David Crown was my first footballing hero.
I started watching Southend in the mid-80s, but despite constantly nagging the old man it wasn't until late 1987 that he started taking me along with him regularly. I suspect he was protecting me from the Dick Bate era. Fortunately the Bate spell was short-lived and Paul Clark took over as player-manager. Clark's first signing was a 28 year old who had played as a winger for Walthamstow Avenue, Brentford, Portsmouth, Exeter (loan) and Reading before being converted to a striker at Cambridge.
And as an impressionable young kid watching Southend during that period, how could I fail to be impressed by David Crown? He didn't score on his debut against Aldershot at Roots Hall, but from that point on he seemed to score every game netting in an incredible 11 of our 14 remaining home games that season (including twice against Port Vale) to help keep us up.
Most memorable of all was the Wigan game that season. Two goals to nil down at half-time, he managed to pick the ball up on the halfway line just by the dug-out, drift inside beating two, three, maybe four men (each time I replay the goal in my head, it is more players and from further out) before absolutely belting it into the top corner from about what seemed 35 yards to complete a 3-2 win. Despite numerous pleas, no-one has managed to post this goal up on you-tube. You *******s, someone must have it on video!
Despite joining us in mid-November, Crowny finished top-scorer with a very impressive 17 goals from 28 games, to finish top-scorer for both us and Cambridge.
The following season he proved it wasn't an one-off by rattling in a further 25 goals plus 4 in the cup. But even that wasn't enough to keep us up, as despite beating eventual champions Wolves 3-1 (one of my all-time favourite games) with of course Crowny on the scoresheet twice, we finished 21st and were relegated on the final day of the season after an improbable Blackpool win.
But we bounced back and for the third consecutive season Crown was topscorer when he hit 19 goals (and a further 4 in the cup, including 3 against Col Ewe) as Southend clinched the last promotion spot. As in the previous season, it went down to the wire, but Crown who had only scored one goal in the preceding 14 games, scored two famous goals at Peterborough to clinch promotion, in what turned out to be the first of consecutive promotions. Had his shot against the Spurs of Lineker and Gascgoine not agonisingly hit the post rather than the back of the net, he'd have also had one of the club's biggest cup upsets to add to his CV.
I can still picture Crown to this day. The mullet haircut; the blue with yellow Firholm shirt untucked, spilling over those yellow shorts that always seemed to be pulled up too high. But what I'll always remember is his goals. In all there were 69 goals in 132 games, good enough for joint 8th in the all-time last.
In my book that makes Crown a legend, but does it make him a Hall of Famer? As I sit down to write this, I really don't know what way my vote would go.
Sadly the 1989-90 season was his last as a player. I was shocked when he was sold to Gillingham, but it turned out Dave Webb knew what he was doing as he replaced a striker the wrong side of 30 with a young starlet by the name of Brett Angell, who helped fire us not just into division 2, but to the top of division 2.
Crown returned to the club, as a coach under Rob Newman, as a radio summariser and most recently as a matchday host where he can apparently still be found, but he is most fondly remembered for all those goals.
I started watching Southend in the mid-80s, but despite constantly nagging the old man it wasn't until late 1987 that he started taking me along with him regularly. I suspect he was protecting me from the Dick Bate era. Fortunately the Bate spell was short-lived and Paul Clark took over as player-manager. Clark's first signing was a 28 year old who had played as a winger for Walthamstow Avenue, Brentford, Portsmouth, Exeter (loan) and Reading before being converted to a striker at Cambridge.
And as an impressionable young kid watching Southend during that period, how could I fail to be impressed by David Crown? He didn't score on his debut against Aldershot at Roots Hall, but from that point on he seemed to score every game netting in an incredible 11 of our 14 remaining home games that season (including twice against Port Vale) to help keep us up.
Most memorable of all was the Wigan game that season. Two goals to nil down at half-time, he managed to pick the ball up on the halfway line just by the dug-out, drift inside beating two, three, maybe four men (each time I replay the goal in my head, it is more players and from further out) before absolutely belting it into the top corner from about what seemed 35 yards to complete a 3-2 win. Despite numerous pleas, no-one has managed to post this goal up on you-tube. You *******s, someone must have it on video!
Despite joining us in mid-November, Crowny finished top-scorer with a very impressive 17 goals from 28 games, to finish top-scorer for both us and Cambridge.
The following season he proved it wasn't an one-off by rattling in a further 25 goals plus 4 in the cup. But even that wasn't enough to keep us up, as despite beating eventual champions Wolves 3-1 (one of my all-time favourite games) with of course Crowny on the scoresheet twice, we finished 21st and were relegated on the final day of the season after an improbable Blackpool win.
But we bounced back and for the third consecutive season Crown was topscorer when he hit 19 goals (and a further 4 in the cup, including 3 against Col Ewe) as Southend clinched the last promotion spot. As in the previous season, it went down to the wire, but Crown who had only scored one goal in the preceding 14 games, scored two famous goals at Peterborough to clinch promotion, in what turned out to be the first of consecutive promotions. Had his shot against the Spurs of Lineker and Gascgoine not agonisingly hit the post rather than the back of the net, he'd have also had one of the club's biggest cup upsets to add to his CV.
I can still picture Crown to this day. The mullet haircut; the blue with yellow Firholm shirt untucked, spilling over those yellow shorts that always seemed to be pulled up too high. But what I'll always remember is his goals. In all there were 69 goals in 132 games, good enough for joint 8th in the all-time last.
In my book that makes Crown a legend, but does it make him a Hall of Famer? As I sit down to write this, I really don't know what way my vote would go.
Sadly the 1989-90 season was his last as a player. I was shocked when he was sold to Gillingham, but it turned out Dave Webb knew what he was doing as he replaced a striker the wrong side of 30 with a young starlet by the name of Brett Angell, who helped fire us not just into division 2, but to the top of division 2.
Crown returned to the club, as a coach under Rob Newman, as a radio summariser and most recently as a matchday host where he can apparently still be found, but he is most fondly remembered for all those goals.
