Saturday, 21st February 2009 - the date will go down in history as the day we broke the yellow away kit hoodoo and, more importantly, won the Essex bragging rights again with a dogged and determined 1-0, first of many victories at Cuckoo Farm!
With an early pick up on the coaches, we alighted at Chelmsford services at 20 past 12 to spend about 40 minutes watching the other lot of boys (and girls) in blue going over a suspect lorry with a fine toothcomb, only to find about 10 minutes before our departure time - the team coach turns up! Adam Barrett, Alan McCormack, Anthony Grant, Simon Francis, Lee Barnard, Kevin Betsy, Osei Sankofa all had a wander amongst the fans, presumably having driven up to meet the coach there for the remainder of the journey. Gave us a chance to wish them all well before piling onto our coaches to follow them up the A12. Arrival at the ground, you just knew that winding road in was going to cause problems on the way out (about an hour it took coming out), but the concourse looked nice and large, and I have to say I was very impressed with the loos when we got inside! The rest of this new ground though was a soulless mass of steel and breeze blocks - at least Layer Road had some character. Awful queues for drinks and food before the game - £3.10 a pint :thumbdown: . Seats seemed wider than normal, are there a lot of "fat bottomed" people in Colchester? Still, it made for more comfortable viewing - and boy, weren't we close to the pitch?!
I'd had a bit of insider information the previous day so knew that Dougie was injured and Francis Laurent would be starting, and that Anthony Grant would be replacing Franno - this was to deal with that little firebrand Mark Yeates, and fair play, to Granty, he knew his role! So the team was Mildenhall, Sankofa, Dervite, Clarke, Barrett, Grant, McCormack, Christophe, Moussa, Robinson and Laurent with Joyce, Betsy, Barnard, Francis and Scannell on the bench.
The Trust walkers had obviously presented the match ball at the end of their Blues to Us sponsored walk although I must have still been in the drinks queue - well done to the lads!
Match got underway with the Blues in their yellow away kit attacking into the sun - obviously a ploy by Colchester to make us do this, to "inconvenience" us. Adam Barrett had the ball in the net after only about 5 minutes, following well worked movement by Peter Clarke directly onto his head, but ruled out for offside. This kind of gave us an indication of what was going to happen because just on a quarter of an hour, Clarke released a long pass out to Theo on the right wing who drove a fantastic cross into the box for young Franck Moussa to connect with and fire home his first ever senior professional goal for the Club. Cue ecstatic responses from the Southend fans, Moussa standing wanting to hear the crowd chanting his name in the usual fashion and the rest of the team mobbing him! Great moment, and a really well taken goal - couldn't have picked a better occasion on which to get that 1st goal.
The game settled down into one of midfield domination, with action a'plenty. Adam Barrett, attempting to take a throw in from in front of the Colchester fans in the stand to our right suddenly found a match ball launched at him from the crowd - why did they employ that stupid system of having balls all over the place? Plain daft I thought. The Ewes' defender Maybury clearly raised his hand and made contact with Alan McCormack's head and what should have been a definate red was only a yellow and Macca got booked too strangely despite no retaliation - well, not in a Macca way anyway. Clarkey also got involved and you kind of thought the afternoon was going to be another red card fest reminiscent of a game in the not too distant past at Layer Road.
First half played out with a clear game plan for the Blues of throwing accurate long passes out to Theo or Laurent to run at the full backs with and there were some good runs made, also from McCormack but unfortunately no addition to the goals for count, despite Jeff heading over from close range. Macca took a couple more knocks to that already sensitive nose during the first half and I half wondered if he'd make an appearance a la Matt Harrold in the 2nd, knew he wouldn't want to miss out on playing!
Izzet, Baldwin, Yeates and Tierney tested Mildenhall in the Southend goal, but he was up to anything and looked totally commanding and more than able to deal with anything they threw at him. The Ewes seemed to have supplied the officials with a special rule book in which Section 876 rule 94 sub section c (iii) clearly states that "any Colchester player judged to have handled the ball will be allowed to get away with it for all officials must turn a blind eye in such circumstances" - 5 (I think) handballs by them? :stunned:
Half time entertainment with the mascots' race for Little Havens - Sammy and Elvis were their usual selves, pandemonium ensued. The dancing girls came on and did a poor imitation of our very own Bluebelles (I'm sure the routine was the same?!), before starting the 2nd half.
Similar circumstances to the 1st half really, same tactics with Theo and Laurent, with Laurent now looking a little jaded having only just returned from injury and having taken a knock in the reserves game during the week, Lee Barnard went through a lengthy warm up. Macca, Jeff and Granty were enduring the most physical of battle in the middle of the park, Clarke and Dervite were mopping up almost everything that came through midfield, and Mildenhall was up to anything that reached him. The Ewes brought on Steven Gillespie (who?!) just after the hour to try and cause more threat, but we still stood firm. McCormack went on a glorious run from the halfway line putting a cross over which Laurent just failed to connect with and which would have made a fantastic 2nd goal. Barney came on for Laurent just a little later, and you could see the Essex boy was ready to play his part, he might be made of porcelain, but you can't doubt his attitude in the tackle!
Frustrations boiling over saw Macca (and Laurent before he went off) getting another knock to his face, and the start of a quite unbelievable spell of refereeing when decisions were being given against us at every opportunity - fouls, free kicks, corners, throw ins and Southend names going into the ref's book - you just never knew what he was going to do next. Simon Hackney came on for the Ewes to try and break things down in the last 10 minutes or so, but the Blues still managed, despite the ref's best efforts to contain things. Franno came on for Anthony Grant in the last 5 official minutes, whose poor body had been battered and bruised and had run his legs off containing Yeates successfully, finally the Ewes brought on Gobbern for the poisonous peroxide Perkins and Betsy came on for us for Theo. Each substituted Blues' player saluted the fans and got a standing ovation. Still time for Franno to get in a couple of decent attacking runs down the side against an exhausted Yeates but no end product.
Counting down the minutes, the 4th official suddenly produced a board that said 6 minutes time added on. We all looked at each other in disbelief - 3 minutes tops we'd expected, but still, backs to the wall stuff and we managed to hold on for that all important win despite everything the Ewes threw at us. Final whistle - explosion of noise on the Southend terrace, the players came over and joined the fans, boy, were they happy! Some naughty behaviour from Barrett, Clarkey, Macca and Grant towards the Colchester fans but we loved them all the more for it. Singing on the terraces with the players and management continued with every player coming over to salute the fans - this was a real "united" performance. Top marks all round - tactics spot on and the right result at the end of the day, despite the officials' best efforts to thwart us.
Ratings - Mildenhall - 8; Sankofa - 8; Dervite - 7; Clarke - 9; Barrett - 8; Grant - 7; McCormack - 8; Christophe - 7; Moussa - 9; Robinson - 8; Laurent - 7. Subs: Barnard (for Laurent) - 7; Francis (for Grant) - 7; Betsy (for Robinson) - 7.
Officials - comical rather than dire, 1st half better than 2nd 4/10
TBV - top marks 10/10 - bloody brilliant :support:
