Heading to Wembley - Southend United
(Image: Matt Wilkinson)
By Chris Phillips. Chief sports reporter.
SOUTHEND United’s trip to Wembley is just days away and Shrimpers from across the world are making their way to London.
No flight is too long, or too expensive, for these diehard fans who are preparing to watch their team go head-to-head with Oldham Athletic in the hope of watching the side secure a return to League Two.
Tickets may have been hard to come by, but more than 25,000 fans will be backing the Blues at Wembley on Sunday, including these seven who are making a longer journey than most.
NAME: Andrew Urry
AGE: 51
FLYING IN FROM: Brisbane, Australia.
TRAVEL TIME - 22 hour flight
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEE BLUES PLAY AT WEMBLEY?
Everything. I have never seen us play at Wembley before as the last two times I had young kids and it wasn’t an option to come back so this is my first opportunity.
As much as I love living here, apart from people the one thing I miss is Southend United. Trips home are planned around games and I stay up till gone 3am to watch weekend games and up at 4:30 to watch midweek ones. That love for the club and what it means to the community has only grown stronger after what we’ve been through and nearly lost it.
For me it’s not about 11 men (or women) kicking a ball around. It’s my second family. I’ll be attending the game with my uncle who took me to my first ever match and other members of my family and meeting up with all the members of my Southend United family on the day. I can’t wait.
Andrew Urry
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS)
NAME:
Chris Bennett
AGE: 50
FLYING IN FROM: Christchurch, New Zealand
FLIGHT TIME: 38 hours
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEE BLUES PLAY AT WEMBLEY?
I’m flying more than 11,000 miles from Christchurch, New Zealand to London – three long-haul flights and around 38 hours in the air. It’s a long way to go for 90 minutes of football, but when it’s your club, your history, and your heart on the line – distance means nothing.
As kids, we all imagined ourselves at Wembley – scoring the winner in the cup final, pretending the garden fence was the top corner of the net. The dream of playing there didn’t come true, but seeing the team I’ve supported my whole life walk out on that pitch… that’s a close second.
I grew up with Southend United. From standing on the terraces at Roots Hall in the cold and rain, watching gritty games with a few thousand loyal fans, to travelling up and down the country with a few hundred die-hards – it’s been a journey of highs, lows, and everything in between.
Nothing compares to the rollercoaster of recent years.
Chris Bennett
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS)
NAME: Geoff Finlayson
AGE: 62
FLYING IN FROM: Dubai
TRAVEL TIME: Seven hour flight
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEE BLUES PLAY AT WEMBLEY?
I’m flying over with my son to visit my father, who is 91-years-old and lives in Billericay.
The three of us used to go to matches together all the time before I moved away back in 2009.
I have never been to new Wembley but remember the excitement of going to Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium for the 2005 League Two play-off final to see the Shrimpers beat Lincoln in extra-time after the disappointment of the match at Grimsby Town where we missed out on automatic promotion, which we also attended.
My dad didn’t go to Cardiff so this will be his first time watching a play-off final.
Geoff Finlayson
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS)
Name: Ian Graham Leask
Age: 73
Flying in from: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Travel time: Eight hours flight
What will it mean to see Blues play at Wembley?
My last visit to Wembley with Blues was the cup final loss to Crewe. I couldn’t attend the play-off triumph against Wycombe. I was home in the UK recently and attended the Gateshead game, which warmed my heart. I had to return to the States for work and of course watched from afar, dreaming the impossible, as we pushed through against Rochdale and Forest Green. Despite the absurd last-minute cost, I can’t resist this opportunity to witness the team I’ve supported exclusively since that first game against Barnsley, August 1963, wiggle their way back into the EFL. If they lose, so be it, but at least reaching the play-off final is a massive statement from the consortium, Maher and the players after the heartbreaking fiasco of the last few years.
Just to experience solidarity with my amazing fellow Southenders will make the effort worthwhile. The fans are the heartbeat of SUFC. Please remind them to not go quiet, as they tend to do at finals – make noise all the way to the end no matter what - never give up. Throats will heal.
Ian Graham Leask
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS)
NAME: Paul & Daniel Rowling
AGES: 58 and seven
FLYING IN FROM: Bratislava, Slovakia
FLIGHT TIME: 2 hours
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEE BLUES PLAY AT WEMBLEY?
I want my son to begin to appreciate and understand the connection that the football club has with the city of Southend and its supporters.
I also want him to recognise and remember an event that shows that Southend United Football Club can also play on the big stage, just like the big teams that he sees on TV playing at Wembley.
Finally, as his father to see him walk out at Wembley with my football team as a mascot, which is also the football team of the many fellow Shrimpers friends that I have made over the 40-plus years of following them, will make me a very proud dad.
Following them from central Europe for nearly 25 years has been difficult.
I’m hoping my son will continue my legacy.
Paul & Daniel Rowling
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS)
NAME: Tony Smith
AGE: 58
FLYING IN FROM: Hong Kong
FLIGHT TIME: 14 hours
WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO SEE BLUES AT WEMBLEY?
After the rollercoaster of the last few years and the rollercoaster of this season, getting to Wembley is beyond extraordinary.
I’ve seen us promoted at Stockport, Peterborough, Bury, Cardiff at Millennium Stadium, Swansea and Wembley.
Hopefully it’s going to be another Wembley win but a grown man will shed a tear whatever happens.
Tony Smith
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS
)NAME: Alan Goodwin
AGE: 64
TRAVELLING FROM: Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
TRAVEL TIME: 24 hours
WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO YOU TO SEE SOUTHEND AT WEMBLEY:
My first Blues game was Huddersfield at home in 1975, and I’ve seen most of the highs and most of the lows in the 50 years since then.
None was lower for me than my last game before I left the UK – the away defeat at Aldershot in November 2022 – as it wasn’t clear that there would even be a club to come back to see. I knew that could have been it for me.
Having watched those remarkable performances, and the incredible support too, at Rochdale and FGR on a small screen in New Zealand, and given what this ownership group, management team and the players have done since I left, not being at Wembley wasn’t really an option for me.
Alan Goodwin
(Image: CHRIS PHILLIPS)
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