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THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK

Life President⭐⭐
Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
14,795
Location
SHOEBURY
I was at the game last night in the East Stand and was privalaged to meet three people in the bar from Rotterdam Holland. They flew into Southend airport from Amsterdam. It was an older gentleman aged about 60, his daughter and her husband. They came to watch Southend for the second time this year. They actually support Feyenoord, but absolutely love the faster paced thunder and guts football of the English game. They don't like the money side of English Premiership clubs, so prefer our lower Leagues. Their football can be very boring he said as it's a slow passing game. If a team goes 1-0 up they then play keep ball in their own half and are very good at it. Unlike here where we put immense pressure and closing down until we get the ball back he said. He said our players show much more fight and effort, and it makes for a more exciting game. It's the football he loves. My friend introduced them to Brian Dear, who showed them pictures of him with the likes of Bobby Moore, and the Cup Winners Cup they won in 1965, in which Brian had a goal disallowed. They ended being taken to the railway pub by my friend where they talked for a couple more hours. The daughter told my friend that her father was overwhelmed by all the help and friendliness of Southend fans, and the icing on the cake was meeting Brian Dear, where they of course got lots of selfies with Brian. He was a former docker in Rotterdam, so probably a hard man in his time, but you could see he was over the moon with his trip to Southend last night. They will be coming back for sure. I know over the years that many others in small groups have come over to watch Southend.
When in the Shrimpers bar, another fan said he had seen about 12 Germans that had also come over to watch our match. I know it's much easier now with Southend airport being so close to our ground, but until last night I didn't quite get why all these football fans would come from Europe to watch a team like Southend. Now I get it. They love the atmosphere, they like the smaller tighter grounds, they love the never say die attitude of our players. It's a style of football they long for but are not getting in their country. Long may it continue that they keep coming to watch Southend.
If you see or hear any in the pub or a Roots Hall bar, speak to them. They all speak English and are extremely friendly.
 
Didn't we have a load of juventus fans a while back.

Great to see. The more the merrier English or European.
 
A couple of years ago before Bury on a Friday night match I met a couple of lads who had come from Amsterdam (Ajax fans) watching us on Friday night and going to London on the Saturday for a match. They headed to the club shop and I saw them later in the ground in the west singing along with the Blue Voice wearing their newly acquired gear.
 
Bloody foreign supporters coming over here nicking our supporters jobs..........................
 
If they came over to enjoy the passion and directness of lower league football they must have really enjoyed the last 20 mins.

The way players from both sides dropped to their knees at the final whistle, having given everything attacking or defending, was certainly a great advert for the English game and the teams involved.
 
If they came over to enjoy the passion and directness of lower league football they must have really enjoyed the last 20 mins.

The way players from both sides dropped to their knees at the final whistle, having given everything attacking or defending, was certainly a great advert for the English game and the teams involved.

Yes, he mentioned that. They were cheering Southend on to score and couldn't believe the way Swindon threw their bodies in front of all those shots.
 
I remember being at a game a few years back when they opened the North Bank to us, and heard there were two AC Milan supporters that'd come to watch us play. [It could've been Juventus]

What a great effort though, for a midweek game in the middle of November.
 
I remember being at a game a few years back when they opened the North Bank to us, and heard there were two AC Milan supporters that'd come to watch us play. [It could've been Juventus]

What a great effort though, for a midweek game in the middle of November.
Not sure if we are thinking of the same guys but I seem to recall a group of fans from a big European team coming down and then travelling to the Nou Camp to play Barcelona in the latter stages of the Champions Keague a few weeks later and took a Southend flag with them.
 
A few years back I had a couple of Italian mates over. The Juve supporter saw the Man U cup game and the Roma supporter saw the Southampton league game (2-2 draw?).
Both loved the atmosphere and games which they thought was so much more than the stuff they watched at their homes.
Strangely both have now become lapsed Juve/Roma fans despite both sides being "better" now than then.
 
The ones in the north bank were AC Milan fans. It was the game against Crawley when we had nine men (Barker sent off for hand ball and Dickinson going off injured, breaking his leg if I recall). They were going to watch AC vs the Gooners the following day. They were brilliant, joining in with all the chants, it was great.
I went to Berlin in May and watched Hertha Berlin play (the best atmosphere I've experienced by the way) and the fans were so welcoming and grateful that we had gone there. We were singing throughout with them and they were so happy that we fully embraced the game. They said your welcome anytime.
The experience that the overseas fans that attended Roots Hall and the experience I had shows that fans are actually really respectful and imcombussing to other fans.

Do we see that in the press, absolutely not. Only the negatives.
Football and it's fans aren't all bad Mr Murdoch!
 
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The AC Milan fans also flew over for the Crewe match at Wembley. The came over just for this match and I think they had a flight back about midnight. They were drinking at Baker Street before the match, singing anti Col U songs (in Italian) on the tube and drinking again with us after the match in the Baker Street area when we could find a pub ipen
 
The club should capitalise on things like this by giving such events a little publicity eg in the programme, website etc. OK they might not get advance notice of such folk coming along but if they are told as it happens it does not take much wit to quickly get a mobile phone camera out and write up a few words. Its all good publicity and should be easy too.

As an aside, in connection with my book (not sure if I've mentioned that before :unsure:) I'm catching up with a guy who is doing the 92 from the USA and coming over to add six grounds to his list over the Xmas hols. He has no UK affiliation other than he just loves the game. Sadly he will not be coming to Roots this time, i will be meeting him and his Dad in Ips hite before a game there. I suspect that our UK stadia are visited by overseas traveling folk more often than we might think.
 
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