Away games you nearly missed but are so glad you didnt

[DTS]

Mine was Swansea away when we drew 2-2 and won promotion.

So basically I was seeing my on/off girlfriend of the time for about the sixth attempt and her main gripe was that I was never around on Saturdays so I decided I was going to start missing aways. Missing aways these days is pretty easy for me as the football is never that good under Phil brown but this was the Freddy / Gower/ Tilson era and you really wanted to go every game.

I was living on my own at the time and despite having a girlfriend I was still really living as a single man (especially on a night out). As well as having loads of mates locally I was lucky enough to have fellow Shrimper and SZ poster Smudger / Bloke in the Pram shop / Dessert Shimper as a good mate who lived close to me and I could often go for a beer with in Brighton. Smudger and I shared at the time two loves which was SUFC and Women so it was a marriage made in heaven although those of you that know him know he goes at it on a night out like no other person I have ever known so he is dangerous.

The Monday before the game I get a text. Smudger has a pass for the game so he text me and said are you coming. The GF at the time of course is in no mood to give passes. The more Smudger texts me the more I realise I cannot miss this game. I have been supporting Southend since I was six and I have never missed a vital game as an adult so i cannot start now. We need a win for promotion.

Of course we don't have match tickets which has sold out and we don't have transport so I said to him "you sort the tickets and I will go" thinking we will never get tickets and you clearly don't want to be in the home end for this one as from memory they had just moved to the new ground and were selling out. They were also going for the play offs.

Anyway I get a text from Smudger. Sriv has only gone and sorted us two tickets which we collect on the day *(thanks Scriv). So basically that night I tell the GF. She took it ok to be fair so now we need to sort the transport. It pretty much ended the relationship as I broke my promise but hey ho.

As luck would have it, here on SZ a lad from East Sussex way called Simon I believe (hello if you read this) puts a message up on SZ and says I am driving to Swansea if anyone wants picking up on route. We are in. Two places please.

So day of the game, we leave at some ungodly hour from Burgess Hill station. Smudger turns up looking like death. I got in at three am and feel like being sick whilst smelling of kebabs. Going to be a long trip. Both Smudge and I are on it one all the way and I love a good talk so i cannot shut up. The poor driver was a really quiet chap and must have regretted picking us up. We drove all the way to Swansea were we met the SZ lads in some random pub.

The rest as they say is history. I ended up getting back to my flat, quick Italian shower and then back on to the platform. Smudger and I went our separate ways to meet our respective mates, I had a night in Brighton with my mates and ended up with a cracking story that is not repeatable on here now I am a Dad sadly.

Smudger if you read this thank you for forcing me to go to this game. Would not have missed it for the world. x

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Dessert Shimper

Has he put on weight?

 

[DTS]

Has he put on weight?

Haha......:winking:

 

[londonblue]

I nearly missed that game as well. I had no intention of going, and didn't have a ticket. My wife and I didn't have kids at the time, and my wife had been telling me all week she didn't mind me going.

Anyway, on the Friday someone on SZ advertised that they had a spare ticket. I PM'd the person and ended up agreeing to meet someone at Paddington station to buy the ticket. I then needed to buy a train ticket from Paddington, which I did.

It all worked out very well, and my wife even picked me up from Paddington on the way home, which was a godsend.

I must also give an honourable mention to Reading away in about 1990/91 at their old ground. I was a student, and living in Mile End at the time. A friend of mine was going to the match, and asked me if I wanted to go. He was driving from Southend and agreed to pick me up on the way.

The problem was this friend was simply never on time for anything. He didn't turn up at mine until about 1.30 pm. We had to get all the way across London and to Reading in 90 minutes. Needless to say we didn't make it, and were on the verge of giving up and going home. In the end we carried on and parked the car in a cul-de-sac about 15 minutes after kick off, but didn't know the way to the ground. We ended up running through some blokes back garden (there was no fence and we were convinced the house was derelict). There was a guy in his kicten and you should have seen his face when he saw us run past his door.)

We got in the ground about 20 mins late, just in time to see us score. IIRC we won that match 4-2, and we saw all the goals.

 

[manor15]

Not on the same scale as the above, but Exeter away at the tail end of last season.

Trains meant that getting to the game was a real challenge after several delays and cancellations but eventually made it, only to realise that I should have missed the first 92 minutes which were the usual dross we drag out when playing for a point away from home under Brown. Everyone around us was dropping points at the time and our performance was uninspired to say the least, and then Myles Weston was brought on to save the day.

The Michael Timlin goal and the remaining minute after that made it so worthwhile. Most wildly celebrated goal I'd seen in a long time and meant we left feeling that we really could get promoted. Payne and Weston were superb in the build up and we snatched a vital three points right at the death.

 

[Smudger]

Mine was Swansea away when we drew 2-2 and won promotion.

So basically I was seeing my on/off girlfriend of the time for about the sixth attempt and her main gripe was that I was never around on Saturdays so I decided I was going to start missing aways. Missing aways these days is pretty easy for me as the football is never that good under Phil brown but this was the Freddy / Gower/ Tilson era and you really wanted to go every game.

I was living on my own at the time and despite having a girlfriend I was still really living as a single man (especially on a night out). As well as having loads of mates locally I was lucky enough to have fellow Shrimper and SZ poster Smudger / Bloke in the Pram shop / Dessert Shimper as a good mate who lived close to me and I could often go for a beer with in Brighton. Smudger and I shared at the time two loves which was SUFC and Women so it was a marriage made in heaven although those of you that know him know he goes at it on a night out like no other person I have ever known so he is dangerous.

The Monday before the game I get a text. Smudger has a pass for the game so he text me and said are you coming. The GF at the time of course is in no mood to give passes. The more Smudger texts me the more I realise I cannot miss this game. I have been supporting Southend since I was six and I have never missed a vital game as an adult so i cannot start now. We need a win for promotion.

Of course we don't have match tickets which has sold out and we don't have transport so I said to him "you sort the tickets and I will go" thinking we will never get tickets and you clearly don't want to be in the home end for this one as from memory they had just moved to the new ground and were selling out. They were also going for the play offs.

Anyway I get a text from Smudger. Sriv has only gone and sorted us two tickets which we collect on the day *(thanks Scriv). So basically that night I tell the GF. She took it ok to be fair so now we need to sort the transport. It pretty much ended the relationship as I broke my promise but hey ho.

As luck would have it, here on SZ a lad from East Sussex way called Simon I believe (hello if you read this) puts a message up on SZ and says I am driving to Swansea if anyone wants picking up on route. We are in. Two places please.

So day of the game, we leave at some ungodly hour from Burgess Hill station. Smudger turns up looking like death. I got in at three am and feel like being sick whilst smelling of kebabs. Going to be a long trip. Both Smudge and I are on it one all the way and I love a good talk so i cannot shut up. The poor driver was a really quiet chap and must have regretted picking us up. We drove all the way to Swansea were we met the SZ lads in some random pub.

The rest as they say is history. I ended up getting back to my flat, quick Italian shower and then back on to the platform. Smudger and I went our separate ways to meet our respective mates, I had a night in Brighton with my mates and ended up with a cracking story that is not repeatable on here now I am a Dad sadly.

Smudger if you read this thank you for forcing me to go to this game. Would not have missed it for the world. x

Great read mate and great memories. I wonder what happened to Simon? I never saw him again despite him being a big part of making the day happen. He was a very quiet, thoughtful bloke and I seem to recall you showing him some homemade videos on your phone that completely blew his mind. If your missus at the time had ever got hold of that phone....more incriminating evidence than Wikileaks. I hope there are a few more away days like that left in the tank, there is a magic to them that is hard to beat.

 

[tommy tucker]

Allmost missed Portsmouth away last season got in the car set of for the watermill to catch the coach .Got down to the Chelmsford turn off for the 120 It was then I twigged that my ticket was still sitting on the dinning table .I had 40 mins to get back home 15 miles pick up my ticket get back out of Witham and on a sat isn't easy .And get back to the watermill .Don't know how I did it but made the bus stop with 10 mins to spare . Thank got the boys in blue where on my side for once .

 

[Bromley Blue]

Mine was Swansea away when we drew 2-2 and won promotion.

So basically I was seeing my on/off girlfriend of the time for about the sixth attempt and her main gripe was that I was never around on Saturdays so I decided I was going to start missing aways. Missing aways these days is pretty easy for me as the football is never that good under Phil brown but this was the Freddy / Gower/ Tilson era and you really wanted to go every game.

I was living on my own at the time and despite having a girlfriend I was still really living as a single man (especially on a night out). As well as having loads of mates locally I was lucky enough to have fellow Shrimper and SZ poster Smudger / Bloke in the Pram shop / Dessert Shimper as a good mate who lived close to me and I could often go for a beer with in Brighton. Smudger and I shared at the time two loves which was SUFC and Women so it was a marriage made in heaven although those of you that know him know he goes at it on a night out like no other person I have ever known so he is dangerous.

The Monday before the game I get a text. Smudger has a pass for the game so he text me and said are you coming. The GF at the time of course is in no mood to give passes. The more Smudger texts me the more I realise I cannot miss this game. I have been supporting Southend since I was six and I have never missed a vital game as an adult so i cannot start now. We need a win for promotion.

Of course we don't have match tickets which has sold out and we don't have transport so I said to him "you sort the tickets and I will go" thinking we will never get tickets and you clearly don't want to be in the home end for this one as from memory they had just moved to the new ground and were selling out. They were also going for the play offs.

Anyway I get a text from Smudger. Sriv has only gone and sorted us two tickets which we collect on the day *(thanks Scriv). So basically that night I tell the GF. She took it ok to be fair so now we need to sort the transport. It pretty much ended the relationship as I broke my promise but hey ho.

As luck would have it, here on SZ a lad from East Sussex way called Simon I believe (hello if you read this) puts a message up on SZ and says I am driving to Swansea if anyone wants picking up on route. We are in. Two places please.

So day of the game, we leave at some ungodly hour from Burgess Hill station. Smudger turns up looking like death. I got in at three am and feel like being sick whilst smelling of kebabs. Going to be a long trip. Both Smudge and I are on it one all the way and I love a good talk so i cannot shut up. The poor driver was a really quiet chap and must have regretted picking us up. We drove all the way to Swansea were we met the SZ lads in some random pub.

The rest as they say is history. I ended up getting back to my flat, quick Italian shower and then back on to the platform. Smudger and I went our separate ways to meet our respective mates, I had a night in Brighton with my mates and ended up with a cracking story that is not repeatable on here now I am a Dad sadly.

Smudger if you read this thank you for forcing me to go to this game. Would not have missed it for the world. x

I have quite a similar story for that game. I wasn't going to go as I was at uni in Bournemouth at the time and money was tight. Then I saw a post on Shrimperzone from Wessex Blue saying he was driving up from Bournemouth and did anyone from the Dorset or Hampshire area want to jump in and split the petrol. I sent him a PM and said I was up for it.

Like DtS I didn't have a ticket but True Blue saved the day with this, posting up that he had a spare which I bought off him at the turnstile at face value, a true gent.

I missed the promotion at Cardiff the year before and missed that magical Duncan Jupp moment, the biggest regret of my SUFC supporting life. So to be there to see Freddy score twice, in what really was a cracking game of football meant a lot to me. Unfortunately we all witnessed Luke Guttridge dancing around in his Y-fronts but I guess you can't have it all!

 

[Angell Delight]

I nearly missed that game as well. I had no intention of going, and didn't have a ticket. My wife and I didn't have kids at the time, and my wife had been telling me all week she didn't mind me going.

Anyway, on the Friday someone on SZ advertised that they had a spare ticket. I PM'd the person and ended up agreeing to meet someone at Paddington station to buy the ticket. I then needed to buy a train ticket from Paddington, which I did.

It all worked out very well, and my wife even picked me up from Paddington on the way home, which was a godsend.

I must also give an honourable mention to Reading away in about 1990/91 at their old ground. I was a student, and living in Mile End at the time. A friend of mine was going to the match, and asked me if I wanted to go. He was driving from Southend and agreed to pick me up on the way.

The problem was this friend was simply never on time for anything. He didn't turn up at mine until about 1.30 pm. We had to get all the way across London and to Reading in 90 minutes. Needless to say we didn't make it, and were on the verge of giving up and going home. In the end we carried on and parked the car in a cul-de-sac about 15 minutes after kick off, but didn't know the way to the ground. We ended up running through some blokes back garden (there was no fence and we were convinced the house was derelict). There was a guy in his kicten and you should have seen his face when he saw us run past his door.)

We got in the ground about 20 mins late, just in time to see us score. IIRC we won that match 4-2, and we saw all the goals.

My Dad took me to that one, I would have been about 10. I'm the kid in a black coat running down the front of the stand when we scored our second half goals on the official club season video. Takes me back! :thumbsup: