Well, this really is a season of "firsts" for Southend fans, but not in a good way. This Saturday sees our first ever appearance in the FA Trophy, which Wikipedia tells me is "competed for primarily by semi-professional teams". Given the latest rumours (some fully substantiated) of unpaid wages, unpaid taxes, broken showers, broken gym equipment and lack of sufficient medical staff - to describe Southend United as "semi-professional" actually seems quite a generous description!
Anyway, as a "Step 1" non-league club, we're one of the big boys in the competition and this is probably our only chance of making it to Wembley this season.
Our opponents this Saturday, Dorking Wanderers, are the latest in a line of teams we've never played before and never thought we would. They ply their trade one level down from us in the National League South - the same division as Chelmsford City, Braintree Town, Billericay Town (currently the bottom 3 placed teams) and Concord Rangers, and Wanderers are currently in the last play off position having won their last two games.
Dorking have a mix of older ex-league players (e.g. Luke Moore, Barry Fuller) and exciting young players such as forward Alfie Rutherford who scored a hat-trick on Tuesday night in a 4-2 win away at league leaders Oxford City. They also recently signed goalkeeper Dan Lincoln who also plays first-class cricket for Kent! There will be a familiar face in the opposition dugout as Mark Beard, who was sat in there with Stockport earlier this season, is now head of coaching at Dorking Wanderers.
As for blues, there seems to be so much negativity around at the moment, both on and off the field, and last week's away defeat along with the concussion injury to Steve Arnold and Kacper Łopata's return to the Blades to assess his injury have not helped matters.
The fact that no senior or fringe players were involved in the Essex Senior Cup game on Wednesday night would seem to suggest that a strong team will be selected on Saturday afternoon. But who would you select and what do you think the result will be?
Anyway, as a "Step 1" non-league club, we're one of the big boys in the competition and this is probably our only chance of making it to Wembley this season.
Our opponents this Saturday, Dorking Wanderers, are the latest in a line of teams we've never played before and never thought we would. They ply their trade one level down from us in the National League South - the same division as Chelmsford City, Braintree Town, Billericay Town (currently the bottom 3 placed teams) and Concord Rangers, and Wanderers are currently in the last play off position having won their last two games.
Dorking have a mix of older ex-league players (e.g. Luke Moore, Barry Fuller) and exciting young players such as forward Alfie Rutherford who scored a hat-trick on Tuesday night in a 4-2 win away at league leaders Oxford City. They also recently signed goalkeeper Dan Lincoln who also plays first-class cricket for Kent! There will be a familiar face in the opposition dugout as Mark Beard, who was sat in there with Stockport earlier this season, is now head of coaching at Dorking Wanderers.
As for blues, there seems to be so much negativity around at the moment, both on and off the field, and last week's away defeat along with the concussion injury to Steve Arnold and Kacper Łopata's return to the Blades to assess his injury have not helped matters.
The fact that no senior or fringe players were involved in the Essex Senior Cup game on Wednesday night would seem to suggest that a strong team will be selected on Saturday afternoon. But who would you select and what do you think the result will be?
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