the trip to Cardiff, the mass exodus of cars, coaches & mini-buses sporting the Southend colours were missing and so was all the banter, and so on. The first car I spotted with Southend colours was at Peterborough and we proceeded to have a (virtual) game of cat and mouse for the remainder of the journey. The journey north is normally straightforward, but can be arduous if you catch the road-works and contra-flows etc. Alas, they chose this day to cone lanes off at frequent intervals!

I was particularly impressed with the stadium at Darlington, but it has a rather eventful short history. The club has, until recently, been in administration and in order to come out of administration, one of the clauses stated that the original name of Reynolds Arena had to be changed. It is now known as the Williamson Motors Stadium. Talking to some of the Darlington fans, they have mixed emotions about it. The stadium holds about 25,000 and, whilst their support is vociferous, they feel that they will never fill the stadium nor generate the atmosphere it was designed for. This could be well worth noting regarding Fossett’s Farm?

Access to the stadium is excellent via the A66 (from the A1). The parking facilities are well marshalled but I was disappointed that we were directed to parking bays on the opposite end to where the away supporters entrance was - but then I can be a lazy bugger! They charge £5 for parking, which I thought was rather steep, but hey-ho! The watering hole called the “Old Tin Shed” was a short walk from the car. It had a small food bar and, most important of all, alcoholic beverages. I sampled the wares from both establishments and found them to be of a high standard AND reasonably priced - gravy & chips, a quarter-pounder and a pint of John Smith’s consumed for under £4. Not bad!

And so, to the game itself : I went to the away end, paid my dues and took my seat behind the goal. At kick-off, I was looking around and estimated that our travelling support was around 150. Both teams started brightly with Steve Tilson keeping faith in the starting eleven that did so well against Colchester United on Wednesday. Darlington made their intentions clear from the off with some smooth one touch pass and move football using both flanks. Darryl Flahavan made an excellent save low to his left after only two minutes, and I don’t know why, but I suspected from that point that we could be in trouble. The forward movement from Wijnhard, Armstrong and Hignett, resulting in that first attack, literally carved our defence wide open.

Southend settled into a rhythm fairly quickly though and began creating opportunities at the other end, but as usual our player’s positioning and finishing lets us down time and again. Realistically, their goalkeeper had very little to do, whilst up the other end, Flahavan was being kept busy with Darlington’s smooth attacking moves! To be honest, with the quality of Darlington’s attacks, they made our lot look like comparative amateurs.

Armstrong got the first goal for Darlington with a header from 12 yards, which went in off the right-hand post, Wijnhard got the second from similar distance, struck low and giving Flahavan little chance. Armstrong got his second - and Darlington’s third - a few minutes before half-time collecting the re-bound from Flahavan’s earlier save. The interval was a muted affair, with most in attendance quietly consuming a pint (or three).

The second half started pretty much the same as the first but, with no changes made at half time, it was no real surprise that we were carved open once again for Armstrong’s hat-trick and Darlington’s fourth, following a defensive error.

Despite the poor showing by our squad (a hang-over from the extra time on Wednesday I suspect?), I was impressed by the continued support by the lads and lasses in our section of the stand, who seemed to “up the tempo!” when the chips were down, whilst many would have (perhaps) been thinking of the journey home or indeed trying to sneak out early. I was amused by our ironic cheers midway through the second half, when our lads completed a successful pass, and the boo’s when the opposition had the ball. I spoke to a few of the lads who stood near the back, and feel that their vocal support right to the end is worth a mention. Among the group were Ben Herbert (with his drum), Dan Armstrong, Little Barry and a certain Lewis Crowe who writes for the Southend United Official Site.

I have to say a 4-0 defeat was a bit of a shock and so it is virtually impossible to pick out an individual player, worthy of the ShrimperZone Man of the Match award. Certainly Armstrong for Darlington, but if I had to chose someone from Southend, it would be Wayne (where's the goal?) Gray. He was mobile, had bagfuls of energy, helped out in defence and tried to support our attacking moves - that is, however, as good as it got.

I was impressed with the general organisation at their ground and particularly the car-park marshalls, who made every effort to get us moving efficiently, rather than the "every man for himself" mentality you always get at Roots Hall. Quality!

What the fans thought ...

"To be honest we were never in the game today. Darlington were sharper and hungrier than we were and probably the best side I have seen us play so far this season. They pushed the ball about well and had great movement off the ball; our back line could not cope with their five-man midfield breaking through ours. If they hadn't stopped trying late on the score could have been higher although Daryl Flahavan was in good form and saved us a couple of times when you would have put your mortgage on them scoring again. I don't know whether it was tiredness from the Col U game but we were second to every ball and the few chances we had were easily snuffed out. I can only actually remember us having two shots on target.Maybe Tilly's new striker will help our goal shortage and if hes anything like Darlington'ss loan strikers then we will do well. I just hope we can reproduce our recent form on friday night and get back to winning ways!"
JAMESMUT2000

"Fantasic stadium and their fans in BAR 66 were a good laugh but the truth of the game was ... we just didn't turn up. We were completely over run down both flanks at the back, Kev was playing too deep and the chances we created ( or the lack of them ) weren't exploited. In the first half the heavens opened and it gushed down but even at it's hardest we were two-down, we looked tired and had lack of invention. I feel we'll have to put it down as a bad day at the office. Well done to the fans who made such a noise in the East Stand; it was quite surreal in fantastic stadium with 22000 empty seats that the 200 or so fans did us proud."
THE WATERMILL WINO

"Brilliant ground. Shame was our players didn't play on such a stage . The 200 travelling fans tried to lift the team to no avail. They may have flown up but we endured five hours on a coach with videos that should have stayed on the shelf and a nutter of a lorry driver who seemed hell bent on running us of the road . Well done to the driver who got us our of position that could have been nasty."
PETEJAN

And a special mention from a Darlo fan ...

"I guess there was about 150 of them at the game today. What a credit they were to their team. Even though they lacked numbers, you could hear them singing most of the second half. The best bit was near the end after our fourth goal and we started to pass the ball around. Each time we completed a pass we cheered and then boo'd when they got the ball and completed a pass. But when their team got the ball their fans cheered every time they made a pass, which was fantastic. They certainly are a great credit to their team and I hope their players appreciated them as it was a long way to come for nothing."
DARLO PETE