Question Why did you begin to support SUFC?? and Who did you go with ?

[Greenelk]

I was very much a latecomer, despite me becoming interested in the team and starting to follow their results in around 1987 my first game wasn't until the Anglo Italian Cup match against Reggiana on 11th October 1995. (Neither my dad or stepdad had any interest in football, so didn't get much opportunity to go to matches growing up),

My Grandad, coming from East London was a West Ham fan, and I'd been to Upton Park a few times as a kid. My uncle lived in Southend, and had taken my Grandad to Roots Hall a few times, and Southend had become his second team, so he took me along on that night. A dire match, most notable for the 20 man brawl that broke out, yet it started my love for this cruel mistress, that has seen times of joy, and a fair bit of misery!

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Mr Blue wins by a mile. Well done, sir.

Still, as mum used to gleefully tell me: 'we were only threepenny bus ride from the Arsenal when we lived in north London.'
After moving to Basildon, I asked if I could go to West Ham (I knew no different). 'No, I'm not having a 10-year-old bouncing around the terraces with 35,000.'
'Can I go to Southend?'
'Yeah, you can have a terrace to yourself," said Mrs Comedienne. This would be April, 1962-ish; a 2-1 defeat of Millwall, although I'd been taken once before by dad.
And then onwards from opening day, August '63 to 52 years of purgatory interspersed with the odd heavenly moment.
I later went with mates, and infectious enthusiasm rubbed off so eventually pop was a regular too.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

SZ Members are asking me why i missed 4 home games. I was doing my national service in the RAF at Bawdsey in Suffolk so lucky enough to get home nearly every weekend but the 4 games i missed my country needed me

That's some effort as National Service ended in the very early 60's so you probably haven't missed a home game for over 55 years.

 

[mfurok]

Can't remember the first time I was taken to a game aged 2/3 in '63 but remember well going on a Friday night in Spring of '68 with my older brothers. Nice sunny evening and Workington seen off 7-0. I think it was Eddy Clayton's debut for us. Once you've been to a game like that (aged 7), well I guess you're smitten for life.

What a game.

What a season.

What a team.

As usual we ****** it up but it set the pattern - we know what to expect.

This season will be no different unless we stop playing all these holding midfielders and try to push forward and score goals.

Hey ho!

 

[fbm]

I hated football until I was about 6 or 7 years old. The first TV game I remember was the League Cup Final in 1969 when Division 3 Swindon beat Arsenal 3-1 after extra time at Wembley. A few weeks later Neil Young scored the winner in Man City's 1-0 FA Cup final win against Leicester and I was hooked on the sport. When the new season started in August 1969 I asked my Nan if Southend had a team and she said they did... I looked up the fixtures that day and we were at home to Crewe. I asked my Dad if we could go and he obliged, thereby starting a love affair that has lasted over 45 years. We won 2-0.

 

[Trucking shrimper]

I can't remember anything about my first game but it was around 86/87. My dad used to run a Friday evening youth club I went to. Once that finished, me and dad headed to the ground. When we got there the game was usually half an hour or so in so my dad had a word with the stewards who'd then walk us through the west stand, out the tunnel, along pitch side and deposit us in the north bank without paying a penny! Wasn't until 4 or 5 games later, I realised we also played during the day and you actually had to pay to get in!

 

[manor15]

Monday 26th August 2002, Southend 2-1 Cambridge at Roots Hall.

Jay Smith scored the winner on his debut while Dave Kitson and Luke Guttridge started for Cambridge. Got some free tickets through a summer holidays football school I did as a kid and got a free ticket for me and my dad in the West Stand for the game. Went to a few more games that season and the season after and started going more regularly around the time that Tilly came in as manager and been a season ticket holder since!