Why I didn't enjoy my day at Wembley

[Jai]

Actually meeting those Milan guys was one of the highlights of the day. Knowing that fans from Italy were so impressed by our fans' passion for the club at a game last year that they flew over to watch us in a cup final. That's what football is all about for me.

 

[SU BLUE]

I have to agree with most of your post Jai, but I thought we played okay in the last 20/25 mins of both halves and quite enjoyed it. We have to acknowledge that we were up against a really useful Crewe side who are not that far off the play offs in league 1. I know that we beat 2 teams currently above them on our way to the final but I thought yesterday's match was alright. Yes we have played better but we have also played a lot worse.
I also don't think team selection was too bad. We would all have picked it slightly different but we aint the manager.
Still onwards and upwards, lets hope for 2 points wednesday as we still have a chance of a play off place.
UTB

 

[Sherif H]

The Echo want me to write 1,000 words on why I enjoyed my day at Wembley. I agreed to do it in advance, but it's going to be tough. I was so disappointed by yesterday and I think the reason for that was it confirmed to me a lot of things that have been in the back of my mind for a while but I didn't want to admit it to myself.

The thing is, I have a lurking feeling this club has no shame. Whether you agree or disagree with Sturrock's sacking, to do it two weeks before the cup final he got us to was ruthless to the point of cruel. Showed him absolutely no respect. Whether you rated him or not, this club was on its knees when he took over, after another fine manager had been completely shafted for a year and maybe more. People say there's no sentiment in football, and it seems they are right. Shame.

We allowed a player that stuck two fingers up at our club six months ago, to play a pivotal role in an unfamiliar position in one of the biggest games in our history, completely nullifying the considerable abilities of Tamika Mkandawire who spent most of the game yesterday trying to work out if he was coming or going. In playing Mohsni and certain others, we have overlooked some of the players that literally put their bodies on the line in order, putting back their recovery to get us to Wembley in the first place. Mark Phillips had 8 injections in his toe to get through the Orient game. Not even a minute at Wembley.

We don't pay our staff on time, our name is mud in the local business community, we treat people like absolute ****. That Rossi ice cream Bluesberry stuff. Look at Brian Wheeler's face. That man used to love this club. He's smiling but his eye's aren't.

The chairman, in sacking the manager, puts out a statement that, if a nine-year-old had put it out in his English book, a teacher would have written "See me" in the margin. He refused to let anyone change it. He is a property developer that does not develop property. What the **** was that shareholder rubbish all about? How much have the Shrimpers Trust loaned him over the years? He listens to the vocal minority and makes a knee-jerk decision to get rid of a manager on the back of three admittedly terrible home performances when we've had a queue outside the physio's room for three months. In replacing him, he brings in a man that's never managed at League Two level and with a far inferior CV. I hope to be proved wrong on Brown, but I'm concerned.

It's not one thing, it's not one game, it's not a couple of individual errors which all football fans at this level can forgive. It's the big picture. I'll be at Aldershot, I'll be at York and I'll probably be at the last home game of the season. But I've had a good job offer, working with football publishing, which could, if I wanted it to, take up a lot of my Saturdays next season. I'd never have even considered it a few years ago. But now, I'm not so sure.

I'd take it if I were you Jai - life opportunities like that come along once in a blue moon. Disappointment dished up by Southend every weekend will almost certainly always be here on tap...

 

[Sherif H]

I have said it before and I'll say it again - as a footballing experience, the Millennium Stadium cannot be beaten.
Some of you know I have worked in and around stadia for a long time, and, having been there numerous times now, I find Wembley architecturally uninspiring, plain and boring, a complete and utter rip off, and, wholly lacking as a spectator experience from location to atmosphere.
Add to the mix the fact that any Wembley day out attracts many more daytrippers and fairweather fans than other big fixtures, and the result is a somewhat subdued atmosphere which is made all the worse when you get miserable gits behind you telling you to stop standing and singing (when 90% of the rest of the stand is on their feet in front of you I might add…).
Yes, we still took 20 odd thousand to both LDV finals, but the distance travelled somewhat separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff and ensured that the majority of the people who made the effort were in the mood to have a sing and a dance in the stands…
On a footballing note, the day was soured for me by the dubious performance of the officials (yet again), but more so by the damp squib dished up by some key members of a largely underperforming squad. Yes he was in the wrong position, but Mohsni was privileged to be anywhere near that squad and was a massive let down – he seems to have had the fire in his belly extinguished, and has now gone too far the other way. I couldn’t believe, borderline foul or not, how easily he got shoved off the ball by a teenager in the build up to their 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] goal. Hurst was imperious early season, but his performances have become erratic of late, and he was downright poor yesterday…in a team that is creating very little quality in the final third, his dip in form piles way too much pressure on the likes of Tomlin and Clohessy, which then leaves us short in their respective positions.
Anyway…I could go on forever, but will resist the temptation…

 

[Swiss Tony]

I loved every minute of yesterday just bloody marvellous,and the sight looking back from the stadium at wembley way, awash with Shrimper fans will stay with me forever,can we go again in may mr Brown pleaseeeee.:loyalsupporter:

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

bugger all this moaning. I expected to lose. I thought 2-0 would have been OK. 2-1 even better. We'd not been playing well, had a lot of injuries and players hitting poor form at the wrong time. Crewe are a decent side on a reasonable run. I had a great, great day. If we had won it would have been unbelievable. Stop moaning. It was a great day.

 

[BrettieAngell]

Days like yesterday don't come along very often, so you have to make the most of them. Yes it would have been amazing if we managed to win or even score a goal but it was still a top day.

 

[DCC]

To be honest, the afternoon was always going to struggle to live up to the early high point of the Blues mascot being called Maximus.

 

[Blue_Shrimper1959]

Days like yesterday don't come along very often, so you have to make the most of them. Yes it would have been amazing if we managed to win or even score a goal but it was still a top day.

Agreed, I feel even a goal would've changed things (something to celebrate and maybe even lift the crowd a bit)...as it was I didn't even manage to get to celebrate in false hope for that half a second when Britt put the ball in the net, as I saw the Lino put up his flag before he slotted home and had already turned my back in frustration!

 

[Barling Magna]

A shame we didn't score, but Crewe Alex are a good, footballing side. Their first goal (damn them!) was excellent - just imagine if we'd scored a goal like that at Wembley.

I really enjoyed the day, starting early with a 5.50 a.m. alarm clock in Dorset, driving to Hillingdon Underground (£1.50 to park your car all day - amazing!) and then walking up Wembley Way to the stadium - 1 hour 10 minutes before the gates opened at 11.00 !! Two cups of coffee sitting on the steel benches near the Bobby Moore statue in the continuing winter sunshine (whatever happened to global warming and greenhouse gases and all that....... seems like a half-forgotten theory now), and then almost the first into the stadium. Wow, it's impressive. Watched the young girls play their own Cup Final (at least Gillingham didn't win), went inside again and bought chicken and chips for £8. Seemed expensive, but it was good (possibly because I was one of the first customers) and there was lots of it; so much, in fact, that I couldn't finish my chips (that's a first). Then there was Aqua Gloss versus Emulsion City - some of those lads hadn't seen a football pitch for a long while, and hadn't seen their feet while standing for quite a time either. Then (excuse the low brow nature of this) back inside to visit the toilet. Imagine my surprise to discover that there are WCs only, no urinals. Funny, I thought; that must cause delays at half-time.........

Then the teams come out to warm up and I'm surprised to see Bilel Mohsni with his arm around Phil Brown and the pair of them laughing away. So, he's playing I thought - should give some physical presence upfront, but will he be sent off? Little did I realise that he'd be played in central midfield and that he's had all the aggression surgically removed from him....

Out comes Natalie to sing the National Anthem. She's advisedly wearing purple, a mixture of red and blue. A peek at the video screen showed that she'd torn her dress across the front and seemed to have forgotten to put her bra on. Poor lass only got to sing one verse - I'd have liked to have frustrated the knavish tricks of our opponents. So far, what a great day. Then the match began........

Damn it, Crewe scored a superb goal before we'd even really started. At least we were able to recover slightly from our shock by joining in the minute's applause for Adam Dugdale. Enough has been said about the match and its disappointments, but Britt should certainly have been awarded a penalty...

Half-time was spent queueing for the toilet (no urinals, you see....). Then the second half began just like the first, except this time we gave Crewe the goal. Poor pass out to Mohsni I thought since he was facing our goal, right in the centre of the field, but I was surprised at how easily he was pushed to the ground (might that have been a foul? Not with that ref....). PB should have brought on Corr and Eastwood immediately after that second goal, but he didn't....

I stayed to watch Crewe's celebrations, trying to visualise Southend in their place. Then the walk down Wembley Way (what idiot changed the name to Olympic Way...?) which seemed to be full of Blues fans. We were stopped by the police a couple of times because of congestion at the tube station. The Crewe fans were generous in their comments (too generous, I thought, we'd not played well at all). Then back onto the Tube and back to Dorset...... a great day which the Blues couldn't quite spoil. Roll on next season (if we're still around).....

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I'm finding it really hard to find the positives from yesterday, something I didn't think I'd find myself saying after going to Wembley to watch Southend. The Brown/Sturrock situation, the poor team selection/lack of tactics/poor performance/presence of Mohsni all conspired to suck the enjoyment out of it. Add to that the ***** journey served up by Greater Anglia, not having time to go to the Green Man and the disappointing atmosphere, I ended up finding the day more stressful than anything else.

That said, going with my friends, walking up Wembley Way, getting in the stadium and being part of it was great and I'm sure in a day or two after the hurt has faded I'll be able to look back on the good of it.

But I am still ****ed off, and still worried about the current management, and the financial future of the club. :sad:

The positive being that we achieved what was basically the last remaining goal for a club like ours.

For years it was second division football. Now we've done Wembley what have we left to tick off? If we go out of business this summer will there be any regrets of things we didn't get a chance to see?

In my life-time we've won the third division title, we've beaten W*** H**, we've scored double figures in a match, we've played European football, we've scored with 8 men against 11, we've beaten Man U, we've seen Drewe Broughton score a league goal, we played the most amazing half of football against Yeovil, I've tasted the food at Aggborough, we've won games that were 0-0 at half-time 5-3 and 7-0, we've relegated our rivals to the conference, and now we've been to Wembley.

 

[Napster]

Promotion to the top echelon and the last 8 of a major cup would be great.

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

Promotion to the top echelon and the last 8 of a major cup would be great.

Didn't Tilly get us to the last 8 of the League Cup?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Promotion to the top echelon and the last 8 of a major cup would be great.

What like the League Cup?

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I'm two grand poorer and jet lagged to **** but I'm glad I went. Football was pony though.

 

[Jam_Man]

Promotion to the top echelon and the last 8 of a major cup would be great.

Last 4 of a major cup.

No sorry, final of a major cup.

Thats the thing, you can say we have achieved all we can, but when the likes of Blackpool get to the Premiership and Bradford get to a Cup Final it gives you that little bit of hope and makes the unrealistic seem that little less crazy!

 

[mrsblue]

I would dearly love just to watch a well run club without the behind scenes madness.

 

[Napster]

I would dearly love just to watch a well run club without the behind scenes madness.

why? what on earth would we talk about on here?

 

[Jam_Man]

I would dearly love just to watch a well run club without the behind scenes madness.

Who wouldnt but how that affects yesterday I have no idea.

 

[mrsblue]

why? what on earth would we talk about on here?

The football,Some of the fans and why is FF so damn draughty:nope: