Memory Lane Hello All !!

I still remember thinking who is this nobody we've just spent a lot of money on. Then we played Notts County. Memorable FA Cup run as well

Hi Stan - when you first signed for us, I was working up in London with a few Palace supporters, got in one morning to be told we had signed one of their players - 'who?' says I - 'Stan Collymore' says they ' - 'WHO?' says I :smile:.
Turns out you were the best player I have ever seen pull on a Southend Shirt - I'll never forget your debut

Best of luck for the future - I always enjoy your shows on TalkSport especially when your on with Mark Saggers :thumbsup:

Great to hear from the best player ever to pull on a Shrimper's shirt in my 50 plus years of supporting the club.

Stan, I dropped my pie when you scored that second goal at Huddersfield. I like pies ...enough said. Both you and Billy Best will always be SUFC heroes in my mind.

Sixty years a Shrimper,and Stanley my boy,you are in a tiny handful of outstanding players to pull on a SUFC shirt !! You were the only one who made me stand up,in the East Reds,whenever you received the ball.Good times.Ooh for something similar nowadays.Thank you Stanley for remembering those times as well.When we see the "Plastic Premiership" ,I despair, they are trying to drive the smaller clubs out,Sod em ! I for one,find the games not that exciting generally.Give me players like Stanley Victor anytime. Looking forward to seeing you at the "Hall" in the very near future.

Glad I picked Stan for my "player in his prime" choice now.

Bet Billy Best wont post on here :smile:

Morning Stan what a great post from a true legend the best player I've ever seen in a Southend shirt and that's in 33 years of supporting the club.
Every goal you scored was a cracker powerful pacey with a rocket of a shot.
Even called my dog Stan after you..
As others have said it would be great if you could give Browny a call and pop to the Hall to do a Forward coaching session with the lads even if it was a one off I'm sure having you there would give them a real boost.
Ill sign of by singing to you 'ohhhh Stanley stanley stanley stanley Collymore'

Rusty Shackleford said:

[video=youtube;jYpmZuKBxxY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYpmZuKBxxY[/video]

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Can still hear the MOTD goal of the month music playing when i see that second goal! absolute ledge!

Rootshallbloke said:

So it's early morning, I'm having a cup of tea and thinking, 'I wonder what's on SZ since yesterday?'. Thank you Stan for starting my day off perfectly with a great post from a SUFC legend and not one poster having a moan as a result.

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My thoughts to a tea.

Brilliant start to the morning, many thanks Stan for such great memories.

A proper Legend. Thanks for the memories. Easily the most exciting player to put on a Southend shirt. I remember how you won the FA Cup match at Huddersfield single handedly. Buy you a pint? More like loads of pints.

Hi Stan. Thanks for taking the time and effort to come on here and post your thoughts. It really means a lot, especially for those of us lucky enough to see you play for Southend. I'm glad we helped you through some of your darkest times. From the first game you played for us, we couldn't believe our luck, and Crystal Palace's bad judgement. We've had some fantastic strikers play for us, but never had one that kept picking the ball up from around the half way line, and attack with such power and pace, normally ending in a powerful, accurate shot, and of course, many great goals. This was something else, this was so exciting. I know when you went to Liverpool from Forest, they made you into a team player, and played you much closer to the opposition goal, you still got a good goal scoring ratio, but they took those exciting long runs with the ball from deep, out of your game. Whereas at Southend, it was just give the ball to Stan, he will do the rest.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to see you play Stan. Thank you so much for the happy memories.
Please come down to Roots Hall. You are and always will be an absolute legend to Southend fans. I would love it if you walked onto the Roots Hall turf for one more time before a game, or better still, at half time, for us to show our appreciation. Or if you don't fancy the fuss, just come back, and watch a game.
Take care Stan. Best of luck for the future, and thanks again.

Was a dark time supporting Southend then, Murphy was absolutely clueless and the football was horrible.

Then to make matters worse, we sell an absolute legend on the Friday before Notts County. I couldnt believe it... then news filtered through we had replaced Benji with some young kid called "Stan Collymore". Never heard of him.

All eyes were on him during the warmup. "He looks tall" was my only impression until kick off.... wow. Could there be a better debut?

An absolute performance. Better than Freddy's hat-trick 'debut'? Hard to say as both were amazing - but this was Stans first game from out of nowhere and it was just an incredible 90 mins of football. The rest is history...

Wish you could of stayed longer Stan - and also probably as you do, wish you'd made it to the very, very top. I'm convinced you had the talent to, but it just wasnt meant to be.

THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK said:

I would love it if you walked onto the Roots Hall turf for one more time before a game, or better still, at half time, for us to show our appreciation. Or if you don't fancy the fuss, just come back, and watch a game.
Take care Stan. Best of luck for the future, and thanks again.

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better still, if you have any spare time in the week, we could do with a striker coach... :whistling:

Freddy's debut was magnificent. But Stan's was electrifying. I remember one game he just got the ball from Dave Martin and ran with it with determination before hitting it with such power and accuracy it was mindblowing.

stan collymore said:

Hey everyone,

Been a long time since I posted on here, and I've a confession to make.

In the darkest of days before I managed to start broadcasting and making a second career after football, to be honest there were well documented times when I didn't feel I was going to be around much longer.

So coming on SZ, remembering happy times, simple times too without the fanfare, the circus and the hype, often very late in the night ( I didn't have a job!!), more than kept me going.

I know I'm not everyone's cup of tea, even on a partisan Southend forum, but at least people were kind enough here to speak honestly, and appreciate some of my posts about the club.

Southend United reminds me daily of what the essence of football is, and is sadly lost forever seemingly in the Premier League, namely community spirit, pride, fun and genuine appreciation over expectation, and to me that means the world and always will.

I don't get down enough to Roots Hall, and I really should at least pop for a drink in my own bar! To everyone on the forum, it was one of the happiest periods of my life so far to play for your club, so wanted to thank you for the continued support I get from Shimpers on social media, and I'll always be extremely proud to be a Shrimper.

Good luck for the season, hope I live to see us do a Bournemouth someday.


Stan

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I was in your bar on Saturday. You should go, they've moved the trophy cabinet there. The only one missing is the League 2 Play Off winners trophy from last May. Apparently that is too valuable even for you, and is kept in the Chief Execs office.

fbm said:

You won't find many people on here who have a poor opinion of you. Comfortably the most talented player to wear our shirt.

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I've only ever said 2 Southend players would play for England. The first was Stan, and the second is Dan Bentley. So far I've got 100% record. Dan, don't let me down!

Napster said:

Freddy's debut was magnificent. But Stan's was electrifying. I remember one game he just got the ball from Dave Martin and ran with it with determination before hitting it with such power and accuracy it was mindblowing.

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Agreed, Freds debut was impressive, buts Stans was out of this world. You straight away that he would go onto to greater things. In all my time watching football, at any level, rarely have I seen a player with more power and strength than Stan. You could tell from his first touch that he was destined for greater things. Granted I was very young then, but I had never seen a player like him up until that point. Murphy may have been useless and clueless, yet I can never thank the man enough for finding Sir Stanley Collymore. Stan was world class and its a shame his demons stopped him from realising his full potential, but wow oh wow. Also, I reckon Notts Forest and Liverpool fans will also confirm that Stans debuts for them were equalling electrifying !

Thank you Stan for that half a season, one of the greatest seasons of my Southend supporting life time ( you don't need promotion to enjoy football, you need something or someone to get you off your seats and make the hairs on your neck stand up any time the ball is near them, Stan did that for me)

HudsonNo1 said:

Never got to see you in the flesh at the hall mate as was before my time(as a shrimper) but seen many videos. Good to see you remember the little guys like us.

Now down to business... Any chance of you getting the boots back on for a season? We're struggling up top a tad at the moment.

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I filled my car up next to StM at the Shell Garage along the A127, near the Bell pub back in the day. The look he gave me made it very obvious that he knew that I knew who he was!

Mind you, I think things have improved for him since then; his car was a beat up old black sports car of some sort. It was so beat up it was difficult to work out what it was. (Ok, the real reason is because I don't know a huge amount about cars!)

* ORM * said:

I still remember thinking who is this nobody we've just spent a lot of money on. Then we played Notts County. Memorable FA Cup run as well

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He was so good, he even managed to coerce a goal out of Trevor Fitzpatrick!

Jam_Man said:

Glad I picked Stan for my "player in his prime" choice now.

Bet Billy Best wont post on here :smile:

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Billy Best does not need to post on here to remind people who he was :smile: .