We lost.

Towards the end of January, Southend’s supporters began to get excited about the Meaningless Cup as, on beating Division Two leaders QPR 4-0, we reached the southern area final.

We needed something to get excited about: the team had been second from bottom of the Football League since 29^th November.

After losing the LDV Final 2-0 to Blackpool, in front of 34,031 fans, the club had a crunch tie against its bogey team. If we lost to Carlisle, we could well have been relegated and, frankly, we had lost almost every time we had played them at Brunton Park for thirty years.

Carlisle were having a terrible season. They had only amassed five points up until the season’s half-way point and were still at the bottom after three months playing on championship form.

We beat them and the fifty or so steadfast Southend supporters who had made their way to Cumbria were rewarded with being locked in for our own safety as an army of ten teenage tearaways attempted to pelt us with projectiles. Their aim was about as good as Carlisle’s forwards’.

The following season began worse than the previous one. By 27^th August we were bottom of the newly renamed, rebranded, far more exciting Coca-Cola League Two. It looked once again as though we were doomed.

We were used to it by now. We had been watching dodgy football for years.

Our fortunes were about to change. A slow rise up the league was highlighted on 16^th October 2004 when, seven seconds after the kick-off against League Two leaders Swansea City, a new young striker from Grays Athletic scored Southend United’s quickest ever goal. That striker, who went on to get a hat trick, was listed in the programme and registered with the FA as Fredy Eastwood.

In typical Southend United style, his name had been wrongly registered. Later, it was noticed that he was actually called Freddy.

The season continued in style. On Tuesday, 19^th April we played Macclesfield Town away. Nine days previously, 36,216 fans had seen Southend beaten by Wrexham in another LDV Final but this time we had our priorities right. When Alan M^cCormack, on loan from Preston, scored the injury time winner against the Silkmen grown men, including me, cried. We were top of the League, needing only three more points from the next three games to guarantee ourselves promotion and the Championship.

So we lost the next three games and finished fourth, two points short of the required tally, doomed to the play-off lottery. It took until extra time in a nervy match against Lincoln City at the Millennium Stadium, in front of only 19,000 fans, most of whom were wearing red and white stripes, for Freddy Eastwood to open up the scoring. When Jupp slotted the second goal in, on 110 minutes, we knew it was our day.

One year later, Southend won the League One championship. The journey to the confusingly named Football League Championship saw us playing attractive, passing football. Sadly, it didn’t last.

This season we have beaten some of the best teams in the Football League— Stoke City, Sunderland, Southampton, West Brom, Birmingham, Ipswich and Preston— six of those teams are in the top eight of the Championship right now. There was also that little matter of the Carling Cup, with victories over the mighty Manchester United and the once mighty Leeds.

It was fun while it lasted. We’ll be back. I’ve no idea when.

It’s well documented that many players have superstitions that they follow before a game and it’s just the same for supporters. However this season has presented quite a problem in that, until recently, our results have not reflected the care with which I’ve been making my offerings to the Goddess of Luck and her fickle brother the God of Chance.

The order in which I did things last season has been followed to the letter. Get in the car, switch on the radio, tune into Radio Essex (Even though its still some gardening program) , head for Roots Hall taking the shortcut down the side of the park and getting stuck at the lights for ages. A foreseeable problem that totally negates the shortcut but hey it’s a ritual, what choice do I have ?

And that’s the nub of the matter. You really do not have any choice, once hooked into a routine you’re in the keep net for the duration mate ! It matters not how the superstition began, the mere fact that it is there is enough to make grown men do daft and stupid things over and over again. What is even dafter is that the rituals have no proven track record and hold no promise of holding true for ever.

Last year I and Uncle Albert took to standing up until after each kick off had been taken. Not for each goal you must understand, just at the start of each half. And it regularly produced results … well if you count the colourful abuse that we were subjected to by people in the seats behind ! How our decision to do such a thing arose neither of us have a clue (No change there then ! … thought I’d say it before anyone else jumps in) but we were picking up results, steadily holding onto our position at the head of the table and eventually getting our due reward in the form of a Championship and promotion.

The pundits in their ignorance gave the credit to Eastwood and his chums. But we knew who had really gone that extra mile. Ears ringing from our fellow supporter’s advice to ‘Sit Down’ we’d played our game as well as any of those wearing the boots on the pitch. And, as sure as eggs are eggs, if we did the same thing this season then the fruits of our bravery would be a nice position around mid table somewhere.

Sure there was the odd result, most notably our thrashing of Man Utd 1-0, but the expected fine run of results never occurred. Again a strange thing, because instead of changing your ritual, you actually start adding bits onto it !. I found myself buying the obligatory cheeseburger from inside rather than outside the culinary oasis at the back of the West stand. I also had to make my way to my seat following a specific route. And it was only when I found myself deliberating over which shoelace to tie up first that I realised that things had gone too far. It wasn’t my rituals that were at fault at all … it was Uncle Albert’s!!

Old age perhaps, too many visits to the bar. Whatever, time was taking a toll on the poor fellow and he was tending to hover over his seat rather than stand up straight before kick off. And such sloppy habits were having a bad effect upon our results. Something had to be done…

Read the rest of the message on Yahoo groups.

The only astonishing part of Freddy Eastwood‘s “wonder goal” / “lucky goal” / “fluke” in the Carling Cup fourth round tie is that he scored it against Manchester United. He scored a beauty for us in February. [One of many, I should add. It's just that I've not blogged about most of them.] He has almost single-handedly changed the supporters’ view of penalties (we never used to convert them) and, to be honest, he scores from free kicks for fun. So let’s have a little less of the patronising guff from Man U fans.

The Southend United players this season have underperformed in style. Indeed, many of the goals that have been scored against us this year appear to have followed defensive narcolepsy.

I watched the game at a pub in Preston, accompanied by a number of Reds. Like many of them, I expected a score line in the region of 4-0. Indeed, I left the house commenting to Kate that I would be content if we held Man U down to three goals. When, around 8.30 pm, Jamaican international and one of my nominees for MOTM Jamal Campbell-Ryce was fouled thirty yards out I did not have high expectations of the ensuing free kick. Eastwood and partners stepped up to take the kick. Eastwood struck. And I held my head. The ball had gone behind.

Hadn’t it?

It must have been off-side.

Mustn’t it?

I mean, the sounds of wild jubilation must have been coming from overwrought Reds who were jeering the miss.

Oh my! We were a goal up against one of the world’s biggest teams. And they hadn’t fielded the reserves.

For the next hour I waited for Man U to score. They tried valiantly but, somehow, Southend’s sleepy defence stayed awake. Darryl Flahavan‘s performance was comparable to that of Seaman in his prime.

I now just hope that the players can use this as a stepping stone, improving morale sufficiently that they realise we are certainly good enough to remain in the Championship.

Oh, finally, it’s “Shrimpers” not “Shrimps”.

Technorati Tags: Freddy Eastwood, Carling Cup, Manchester United, Southend United, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Man U, Darryl Flahavan, Shrimpers

As for some of the wilder remarks on the boards about me,i will give you one or two facts,firstly,my physical and mental condition are A1,and having worked closely recently with coaches who train and do conditioning work with olympic athletes,i pay rather more attention to what there diagnosis of my physical state,than with respect,the Spanish shrimper et al….

The tests i have done(prior to Tenerife,where i have trained for 3 weeks,on physical fitness,plyometric training,trimming down weight to NFFC playing weight,and building power) all were scientific tests used on athletes in various sports to ascertain fitness levels,and hence goals.My tests pre-Tenerife suggested that my fitness at that point were still that of an elite athlete,and with up to 8 weeks conditioning work,that at age 35,my power,strength,fitness and agility would be comparable to ANYTIME in my career previous.

More, including a picture, elsewhere.

As previously mentioned on these pages, PremiumTV have started making life difficult for Mac users who wish to listen to the 16kbps radio commentaries online. The commentary does, in fact, work yet it gives an error message claiming that Internet Explorer 5 and Windows are required.

I have asked Premium TV why they have cancelled my account and whether they would mind explaining this new policy. Their support staff have told me that all the streaming media is DRMed in order to prevent its appearance on ‘video sharing websites’. Er, hello. This is audio.

And it does work.

Sadly, the operators of the service, PremiumTV appear to have little or no knowledge of reality. The service for which I pay allows me to receive a 16 kbps stream of BBC Essex commentary on Southend United games. The service is ropey in that the link is frequently lost but there is no other practical way for exiled football supporters to follow many of their clubs’ games.

Now, however, I find that PremiumTV are changing the system. Currently it can be accessed using almost any web browser and Windows Media Player 9 using the ACELP codec. In the future, however, the system will move to WMP10′s DRM system, compatible only with Windows.

For music sales, I am in many ways ambivalent about DRM. I have bought a good number of tracks from the iTunes store and rarely ever now buy a physical single. However, this is for a 128kbps recording. I honestly struggle to believe that PremiumTV will do anything to protect their market by moving into DRM to protect a 16kbps audio stream, a bitrate which is in quality terms roughly halfway between a telephone call and medium-wave radio.

I remain optimistic that the company may see sense. For what it’s worth, I have contacted the Football League, Southend United F.C. and the SUSCT.

Technorati Tags: Football, League, PremiumTV, Windows Media Player, ACELP, DRM

I know very little of the other teams playing in Germany, I take great exception to every company under the sun jumping on the World cup band wagon (and “supporting” every country they advertise in) The abundance of st Georges flags being flown by people who don’t even know when St Georges day falls annoys me.
The summer months were invented so we would know how dull life is without football, God was kind enough to sweeten this bitter pill with decent weather so the girlies would get their kit off and take our minds off it.

Gary Crowe on the Southend United list

Back in the day, when the Blue Anorak was kept up-to-date(-ish), I had a series of random pithy comments on the front page. The above could be a candidate.

Is this the greatest day in the history of Southend United FC?

It started badly with me paying seven quid for a �3.50 pay and display: I only noticed that I should have entered my registration number once I’d put �3.50 in the machine. The irritating piece of junk would not return my cash so I had to pay twice. Thanks, Chesterfield council, that one will really get the tourists flooding in. I wasn’t the only visitor to that car park to make that mistake.

The match kicked off after we had been treated to 100 dB of distortion from the PA system with the sun dazzling most of us on our right. The first half was diabolical: put simply, we allowed Chesterfield to pass the ball right through us while ourselves attempting to play a long-ball game. Someone somewhere needed to tell the players that we are more than capable of playing a passing game.

After 26 minutes, the all too evitable happened and Chesterfield scored. Our performance worsened from there on as we sat back and allowed the team from the only town in England unable to construct a spire to look good. It was like watching third division football.

Half-time: one of the Yorkshire Blues took the opportunity to walk round the terrace personally asking almost everyone in the crowd to sing up. We had, in the first half, perhaps been too appalled at the spectacle unfolding in front of us to open our mouths in anything other than astonishment.

At the beginning of the second-half, Maher, who had earlier gone off for treatment and then only been allowed back on the pitch after two changes of shirt (there were apparently spots of blood on the first change), was substituted for Pettefer. “We’re sunk,” I thought aloud.

A few minutes later, the ref saw Janos Kovac handle the ball in the penalty area. Interestingly, Jupp appeared to be suggesting to the ref that this was not, in fact, the case but, for once, the ref followed the rules and showed a soon-to-be tearful Kovac the red card. Freddy Eastwood shot the ball in to the centre of the goal for the equaliser. Was it only a couple of years ago that we missed almost every penalty we were ever awarded?

Perhaps shell-shocked by the apparent unfairness of the penalty, Chesterfield lost their stride and Eastwood scored his second. I was convinced we needed a third to nail the game. Soon I was to be proven right as Chesterfield equalised, only to score their third two or three minutes later.

Chesterfield’s fans, who clearly had not been listening to the silence from our end, suggested that we weren’t singing any more.

Now we were starting to play as a team. Goater was flagging and Bradbury was clearly preparing to come on to replace him. As I was commenting on how I had yet to see Goater score and was watching Bradbury warm up, we were awarded a corner. Moments later I realised that I was still to see Goater score but I could at least watch him celebrate his goal, the third equaliser of the afternoon.

Eastwood was soon called up for offside. The linesman had been having a poor afternoon, unable to tell the difference between a well-timed and quick run and poor positioning. Eastwood was yellow-carded for, so it seemed to me, looking disappointed at this decision. He misses the next match. Bradbury and Lawson came on for Goater and Cole.

Then the moment of brilliance, Eastwood received the ball and ran with it. Bradbury was in a good position to receive it. Lawson too was well-positioned. Chesterfield defenders appeared to fill the box and I mentally implored Eastwood to pass the ball.

Alright, I might have shouted something along the lines of “Pass it you [expletive deleted] greedy [offspring of unmarried parents]“.

Eastwood kept the ball. He danced, as Stuart Hall might say, through the opposition. Seeing his moment, he looked up, paused a fraction of a second, and to the utter astonishment of all in attendance, cannoned the ball in to the top-left of the goal.

That, my friends, is a goal that should appear on Eastwood’s career highlights video once he’s lifted the World Cup.

That also is why we’re top of the league.

As I was leaving the ground, a disgruntled Steeplette moaned that the best team had been beaten by a bunch of cheats. Yeah right. Anyone who can think that Chesterfield were the best team has clearly either just left their first football match or was watching the game through rose-tinted glasses.

Chesterfield: Roche, O’Hare, Kovacs, Downes, Picken, O’Hara, Allott, Niven, Hurst (Blatherwick 75), Larkin (Folan 57), Hall.
Subs Not Used: Heath, Davies, Smith.

Sent Off: Kovacs (51).

Goals: Larkin 27, Niven 63, Hurst 66.

Southend: Flahavan, Jupp, Wilson, Prior, Barrett, Gower, Maher (Pettefer 45), Cole (Lawson 81), Guttridge, Goater (Bradbury 81), Eastwood.
Subs Not Used: Hunt, Smith.

Booked: Eastwood, Guttridge.

Goals: Eastwood 52 pen, 56, Goater 74, Eastwood 83.

Att: 4,527.

Ref: D Deadman (Cambridgeshire).

JCR – the “agreement” has been published in the Rotherham Advertiser. I agree that the S Yorks coverage has been heavily in favour of our case and I had assumed that there was some wriggle room involved. However, I have to say that I can understand why our board is upset.

The document in question is a “record of agreement” (as it is headed) sent by your chairman to ours. I think it makes interesting reading for all concerned.

First up, it confirms that personal terms had been agreed and states “for the sake of good order and completeness i am copying this note to Richard Cody and can confirm that personal terms with Jamal have been agreed”. The meat of it is this section:

“this is our best and final offer and the £75000 would be paid this financial year as follows

£15000 upon signing

£20000 payable 1 december 2005
£20000 payable 1 feb 2006
£20000 payable 1 May 2006

Furthmore we would pay an additional £25000 bringing the total commitment to £100000 in accordance with the following schedule.

£10000 for twenty starting appearances
£10000 for thirty starting appearances
£5000 for 40 starting appearances ”

I do believe that Jamal would make thirty starting appearances and in that regard I am prepared to underwrite the £75000″. The document is signed by Ronald Martin, chairman of Southend United FC.

RUFC accepted this offer in writing.

Only the £15,000 has been paid. Our chairman reports that Mr Martin has told him – in terms – that we will have to accept a lower fee because of our financial difficulties and that he is therefore not paying. I cannot say if this is true or not.

At the very least, £40,000 should be coming our way (money which is VITAL to our club). We also say that the wages that we have paid to JCR in the period in which he cannot play for either side should be re-imbursed to us. Not sure about the legality of that, but I can see the moral point. The £75,000 turns on the meaning of “underwriting”, and I’d be less confident on that.

How many games has he played, btw? 6 or so?

One thing I do believe is that your chairman has behaved poorly. Leaving aside what’s enforceable and what’s not, that signed document is pretty clear in its intention. We, like you, are a small club and I’m surprised that your chairman is apparently using our lack of financial clout as a means of getting “one over” on us. I’m sad that there wasn’t more solidarity on this: the Premiership will screw all of us plenty, without doing one another over.

We’ve raised £100,000 so far to save our club. In that context, you can see how important the £40,000 and, of course, the £125K would be.

There is some discussion about whether this document is valid. If it is, I honestly believe that my club has fewer than one leg on which to stand. However, it would appear that this letter was written based on JCR joining the club in August. He didn’t join us until the end of September. Indeed, the fax makes it plain that Ron Martin, Southend United’s chairman, was intending any deal to be completed in time for the end of the August transfer window.