DoDTS
The PL League Boss⭐⭐
Life as a Shrimper PART TWO 1976 to 1997
This is the second short review of PART Two of the newly published Book “My life as a Shrimper” The story of my personal journey supporting Southend United.
So I had moved to Leicester married and had two children, and all this time in the wilderness I had little involvement with Southend United. The World Cup of 1986 changed things, my 7 year old son lived and breathed football during this tournament and he was ready to watch football. He did his apprentership starting watching local senior league, then league football until he was ready to watch the mighty Blues.
1987/8 the glorious “Dick Bate” era of football and his first introduction to SUFC was a 6-2 defeat at Notts County. That I thought would be that but no he kept coming back for more. The following season 1988/89 wearing “Firholm” shirts we were both keen to see more matches, it was a difficult time for me as I separated from my wife, also for the Shrimpers who were sadly relegated to Division 4.
1989/90 was greatly improved, I got divorced and had a party or two to celebrate, the Blues playing in places such as Scarborough and Maidstone, went on to gain promotion at Peterborough on the last day, virtually condemning Col Ewe to the conference a couple of weeks earlier.
1990/91 Saw us again playing with style and flourish with impressive wins at Reading 4-2 and Fulham 3-0 we went on to the historic day at Bury when we finally won promotion to the second level of football.
1991/92 Our first away game in Division 2 at Derby resulted in a win and we got better and better reaching top spot for a few hours on News Day. I got married again this must have incensed David Webb as he announced he was going to leave at the end of the season, we gently dropped down the table finishing 12th.
1992/93 Colin Murphy in charge (allegedly) uninspiring football, but before we played at West Ham we signed a young striker Stan Collymore. It made little difference as we looked doom to relegation, until Murphy was sacked and Barry Fry took over, and our results improved immediately finishing the season 18th.
1993/94 A season when all virtually saw all our away games, we were agin so full of style it was untrue with impressive wins at Millwall 4-1, Barnsley 3-1, Derby 3-1 an Sunderland 2-0. we were 3rd in the league when Bazza broke our hearts and went to Birmingham for 50 pieces of silver. Peter Taylor took over and we finished 15th.
1994/95 Roots Hall was now an all seater with the South stand opened, we reached the dizzy heights of 9th in November but then dropped for the rest of the season. Life was starting to take over for me with a prospective move to Sussex on the cards, and football became a little less important for a while.
1995/96 I had by now moved to Sussex but one of my first away games was back to Leicester where a Julian Hails hat trick gave us a 3-1 win. An uninspiring season finishing 14th.
1996/97 This season was one of great changes, my son 17 was playing regular football,a nd having lost my travelling partner I went into hibernation for a year, a grim year for the club as they were relegate. I felt guilty that I had not been there at their lowest ebb and vowed I would be back on the terraces.
A further review of PART THREE will follow shortly.
This book is a ShrimperZone Production and can be purchased for £11.99 via the Shrimperzone Merchandise Shop or by sending a PM to Cricko or McNasty or seeing them in the Spread on Matchdays.
This is the second short review of PART Two of the newly published Book “My life as a Shrimper” The story of my personal journey supporting Southend United.
So I had moved to Leicester married and had two children, and all this time in the wilderness I had little involvement with Southend United. The World Cup of 1986 changed things, my 7 year old son lived and breathed football during this tournament and he was ready to watch football. He did his apprentership starting watching local senior league, then league football until he was ready to watch the mighty Blues.
1987/8 the glorious “Dick Bate” era of football and his first introduction to SUFC was a 6-2 defeat at Notts County. That I thought would be that but no he kept coming back for more. The following season 1988/89 wearing “Firholm” shirts we were both keen to see more matches, it was a difficult time for me as I separated from my wife, also for the Shrimpers who were sadly relegated to Division 4.
1989/90 was greatly improved, I got divorced and had a party or two to celebrate, the Blues playing in places such as Scarborough and Maidstone, went on to gain promotion at Peterborough on the last day, virtually condemning Col Ewe to the conference a couple of weeks earlier.
1990/91 Saw us again playing with style and flourish with impressive wins at Reading 4-2 and Fulham 3-0 we went on to the historic day at Bury when we finally won promotion to the second level of football.
1991/92 Our first away game in Division 2 at Derby resulted in a win and we got better and better reaching top spot for a few hours on News Day. I got married again this must have incensed David Webb as he announced he was going to leave at the end of the season, we gently dropped down the table finishing 12th.
1992/93 Colin Murphy in charge (allegedly) uninspiring football, but before we played at West Ham we signed a young striker Stan Collymore. It made little difference as we looked doom to relegation, until Murphy was sacked and Barry Fry took over, and our results improved immediately finishing the season 18th.
1993/94 A season when all virtually saw all our away games, we were agin so full of style it was untrue with impressive wins at Millwall 4-1, Barnsley 3-1, Derby 3-1 an Sunderland 2-0. we were 3rd in the league when Bazza broke our hearts and went to Birmingham for 50 pieces of silver. Peter Taylor took over and we finished 15th.
1994/95 Roots Hall was now an all seater with the South stand opened, we reached the dizzy heights of 9th in November but then dropped for the rest of the season. Life was starting to take over for me with a prospective move to Sussex on the cards, and football became a little less important for a while.
1995/96 I had by now moved to Sussex but one of my first away games was back to Leicester where a Julian Hails hat trick gave us a 3-1 win. An uninspiring season finishing 14th.
1996/97 This season was one of great changes, my son 17 was playing regular football,a nd having lost my travelling partner I went into hibernation for a year, a grim year for the club as they were relegate. I felt guilty that I had not been there at their lowest ebb and vowed I would be back on the terraces.
A further review of PART THREE will follow shortly.
This book is a ShrimperZone Production and can be purchased for £11.99 via the Shrimperzone Merchandise Shop or by sending a PM to Cricko or McNasty or seeing them in the Spread on Matchdays.
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