Away day **** up

[CyrilSneer]

I recall that we could see on to the pitch from outside the ground and that the Shrimpers seemed to be wearing some green monstrosity. As we didn't get in, we had no knowledge of why we might be playing in this lurid kit, and we were left to conclude it was a dreadful third kit that we knew nothing about - it was another reason to be in a festive mood as we returned south after being turned away. Burnley - what a bunch of ****houses you are. I hope you get absolutely ****ed up in every game you play in the Prem.

Similar thing happened to me two seasons back, when we played Oldham at Boundary park. I was living in Nottingham at the time, and forgot that I would have to cross the pennines to get there, as Usually this wasnt the case when travelling from Southend. I also got a flat tyre whilst halfway across the pennines and arrived over 25 minutes late, but unlike the Burnley stewards, the very nice Oldham staff, took my money, and then escorted me to the away end, where I was lucky enough to see Leon smash the back of the net.

 

[Tommy2holes]

Went to carlisle back in the alvin martin days. We had big nev in goal. Got free tickets to the game and 20 quid return on the train. Left at something like 7.30am train delays meant we didnt get to carlisle until after 1pm.

So me and the then mrs go and find this pub in the town centre. Im at the bar waiting to order and this bloke starts talking to me. Now im no language expert but i was convinced that he was speaking a foreign language so just sort of said yeah and ordered.
About ten minutes later the mrs goes to the toilet the same bloke comes over again with his mate and says basically that they were combat 18 and if we didnt leave in 5 minutes the would cut us open. He even opened his jacket to show me a meat cleaver.

So we leave to and go to the game which ends with us losing 5-0 and we manage to get a delayed train home. We eventually get in at about 1am.

Proper ****ter of a day.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Went to carlisle back in the alvin martin days. We had big nev in goal. Got free tickets to the game and 20 quid return on the train. Left at something like 7.30am train delays meant we didnt get to carlisle until after 1pm.

So me and the then mrs go and find this pub in the town centre. Im at the bar waiting to order and this bloke starts talking to me. Now im no language expert but i was convinced that he was speaking a foreign language so just sort of said yeah and ordered.
About ten minutes later the mrs goes to the toilet the same bloke comes over again with his mate and says basically that they were combat 18 and if we didnt leave in 5 minutes the would cut us open. He even opened his jacket to show me a meat cleaver.

So we leave to and go to the game which ends with us losing 5-0 and we manage to get a delayed train home. We eventually get in at about 1am.

Proper ****ter of a day.

Decent of the chap to give you five minutes notice there Tom.

 

[Napster]

Oh, well, Northampton away was fun. Good journey up with I think Ninja, Scriven, Gav Mcmahon and let's call him D, Macca Ds and beers on the choo-choo in, game of bowling before the game, but afterwards it all went tits-up. You see, D, a former poster on here, was with us, and his wife was heavily pregnant. Now, there was a train problem, so we had to get a coach connection. We ambled on, and at this moment, we had no drinks on us, but we were in a happy-go-lucky state of mind. Some other guys had drinks on the coach, and the driver got security to order us off. Scriven had a word, but D had just been told by his missus that she might be giving birth right at that moment!
I have never seen someone so angry at being told to leave a coach - D went for security, and given that he was an Olympic-standard judo performer, we tried to hold him back. Eventually, we all got off. The other lads managed to get on a different coach, but no-one would take D. One bloke, and even now, I am in gratitude, offered to drive D as long as I came along. We drove to the next station, D on the phone to his missus, trying to calm her down, etc, and us trying to get back to Southend. Then something inexplicable, even now. She turned her mobile off. She refused to answer her home phone. D was doing his nut, emotionally exhausted, and we're still trying to get home. He called the coppers, because he was worried that she was unable to get to the phone. Anyway, we all got home, eventually, and it turned out she wasn't giving birth, she was obviously trying to torment him. A little bit later, they've broken up. He doesnt post anymore, but he's a bloody decent bloke.

 

[DTS]

I always use this as my worse away day... Walsall away in the Leyland DAF Cup, on a stormy night on January 30th 1990.

We travelled up by car (my old black Cortina in those days) and arrived in windy, cold and rainy Walsall, trying to find a suitable pub to have a pre-match drink in. The few pubs we found and tried, we were met with unfriendly looks from Asians. For once, this bunch of white boys from Essex felt what it's like to be in an ethnic minority!

We decided to get some chips instead, so we made our way through the driving rain - wind getting stronger and stronger - to a chippy we finally found. By now the weather was so bad our legs were stinging, hands trembling and mouths were numb.

Once in the old open end of the ground, we waited for the game to begin. A wooden tour / gantry above us was creaking and swaying in the wind, seemingly about to topple over and crush us at any moment. The match was a nightmare. Southend were awful. Stuart Rimmer ripped us apart. Walsall 4 Southend 1.

The drive home would have been long and miserable enough, but the torrential rain and near hurricane force winds blowing a tank like Cortina from one lane to another made it all the more crappy.

Ha ha recall it well.

One of the worst peformances ever. Dad took me there to celebrate his birthday. Midweeker and ****ing it down. We got spanked. I splet all the way home on the train and we got in about 1.30am when I had school the next day.

 

[undercovershrimper]

being 1-0 up at orient in 04 curtosy of a Lawrie Dudfield header first Drewe then Tes decided to head into our goal to gift the pesky Borient a 2-1 win! Not Happy

 

[BrettieAngell]

Also i remember burnley away in the Championship, big journey, big expectations, 0-0 draw and a long drive home

Considering our form at the time that was a good result!

A few hundred Southend fans in a massive stand, we didn't stop signing the whole game!

 

[BrettieAngell]

being 1-0 up at orient in 04 curtosy of a Lawrie Dudfield header first Drewe then Tes decided to head into our goal to gift the pesky Borient a 2-1 win! Not Happy

And we missed a penalty when we were 1-0 up. :'(

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Posted this before I think, anyway, following is a copy of a brief entry in to the BBC 606 request a while back for short stories on footie experiences (its still on their site with all the others some of which are well worth a read):

Title: There's always next year

Writer: Andrew Leeder


Isolated for three years at Uni in Plymouth on a student grant I cannot resist the annual call of the FA Cup. It's November 1981 and my team the mighty Southend United are drawn away at Hereford.

Wake up at 6.30 am. Expectancy is in the air. This will be our year surely. At 7am I start off on my six mile cycle ride to the railway station in the pouring rain, get a puncture, run the bike the mile I had travelled back to the digs and hitch down to the station. I miss my train but catch the next one and eventually get to Hereford at 2pm.

We lose the match 3-1. Oh well, there's always next year. Got to get home first though.

Catch the train from Hereford but the network is in complete in chaos, resulting in me having to change at Newport, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter and Newton Abbot before arriving in Plymouth at 1 am. It's still pouring with rain and all of the bus drivers are in bed.

No choice but to walk back, mostly up hill. On a wet night in Plymouth the occasional passing driver ignores my futile attempts to hitch a lift.

One mile from the digs I am stopped by the police. "Excuse me sir, but would you mind telling us where you have been." I tell my story and back it up with a soggy programme as evidence. They laugh, inform me that I am not the peeping tom they are looking for, and speed off.

I make it back home at 2.30 pm, 20 hours after my day started. I am not disheartened, it has been a day to remember.

 

[Exiled Phil]

I recall going to Burnley on New Year's Eve 1994, a mate of mine drove and we underestimated how long it would take us to navigate throught the snowy Pennines. We arrived in the welcoming bosom of Burnley on the stroke of half-time, already two (maybe three?) down and not particularly hopeful that we would turn things around based on our form away from home that year. We ended up losing 5-1 (the legendary Roger Willis on target for the Blues), and I believe Grids and the Bress were both sent off. I didn't see any of that as we were told by the northern monkey at the turnstile that we couldn't come in at half-time for 'elf and safety' reasons. What a delightful way to see in the new year.

I was reminded of this story last night whilst listening to Durham and Wrighty on Talksport - they reported the tale of four Darlo fans who were turned away at HT at Aldershot after traffic problems. I would like to think this wouldn't happen to away fans at RH.

I was there for that one - we had to wear Burnley's change strip as ours clashed with their home kitm which added to the general confusion

 

[canveyshrimper]

Following on from Firestorm's comment about the 8-1 at Gillingham, to add insult to inury they scored our goal.

Northampton away, spent about 3 hours negotiating road works at Daventry, we got the half built ground, only for the ****ing floodlights to fail Cue another 3 sodding hours on the M1.

 

[GregStarz]

I can think of a few but the 1st one that comes to mind is the Doncaster playoff game, after the game our coach broke down just outside Doncaster in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black.

We waited hours and hours then managed to get another coach to pick us up, only problem was it was in Bournemouth and we had to wait, finally got in at around 6am and then went off to work!!!

 

[undercovershrimper]

6-1 at palace enough said

 

[* ORM *]

I've already bored the pants from people when similar topics come up from time to time. That's never stopped me before :p but here's the condensed version. Gigg Lane 1991 wrote my car off on the way up there. Frankly it's a miracle my brother wasn't seriously injured. The back of a flatbed truck finished inches away from his face. His mate in the back wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was thrown around a bit.

Managed to limp the car into M6 services just short of Birmingham. By divine intervention SUFC coaches were just loading up ready to leave and managed to jump on board. The rest is of course history. Other than my brother and his mate who were in the car at the time I've still not come across anyone that remembers seeing my car limp into the services.

Dropped off at same services on the way back. Took hours to get the car home avoiding motorways as I don't think Mr Plod would have taken too kindly to seeing my car limping down the M6-M1.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

6-1 at palace enough said

Did you do the 8-0 defeat at Palace?

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Following on from Firestorm's comment about the 8-1 at Gillingham, to add insult to inury they scored our goal.

Northampton away, spent about 3 hours negotiating road works at Daventry, we got the half built ground, only for the ****ing floodlights to fail Cue another 3 sodding hours on the M1.

And some of us were still silly enough to go to our next away game after Gillingham at Notts County, it was an improvement though as we only lost 6-2!

When was the postponed Northampton game?

 

[canveyshrimper]

And some of us were still silly enough to go to our next away game after Gillingham at Notts County, it was an improvement though as we only lost 6-2!

When was the postponed Northampton game?

Would have been around 85/86, they were still playing at the County Ground, where one side was open for the cricket ground which I think is now called Wantage Road.

 

[The Scribe]

For me its a game way back when we were in the 4th Division away to Newport County. Only a few fans were travelling to away games then, a coachload if we were lucky, so only enough people to fill a minibus were up for this particular game. Anyway when it turned up it proved to be the vehicle that the pop group 'The Kursall Flyers' had recently used to successful tour the UK with a record high in the charts, and so their logo and names were still plastered all over it.

Being of a similar age and so dressed like the group,(Hairstyles too matched !!) we should not then have been surprised to taken for being the band when we stopped at a service station. But initially we were, but then as the penny dropped we fully took advantage of the sitution, signing autographs and posing for photos.

It certainly made the long journey down to Wales enjoyable which was just as well because heavy rain had been falling for days and so the game was in doubt. Knowing this we made a number of stops, getting mobbed each time, to phone Newport to see if we should continue on our journey. Each time they said that the match was definitely go ahead and to keep on coming.

We arrived just 30 minutes before kick off having endured thick traffic near the ground. The game was still on, but then, just as we approached the turnstyles it got called off. All that way and no game. Still, there was there journey home and all those pop fans to enjoy ;-)