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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.
 
I should have said that those matches were played at Grainger road stadium.
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.
The Q.P.R. game mentioned was 8/11/67.Guess who's autograph I,ve got over his picture on the front of the(special) programme?
 
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!

Sure do. I used to get mine from my weekly comic The Tiger. Also spent many happy hours @ Cluny Square in my Southend United kit, kicking a ball around.
 
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"

Dave, even sadder these days, I am simply unable to get my leg over. :smile:
 
Hearing the result on the radio was so much more exciting IMO.
Or the 'teleprinter' , now that was tense , especially sometimes if it paused for a bit.
Also remember if there was a mid week match , then no way of finding out the result until getting a paper the next morning.
 
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
 
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 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.
 
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

I remember playing Hull (I think) on a Friday Night, we couldn't go so went to the Shrimpers Club in the home of finding out the result, we also took the Hull City phone number, after the match we desperately tried to ring the number but no one answered it wasn't given out on the news either so as you say Ozzie we had to wait for the papers Saturday morning.
 
Ican rember paying 1 shilling and 6d to get in also watching southend slaughter Workington town 7-0 .Someone painted the score on warners bridge in large letters .oh those were the days :blush:
 
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.

There are limits to what you can remember and I think I've reached mine. Stressful working weekend coming up. When that's over I may delve into my old programme collection, which could help me out with things old and wonderful.
 
Seeing DoDTS saying he tried to ring Hull it remined me of a Friday night game in the early 80s away at Torquay. Around full time I rang Torquay for the score. The lady at the other end said Torquay 0 Southend 2 . I shouted to my mate "we're winning !!" The voice at the other end of the phone then said " no sir we are losing"
 
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???
 
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.

If I remember right .... tony Bentley pen ..1-1
 
I remember my dad shouting at all of us to be quiet as the footie results were coming up on the radio. Woe betide any of us who even breathed during the results! Also vivid memory of Len Duquenim (there's a blast from the past) scoring 4 goals for Spurs reserves in the early Roots Hall days. Think we lot 7-1. Massive crowd as I recall. Happy days! COYBB
 
As Ozzie says, they often read midweek results out at the end of News at Ten. The worst for me was in 1984. We had a home game against Plymouth Argyle which we needed to win to keep our slim hopes of avoiding relegation alive. We had a final game at Wigan Athletic (errr current FA Cup holders?) on the Saturday and we were all going to Lancs and hopefully with something to play for.
Well, we drew 1-1 at Roots Hall and were relegated as a result of other results that evening.

I did not go for a beer after - I was gutted. I went to my then girlfriends' parents house as arranged. They, like most, mocked my support of The Shrimpers and so I kept quiet about my loss.
News at Ten was just finishing as I tried to make jovial conversation. Then it happened. "Tonights football results...Southend United 1 Plymouth Argyle 1. "Not too bad" said a voice in the room. And then the news reader just had top continue "AND THAT RESULT MEANS THAT SOUTHEND UNITED ARE RELEGATED"!! Bollocks!
 
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.
 
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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.

I have a vague memory of the London Road Office but don't think I ever went there. Windermere Road was I beleive the first building owned by a Football club away from their ground. It was a sports and social club where supporters could enjoy snooker etc. As a kid going to Southchurch I used to pass it every day. I think it may have been called Sea View Road at one time but not sure, but it was the road running parallel to Southchurch Road between Chase Road and Southchurch Avenue, I nhave some information on it tucked away somewhere if any ones interested.
 
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.
 
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.

Yeah I remember the one in London Road and the one by the Priory Park trafficlights
:cricko:
 
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