RobM
55 years as a supporter!⭐
oBL, I remember the trolley. In fact a wayward shot at goal hit it once. Mars bars everywhere! Never seen so many kids stuff their pockets so quickly.
Just to put the record straight-having moved into Roots Hall in 1955 we played v Spurs and Arsenal Res. for 3 seasons till the Football Combination was divided into 2 divisions.Even then(1958-9),we gained promotion to the top sphere for another season when we beat Bournemouth 4-1 in front of over 4,000 with McCrory,Hollis and other first-teamers in the side.The "first-team" lost 1-6 at Brentford.I should have said that those matches were played at Grainger road stadium.
Later do you remember those ladders they used to give away with comics where you would slot all the teams in their league positions, each team in their club colours!
A couple of the early highlights for me when I first went to Roots Hall (1962) was the half-time scores when one of the ground staff would hang the big metal plates on the inside wall at both ends of the ground with the numbers on. This practice was phased out in case supporters threw them at each other. Also remember people walking round the pitch with a blanket for the fans to throw money into, although a lot of people use to throw the money at the people carrying the blanket. Finally at the end of the home matches in my younger days we would always invade the pitch to back slap our favourite players, These days it is a criminal offence(trespass). Sadly these days I would be unable to get my leg up over the perimeter without putting my back out. "Happy Days"
The following are the matches against Norwich City at Roots Hall in the 50's, Sat.20/8/55.won 3-1(17,700).,Sat.25/8/56.drew 0-0(12,500).,Wed.28/8/57.won 5-2(13,911).,Sat.30/8/58.won1-0(15,661).,Mon.5/10/59.won 1-0(16,568). Hope this information helps or maybe confuses you even more, I just call it getting old.Thanks very much for that.........senility is still a little way away! :smile: I reckon it was 5-2 match I saw the end of and it fits in with a night game. The friendly was probably after I had left college and anyway, wasn't in term time. Nor can I believe that there would have been a crowded stadium (15000?) for a friendly match. The only thing that remains a mystery, is why, at eleven years of age and living in Thorpe Bay at the time, would I have turned up for the end of an evening match???..........strange! Perhaps it was in 1965 after all! God knows
the mid week away matches(even friday away games), the result was often put on tv ,at the end(last few minutes), of news at ten..when we played,i was allowed to stay up till then(schooldays), to see the result......when i use to stay round my nans, (nutty nan,to all my mates),just before the result would come up, she would walk to the tv,put both hands on it,and say "come on southend,come on southend, you will win".. when the result came up,we normally lost:blush:.but she did try for us.xx
The following are the matches against Norwich City at Roots Hall in the 50's, Sat.20/8/55.won 3-1(17,700).,Sat.25/8/56.drew 0-0(12,500).,Wed.28/8/57.won 5-2(13,911).,Sat.30/8/58.won1-0(15,661).,Mon.5/10/59.won 1-0(16,568). Hope this information helps or maybe confuses you even more, I just call it getting old.
If it was the old boy who wore his SUFC hat and also his WHU cap when their half time score came through, he was called Horace Harris.
I used to go to some of the Reserve games, and one i remember was against QPR in 1969 (i think). Unbeknown to me, it was Rodney Marsh's comeback game after a lengthy injury spell.
There was a crowd of over 2,000, 2/3rds of them Rangers fans who had come to see their 'idol' on his return. All game the chant of 'Roddd-neeee' sounded from the North Bank. Needless to say, he scored and they won 1-0.
I don't know whether this has been mentioned before but who remembers the old supporters club office, a terraced building in the London Road?. You had to go up a flight of rickety stairs when you wanted to buy tickets or other items. Was it where Sainsbury's are now? IIRC wasn't there a barbers shop on the ground floor???
Does NO ONE remember this...........I'm suddenly starting to feel VERY old...........Cricko, if you're still there, help me out! i assure you it did exist, I'm not going doolally...........and what's more I have proof (third paragraph)
http://www.shrimperstrust.co.uk/printed.asp?page_id=239
I don't know abouit the one in Windermere Road.......don't even know where that is but the name rings a bell. I must have gone to the London Road to get tickets for our First Round Cup game against Colchester in 1956 (My first away game, which I travelled to on my own, at just ten years of age). I went on a special 'excursion' train, out of Southend Victoria, proudly wearing a large blue and white rosette with a silver cup in the middle.
It was the upstairs of a terraced block and was there in the fifties. Was Windermere Road before London Road? I remember the offices moving down to the other side of Victoria Road, near Priory Park, before moving to their present place. Don't remember ever going in there. Most likely because I moved out of Southend as a student around 1970 and have never returned on a permanent basis.