The Game when you questioned

[DTS]

On the hole I think my Dad's decision to take me to Southend games rather than say a "big team" has enriched my life.

However I am sure we can all think back to a game when you really have to questions why you bothered. A time when just in a moment of weakness you contemplated for a split second not coming back to the Hall.

My momeny must have been four or five seasons ago. It was a cold Tuesday as I headed home from work. I had just broken up from a long term girlfriend and that night was the night she was coming round to collect her stuff from mine. Nothing to worry for me though as we had Boston at home to look forward too.

On the drive down from Haywards Heath my friend Steve and I got caught in some of the worst traffic I have ever witnessed. As we were stuck on the M25 as monsoon rain came down. It was so heavy the road almost flooded.

Got to the hall with 5 mins to go and took my seat with my dad.I was feeling low at this stage but thumping Boston and particuarly Graeme Jones would make me feel better.

As anyone that went to the game will tell you it was one of the worst Blues games that I have ever seen. We failed to attack over 90 mins and went down 2-0 with Jones the worlds most useless player scoring to really rub it in.

We got back to the M25 in record time only to get caught up in a crash close to Redhill. Finally got back to my mates at 12.30am and still had a 10 mins drive. Got in my car only to find I had left my lights on and battery was dead. A push down the hill got me started but the damage was done.

Has anyone else got an equally bad game/day in their memory?

 

[canveyshrimper]

Gillingham away we lost 8-1, and they scored our goal. this being under the masterly reign of Dick Bate.

Tried to jump in front of a train and missed, phoned the Samaritans and they kept telling me to jump.

 

[J]

Col******r away 3-0 last season..

was it really worth it going all that way, even though i knew what the result was going to be..

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Well, to keep up with DtS's recurring theme - namely, Graeme Jones - I'll pick Rushden away.  Train from Greenwich to London Bridge - all fine there.  Cross the platform and hop on to the Thameslink up to Bedford, where Kath (of South Upper fame) would pick me up and give me a lift to Irthlingborough.  I'd got on the Thameslink thinking I could get a ticket on the train, having taken the Thameslink in the opposite direction (to Gatwick) and having been allowed to buy a ticket on that train.

But no, not according to the miserable sod at Bedford - when I finally got there after having been held up at King's Cross for an eternity.  So, I pay £30-odd quid in penalty fare and return ticket to Bedford.  Not a great start.

We get to Nene Park and head to the away end.  A tidy ground, an excellent "Diamond Burger"... and I'm ready for the game.

The same cannot be said, alas, of the Southend players.  A pathetic display sees us soundly p*ssed on all over the park as Rushden open up a 3-0 lead.  Graeme Jones then caps the afternoon with one of the most petulant, childish and irritating acts I've seen by a player in a Southend shirt.

Jones - who had played like a bucket of steaming poo for the whole afternoon - had endured the insults and pillories of almost all the away fans for his considerable ineptitude, sluggishness and general one-leg-longer-than-the-other uselessness.

Tes Bramble, on one of his younger, more useful days, had collected the ball, burst into the box and been brought down by Turley.  "PENALTY!!" went the cry from the away stand, and the ref pointed to the spot.

The young Bramble, having won the pen and as agreed penalty taker, picked himself up, dusted himself off and collected the ball... only to have the ball ripped out of his arms by Jones, who had stormed over with a look on his face - directed at the away end - of "I'll show you f*ckers".

Jones placed the ball on the spot... and blasted the ball high, wide and nowhere near the goal.  Our afternoon of sporting sh*tness was complete, Rushden completed their 3-0 victory, and I signed up to Hooly's "Jones is a useless piece of sh*t" club.

After getting stuck in traffic, I then headed back to the station, got on the train back to London, nodded off, got off the Thameslink at London Bridge again... and left my glasses on the train.

Bollox.  £200 for a new pair of glasses as well.  Hoo-feckin-ray.

Yep, that was a really sh*t away day.

Matt

 

[fbm]

The Boston game was dire, but did you realise that was only just before Tilly took over (and was my first ever official Shrimperzone report btw).

How times change!

My worst game was Oxford away when we lost 5-0 in our last relegation season from "the league formerly known as Division 1." Woeful. Thank God the Manor Ground still had fences up or our players would have been lynched.

 

[EastStandBlue]

I remember being particulary downbeat that night in Grimsby 2 seasons ago. Top of the league for Months and regarded by critics to be the best footballing side in the league... A defeat to Yeovil had set it up, the result we had at Grimsby that day confirmed we had sunk from 1st-4th in all of 2 weeks and had to slug it out in the Play-Offs.

Everything about that day screamed let down. The long drive up, the fancy dress theme the coaches had laid on, the false reports of Bury equalising in the last moment to send us up...

To top it all off, we had a big night out planned to celebrate promotion and we were staying up there in Cleethorpes. Walked out of the ground completely dejected, thinking we'd seriously blown it.
Then, some northern tw&t comes round the corner, obviously from the game, asking us "What was the result, you didn't go up? thats a crying shame you plastic cockneys.... Just a bunch of West Ham Rejects"

I felt like saying, Just go and beat your wife already, Northern Monkey.

 

[Napster]

Darlo away lost 4-0, spent £70 getting up there on the train. Some chavs threw stones at us on the walk back to the station, and we were awful.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (fbm @ Aug. 22 2006,15:55)]My worst game was Oxford away when we lost 5-0 in our last relegation season from "the league formerly known as Division 1."  Woeful.  Thank God the Manor Ground still had fences up or our players would have been lynched.

Urgh... I keep trying to expunge that one from the memory banks; that game was one of the most monstrously awful away performances that I can remember.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (EastStandBlue @ Aug. 22 2006,15:58)]Then, some northern tw&t comes round the corner, obviously from the game, asking us "What was the result, you didn't go up? thats a crying shame you plastic cockneys.... Just a bunch of West Ham Rejects"

I felt like saying, Just go and beat your wife already, Northern Monkey.

Ah well, the fishy Grimsby oiks are still in league two - long may they rot there, the Humber scum.

Arrgh, Grimsby away, Oxford away... it's a roll-call of all my most miserable away days...

I blame DtS...

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Orient 1 Cheltenham 4, towards the end of the Brush era. We went down to 10 men after half an hour (already 4-1 down, at this stage), and Brush then took off the only player who hadn't disgraced himself (Justin Miller) so that the reserve keeper could come on. I walked out at half time, along with a couple of hundred others. Dark, dark days.

 

[DTS]

Quote[/b] (Jonny_Stokes @ Aug. 22 2006,16:04)]I walked out at half time, along with a couple of hundred others. Dark, dark days.

So you left the ground empty Jonny - Wow - That was some protest.  

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Well, you know we only get a crowd when a big team like Southend grace us with their presence.

 

[Andu]

An Essex senior cup game during the Newman era at Billericay on a very cold evening (-4). We put out a very strong team, suggesting that we meant business. We were complete garbage with no ambition and no hope. I seem to remember going home turning on the PC and doing a Wiggy/Royfox about the team!

 

[canveyshrimper]

Quote[/b] (Jonny_Stokes @ Aug. 22 2006,16:09)]Well, you know we only get a crowd when a big team like Southend grace us with their presence.

True

 

[Sao Paulo Shrimper]

Torquay away in the FA cup first round a few years back. Went up by minibus with a few of the chaps and got arsehole drunk on vodka, had to be carried in the ground (i will never know how they let me in) and we lost 1-0. The weather was awful and i spent most of the game either puking up or asleep in the chair.

 

[Andu]

Quote[/b] (canveyshrimper @ Aug. 22 2006,16:16)]

Quote[/b] (Jonny_Stokes @ Aug. 22 2006,16:09)]Well, you know we only get a crowd when a big team like Southend grace us with their presence.

True

They've just about got room at "The Matchroom stadium" now for our season ticket holders, and still have space for a small corner to hold the home fans.

 

[keefmoon]

So many to choose from...
...Oxford away 5-0 really was bad. Open terrace, 7 stands, chucking it down with rain if I remember rightly and a back four so inept they'd make Dennis Norden's **** look alert. Then stayed at my mate's place in Oxford, went out and got drunk on 3 pints (I was 15) and then got beaten up for being a southend fan outside the station at midnight.
Real good day out.
Was it really 10 years ago?

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Quote[/b] (Andu @ Aug. 22 2006,16:23)]

Quote[/b] (canveyshrimper @ Aug. 22 2006,16:16)]

Quote[/b] (Jonny_Stokes @ Aug. 22 2006,16:09)]Well, you know we only get a crowd when a big team like Southend grace us with their presence.

True

They've just about got room at "The Matchroom stadium" now for our season ticket holders, and still have space for a small corner to hold the home fans.  

"Matchbox", surely? Do I have to do all you simpletons' work for you?

 

[KrustyTheKray]

Port Vale away quite a few years back, in the Peter Taylor era.

Lost 5-0, cold day and the team was utter poo.

Crystal Palace away. the 6-1 defeat. Getting to the ground was a mare, parking was a mare. Few minutes gone one nil down

What a terrible match, we left before Paul Williams scored our goal.

It was the day Frankie Dettori rode all seven winners at Ascot!

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (Jonny_Stokes @ Aug. 22 2006,16:29)]"Matchbox", surely? Do I have to do all you simpletons' work for you?  

 

Apparently so...

How many does the Matchstick stadium hold, then?