Supporting Southend

[HUTTON]

As a kid growing up I found myself supporting Arsenal. Watching them lift the Cup Winners Cup started this short love affair with a big gun. At this time I had never even heard of Southend United. Even tho my grandad supported them he never spoke of the mighty blues, having supported them since before the war.

Going through primary school everyone supported Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham. You supported one of the premiershite team, it seemed the norm at the time. You never saw a teams shirt from outside the top league and with television coverage seem hell bent on making the top flight the only league in England.

Finishing primary school and moving on secondary school opened a new horizon of my football knowledge. With new friends I found that quite a few of them supported lower league teams. One team in particular Orient. The Orient fan became my best mate at school and to today is still one of my best mates.

I admit to starting to following Orient*, but never felt at home in East London (thank god). I felt like I did not belong there. Then one evening in 2003 I was talking to my Grandad about going to see Orient, and he storms out the room. Eventually he comes back in and hands me a ticket Southend United Vs Bury Saturday 30th August.

I had mixed emotions about this game. My grandad telling me never to mention Orient in the home end. I'd never experienced football rivarly properly , so didn't fully understand.

The day arrives and I walk into Roots Hall, the East Stand somewhere in the yellows. WOW!! I thought this staduim as 4 stands and a double tier one at that. I was young :p

I didn't rely take much interest the game but remember Constantine scoring right near the end and becoming my first Southend hero. Walking out at full time, something felt different. My Grandad with a huge smile on his face, loads of people pleased with the result. I felt at home. I thought this could be my second team (yes I still supported Arsenal at the time).

But only a day after this game my world was turned upside down. My Grandad became seriously ill and died about a week later. I didn't want to do anything that reminded me of him, and that meant never seeing Southend again.

I finished secondary school and went onto college in Southend. With new friends I met a Southend fan. I was asked to come to the Southend Vs Swindon LDV game. At first I thought no, I didn't want the memories come flooding back. But it was my nan who persauded me to attend. A 2-0 win and I thought maybe just maybe. I then attended the 2-2 Bristol Rovers LDV Final. Walking out I had the same feeling I had when walking out with my Grandad. I felt at home, but this time my thoughts were. Southend United are my team. I attend a few more games that season the LDV Final and the away game at Grimsby.

I haven't looked back since

Now walking down the street and seeing kids in wearing Southend shirts, kinda brings a tear to my eye. Knowing this is the future of my beloved Southend.

I will always be Southend and I am Southend till I die

UP THE BLUES

* I HATE ORIENT WITH A PASSION :flamer:

 

[A Century United]

Great story!

:clap:

 

[leeblue]

my dad took me to roots hall when I was four, end of.........hope you scrubbed yourself after the orient stuff

 

[McNasty]

Good post Scott.

My dad took me when I was young and it was SUFC for life from then on.

 

[SUFCLiam]

had no choice, thankfully.

been going home and away practically since birth with my dad, blueblood, shrimptank et al.

 

[Ozzer]

As a kid growing up I found myself supporting Arsenal. Watching them lift the Cup Winners Cup started this short love affair with a big gun. At this time I had never even heard of Southend United. Even tho my grandad supported them he never spoke of the mighty blues, having supported them since before the war.

Going through primary school everyone supported Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham. You supported one of the premiershite team, it seemed the norm at the time. You never saw a teams shirt from outside the top league and with television coverage seem hell bent on making the top flight the only league in England.

Finishing primary school and moving on secondary school opened a new horizon of my football knowledge. With new friends I found that quite a few of them supported lower league teams. One team in particular Orient. The Orient fan became my best mate at school and to today is still one of my best mates.

I admit to starting to following Orient*, but never felt at home in East London (thank god). I felt like I did not belong there. Then one evening in 2003 I was talking to my Grandad about going to see Orient, and he storms out the room. Eventually he comes back in and hands me a ticket Southend United Vs Bury Saturday 30th August.

I had mixed emotions about this game. My grandad telling me never to mention Orient in the home end. I'd never experienced football rivarly properly , so didn't fully understand.

The day arrives and I walk into Roots Hall, the East Stand somewhere in the yellows. WOW!! I thought this staduim as 4 stands and a double tier one at that. I was young :p

I didn't rely take much interest the game but remember Constantine scoring right near the end and becoming my first Southend hero. Walking out at full time, something felt different. My Grandad with a huge smile on his face, loads of people pleased with the result. I felt at home. I thought this could be my second team (yes I still supported Arsenal at the time).

But only a day after this game my world was turned upside down. My Grandad became seriously ill and died about a week later. I didn't want to do anything that reminded me of him, and that meant never seeing Southend again.

I finished secondary school and went onto college in Southend. With new friends I met a Southend fan. I was asked to come to the Southend Vs Swindon LDV game. At first I thought no, I didn't want the memories come flooding back. But it was my nan who persauded me to attend. A 2-0 win and I thought maybe just maybe. I then attended the 2-2 Bristol Rovers LDV Final. Walking out I had the same feeling I had when walking out with my Grandad. I felt at home, but this time my thoughts were. Southend United are my team. I attend a few more games that season the LDV Final and the away game at Grimsby.

I haven't looked back since

Now walking down the street and seeing kids in wearing Southend shirts, kinda brings a tear to my eye. Knowing this is the future of my beloved Southend.

I will always be Southend and I am Southend till I die

UP THE BLUES

* I HATE ORIENT WITH A PASSION :flamer:

Yes lovely story, especially if you live in Hutton and follow the Blues. Once SUFC gets in your blood the premiership becomes meaningless.

 

[Firestorm]

Great story,

I know exactly what you mean, I too was brought up in that "grey" area , neither close enough to London or Southend (Billericay for me) .
Everyone at School was West ham, Spurs, Chelsea (At the time Arsenal were a mid table side who had not really done a lot, Spurs were still riding high, having won the double and a European competition earlier in the decade and the FA cup in 67 and Wet Spam had Moore , Peters and Hurst) . My Dad liked football but did not take me to a 1st Division game, but my grass roots football thing was started when he was asked to be the Trainer (the Sponge and bucket man) at Woodford Town in the Metropolitan league , So I went to quite a few games before he announced that we were going to watch Southend one Friday, and that was that, hooked.
Replica football shirts were not around back then, I remember the local sports shops stocked plain Red, Blue, White and Green cotton , round necked shirts and had a number of club badges on squares of fabric which you sewed on yourself (or you mum did) and you only wore them to play football in as well.
My Mum said I wasn't allowed white , because "I will never get it clean "so it Chelsea was my first kit (with a stunning pair of yellow toed Bata Bombers !).
By the time I reached Secondary School I wasn't wearing team colours because I couldn't get my team (and we were chopping and changing , somethings never change)

 

[sufcforever]

great story!

i remember my grandad taking me to my first match with my younger cousin on boxing day in 1996. was at home against Charlton. we lost 2-0.

i remember him saying to me that morning...'we're going shopping today'. :liar: of course i knew he was lying as i had been pestering him to take me for ages, and i saw the tickets on the side.

from that day i've never looked back.

 

[Ozzer]

We moved down from Romford and I went with my Dad, uncle who lived in Chalkwell and and another elderly relative. We stood under the floodlights at the North/West corner. Tony Bentley, John McKinven, Derek (Ada) Woodley etc were performing on the pitch. That was 43 years ago and I was hooked. Although the people with me at that time are no longer with us, my two sons also come to Blues matches with their mates so the family connection continues. One life one club.

 

[philtalkin]

I think here will be a lot of us with a similar story.

My Dad supports West Ham, he was brought up close to the ground. My Grandad played for and supported Orient (despite that, he was the nicest guy you could ever meet). He too was born close to their ground.

I was born in Leigh as was my brother and we started watching the Blues from an early age maybe 9 or 10, in the mid 70's.

My kids were brought up locally so from the age of 5 and 7, they have supported the Blues and we have been family season ticket holders for 4 years. They are now 10 and 12, so you can imagine what they have already experienced: 2 promotions including one play off final and the league one title, 2 x LDV finals, one relegation, one play off semi final. 2 trips to Spurs, oh and didn't we beat one of the top premier teams in the Carling Cup a few years back.... (did I miss anything)?

Now if that's not enough to get you hooked then I don't know what is..... I had to do it the hard way!

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

had no choice, thankfully.

been going home and away practically since birth with my dad, blueblood, shrimptank et al.

And were still waiting for you to get the halftime beers in !!!!!

Well pay for them at least ;)

 

[TMWLT]

theres nothing worse, than a southend fan thats started off supporting another team, its not hard really, its southend from birth or nonone

 

[sufcintheprem]

theres nothing worse, than a southend fan thats started off supporting another team, its not hard really, its southend from birth or nonone

What about a Col U fan? Seems worse to me

 

[Flaiming Moe]

Dad took me to first match in 1987 when I was 9, a Friday Night with the mighty Shrimpers beating Tranmere 3-0, I was hooked from then onwards.

He'd wanted to take me much sooner but I had been quite ill for several years in and out of hospital with a rare blood disorder.

Whilst I was ill I was sent various get-well gifts from Liverpool Football Club (my Dad was, and still is good friends with some of the club officials at Anfield), the gifts included signed shirts, get well cards, signed footballs.

At the age of 12 I made a full recovery from my illness and I got invited up to Anfield and met the players and got the VIP treatment, it was one of the most amazing experiences ever, I have since been back on a few occassions and have made some great friends at LFC, but I always made it clear that I was a Southend United fan.

 

[Benji91]

My first game was the 1988/89 season when we played Derby in the League cup.
My Grandad and my Dad are both Derby fans from the days when they used to live there before moving to Essex - and my Dad had asked if i wanted to go with the promise of seeing players like Peter Shilton, and im sure deep down he hoped i would become a Derby fan.
We lost 2-1, and even now when i talk to my Dad he tells me how disappointed i was having seen Derby win that i came out of the ground a Southend fan and wanting to be David Crown!

 

[OldBlueLady]

theres nothing worse, than a southend fan thats started off supporting another team, its not hard really, its southend from birth or nonone

I don't understand that. Surely no matter how they've come to be a Southend supporter, the fact that they HAVE is the important thing. In many ways Hutton's is better than being a Southend supporter born and bred, because it is a choice HE has made and not merely followed on in a family tradition.

I like to think of us as a big, all embracing family, we welcome newer supporters and value the old and established.

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Super story! I can really relate to it as my grandad got me going to watch Southend when i was a kid and he passed away the season we won the playoffs. If i had one wish in the world it would be for him to of seen that day we got promoted.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

This is the thread where all the oldies can get wheeled out.....so here I am.
Always thought that it was my brother-in-law, (a life long gooner), who was responsible for taking me to my first match against Man City in 1956......but found out recently that it was my dad, god rest his soul, who suggested that he got tickets for the match. Remember the mud and Man City supporters doing a tour of the ground perimeter with White and blue painted umbrellas (how times have changed). Didn't perhaps have the confidence, at ten years of age, to start going regularly on my own. However, the following year I do remember catching the 'football special' train from Southend Victoria to Colchester, on my own and proudly wearing a blue and white rosette with a cup in the middle. I think it must have been the great victory that day that condemned me to a life sentence of supporting the Blues.
Proudest moment, as a kid, was when my cousins came down from Liverpool (second division at that time) in 1957 and had bought me a ticket to sit with them in the East Stand......we had the discourteousy to beat them and I don't remember them being well pleased.
My brother-in-law was there again for the Birmingham City match, standing in the east stand paddock. Suffered for half an hour with grit in an eye before being helped out by a St John's ambulance man. Following this I was offered chocolate by everyone in the proximity. Disappointed that he tugged me out of the ground, ten minutes from the end, when we were already losing 5-1. At that age you still believed that we could score four in the last minutes. Shame i don't have programmes for any of those matches

 

[dashman]

Heartfelt.

I know this may sound odd; my 11yr old son had his Southend strip on after training while we popped quickly into Tesco's (other end of A127) to grab some food.

Just walking in and a man is 'patting' my son on the head & smiling, my son smiled back & as they parted I turned to carry on shopping, my son came running up saying did I know who it was?

He was excited to have spotted Paul Brush and said hello, he saw him & his partner at the check out too but I (as always) think give the man some peace & let him have his private time etc.

To see my son so happy at something so 'small' to me was very nice and now he has his autograph book ready at game to get a moment with anyone that will stop etc...

I too was an Arsenal fan as a child but prefered rugby mainly; on a trip to Twickenham for England vs Barbarians recently who gets on the northern line tube? Pat Rice with his family (I assume), gave him some peace too! Right up till I had to get off & get my rucsack strap from beneath his foot 'excuse me Pat can I have my ball back?' - 'er bag!'

My son - 'whose that dad?' lol!

Ahhh the generations!

Dash

 

[Rayleigh boy]

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