TV Highlights Southend United v Bristol Rovers - 1952

[Pak Power]

I was 4 so probably not there but bet my late Dad was. Albert Wakefield did plumbing I think in his time off and worked with my Dad.
No chavs in site and sadly no wooden rattles. They should bring them back, great noise and good fun for kids.
Happy days.:smile:

and rosettes, they should bring those back too! I remember Jimmy Mcalinden ansd Jack French, and was fortunate enough to go to games at the Greyhound stadium.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

I put this on the 'Old Photo's Of Southend' thread. Still great to see it again tho.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

As per TSNB's comment above, the link to this match has been posted on here a couple of times before. But if it gets new people looking at it then its a good thing. When these clips were first released about 4 years ago I was hopeful that more would appear. But sadly apart from the few on there, no more have been added.

Great video, why is it with all these old clips of Southend matches, there are always big crowds. Maybe not so much to do in those days but there would of still been the London teams!! Except for dying where did the big fanbase go!

Our actual league average crowd that season (1951/2) was about 10,000 so not as high as you might think, but of course the population of Southend was probably half what it is now. But the FA cup crowds at home that season were very good
1st round v Bournemouth (6-1) 12,581
2nd round v Oldham (5-0) 13,000
3rd round v Southampton (3-0) 18,920
4th round v Bristol Rovers (2-1) 22,429
5th round v Sheffield United (1-2) 21,887

Over 88,817 people for 5 games and you can bet there were actually more people in the crowd than the 'official' attendance.
Just compare that to the 1984/5 season when we didn't even get half that amount attending all 23 home league matches.

Just shows you what the FA Cup meant back then, its a pity quite a few people now see it as an inconvenience.

EDIT... The population of Southend in the 1950's was about 140,000 much higher than I first thought.

 

[southchurch]

old news.


http://www.shrimperzone.com/vb/show...e-shouln-t-be-a-problem&p=1733880#post1733880

 

[AndyT]

Great post, UTS.

I guess the effects of the post-war boom were still happening, but even so, that's a huge crowd for the 4th and 5th Round matches.

How great would it be to have 22,000 crowds again or at least a capacity in the new stadium.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I put this on the 'Old Photo's Of Southend' thread. Still great to see it again tho.

Ah, didn't realise that. Thunder stealing totally unintentional!

 

[AndyT]

I wouldn't worry about it.

There's over 1,000,000 posts on here, so stuff is bound to get posted more than once.

FWIW, I hadn't seen it before and it's been great to see it. :thumbsup:

 

[DistantBlue]

A brilliant bit of footage thank you for putting it up.
Just out of interest Southend's Right Winger (No 7)Joe Sibley was my football teacher for 10 years in the 1960s
He told us categorically never to react when fouled by the opposition. We tried our level best to follow his mantra (not always succeeding !)
However about 1min 25sec into the film we see Bristol's wing half have a good nibble at Joe sending him sprawling and what happens next but Joe (mild-mannered man himself) goes chasing him to have a pop back!
He was always my hero but he's even more my hero now - ''don't do as I do - do as I say '' seems to be the call.

 

[AndyT]

I'm sure when I was a Prudential Rep in the 1980's that Joe was a client of mine.

If he lived around the back-roads of Bournemouth Park Road/Branksome Road area then I think it was him.

The fella in question certainly used to play for Southend, as I remember chatting about old times.

 

[DistantBlue]

Joe lived in Lyme Road so I think you're probably spot on
Genuine nice man and incidentally the best crosser of a football you could ever wish to see

 

[AndyT]

That's it, that's exactly it - Lyme Road.

Just looked it up and it's the road I thought it was, linking Branksome Road with South Avenue.

Yep, lovely fella. Always enjoyed our doorstep chats.

A genuinely humble man, as well.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I had forgotten just how physical the game was in those days, including the trainer picking up an injured player in his arms, staggering to the goal line and then just dropping him, priceless. I was just one year old when that match was played, scary.

Ha! We were born in the same year.Roll on retirement (in my case).

 

[Floval Flyer]

Not seen that before, thanks for posting it

football was was so different back in those days, lot more physical - Deegan would have loved it !

not sure if they have grounds men - looks like it was played in the trenches...

 

[Uncle Leo]

Deegan would have loved it !

You say that, but the shorts were rather long.