Back in July 2024, I was asked to contact a long standing Shrimpers Trust member (a Life member, in fact) by the name of Brian Sheridan, who lived in Ireland, about the Junior Blues as he had some “questions”. After a few email exchanges, it transpired that he had grown up as a Southend United supporter, spending afternoons and evenings on the terraces in support of our beloved Blues before moving to Dublin in the mid 70s.
Brian would continue to travel “home” to Roots Hall for at least one match a season, and, in 1993, brought over 30 children aged 11 / 12 from a local Dublin club called Lourdes Celtic. To this day he still sees some of these now grown men who while they may support other more glamorous clubs, ensure him that they still keep an eye out for our results. To top off the trip, Pat Scully was playing for Southend at the time and his schoolboy club was Lourdes Celtic so that was the icing on the cake for these ‘starstruck’ kids. The club even arranged for one of the travelling kids to be the mascot for the game against Luton Town, which was Stan Collymore’s last appearance for us.
To this end, Brian was enquiring as to whether a similar trip could be arranged, for another schoolboy club which he had connections with – Jobstown Celtic U11s, who play in the Dublin Schoolboy League – and whether the boys could sign up as Junior Blues members.
Former Trust Chairman, Paul FitzGerald, and I entered into an email exchange with Brian to ascertain exactly what he was looking for, where we could help and what we could do to give these boys an experience to remember and enlisted the help of Tom Lawrence. With Southend United then planning an out of season visit to Ireland themselves for preseason, it was arranged for Brian to meet up with Tom, Kevin Maher himself and Justin if he could get along to discuss this in person.
This meeting went well, Brian did indeed meet up with Tom, Kevin and Justin, and all three were keen for these boys to come over to Roots Hall with the promise of a match and tickets for a game.
The date pencilled in for the visit was for the final home match of the season, against Wealdstone on 25th April, with a request to play a match on the morning of the match. We established an email group which included Commercial Manager Rylee Doe, Ticket Office manager Sarah Kavanagh and Tom Bailey from SUCF, to help facilitate the visit and to make arrangements for the boys at Southend United. In the background, Paul and I were still trying to assist with travel and accommodation.
The Club arranged for complimentary tickets for the whole group of 12 children and 13 adults, which included Brian, and Tom arranged for a match for the boys on the Friday evening (which was decided to be a better option) against the Shadow Squad of a similar age.
As the season has turned out, Brian and his group of Irish visitors couldn’t have picked a better weekend to come over to visit Southend United. An exciting time with the Play-Offs still within our reach. The scheduled match against the Shadow Squad went ahead, well organised and managed by coaches from within the Foundation, where it became clear that there was quite a gulf between the two sides! It was clear that the U11's Shadow Squad was a step up in footballing quality that the Irish schoolboys were not used to, but credit to SUCF coaches, Jake Bolton & Elliot Brooks, who communicated openly and helped to make the last game someway competitive, something that the boys took great pride from.
And then, on to the Wealdstone game itself – Roots Hall in the sunshine and Southend United playing at their best, running out 3-0 winners and moving into the Play Off places, with one match to go.
We received the following “thank you” from Mark, one of the coaches, and a parent, at Jobstown Celtic, which says it all:
“I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to all at Southend United who made last weekend possible for the kids from Jobstown Celtic to have the opportunity to play a game of football in a different country but also attend last weekend’s game against Wealdstone FC.
What a game to attend for our first experience at Roots Hall (with the exception of Brian) and no doubt we will be back as fans to support a truly incredible club in the future. I expect that the club has made some lifelong supporters from Ireland on the back of this trip.
What an experience we had and all the kids and adults had amazing experience and commented on the openness and friendliness of anybody representing Southend United that we had the pleasure of interacting with.
Our kids have created brilliant memories that will stay with them a lifetime and no doubt the Southend United trip will become an important milestone on these kids football journey.
Kay, thank you for being the architect behind this trip, Southend United has provided a very special experience for our team / club, of which we were the first team to travel representing the club in a long time.”
The Trust would like to extend our grateful thanks to everyone who helped to make this visit, which is a true example of how we work best when we work together.
Brian would continue to travel “home” to Roots Hall for at least one match a season, and, in 1993, brought over 30 children aged 11 / 12 from a local Dublin club called Lourdes Celtic. To this day he still sees some of these now grown men who while they may support other more glamorous clubs, ensure him that they still keep an eye out for our results. To top off the trip, Pat Scully was playing for Southend at the time and his schoolboy club was Lourdes Celtic so that was the icing on the cake for these ‘starstruck’ kids. The club even arranged for one of the travelling kids to be the mascot for the game against Luton Town, which was Stan Collymore’s last appearance for us.
To this end, Brian was enquiring as to whether a similar trip could be arranged, for another schoolboy club which he had connections with – Jobstown Celtic U11s, who play in the Dublin Schoolboy League – and whether the boys could sign up as Junior Blues members.
Former Trust Chairman, Paul FitzGerald, and I entered into an email exchange with Brian to ascertain exactly what he was looking for, where we could help and what we could do to give these boys an experience to remember and enlisted the help of Tom Lawrence. With Southend United then planning an out of season visit to Ireland themselves for preseason, it was arranged for Brian to meet up with Tom, Kevin Maher himself and Justin if he could get along to discuss this in person.
This meeting went well, Brian did indeed meet up with Tom, Kevin and Justin, and all three were keen for these boys to come over to Roots Hall with the promise of a match and tickets for a game.
The date pencilled in for the visit was for the final home match of the season, against Wealdstone on 25th April, with a request to play a match on the morning of the match. We established an email group which included Commercial Manager Rylee Doe, Ticket Office manager Sarah Kavanagh and Tom Bailey from SUCF, to help facilitate the visit and to make arrangements for the boys at Southend United. In the background, Paul and I were still trying to assist with travel and accommodation.
The Club arranged for complimentary tickets for the whole group of 12 children and 13 adults, which included Brian, and Tom arranged for a match for the boys on the Friday evening (which was decided to be a better option) against the Shadow Squad of a similar age.
As the season has turned out, Brian and his group of Irish visitors couldn’t have picked a better weekend to come over to visit Southend United. An exciting time with the Play-Offs still within our reach. The scheduled match against the Shadow Squad went ahead, well organised and managed by coaches from within the Foundation, where it became clear that there was quite a gulf between the two sides! It was clear that the U11's Shadow Squad was a step up in footballing quality that the Irish schoolboys were not used to, but credit to SUCF coaches, Jake Bolton & Elliot Brooks, who communicated openly and helped to make the last game someway competitive, something that the boys took great pride from.
And then, on to the Wealdstone game itself – Roots Hall in the sunshine and Southend United playing at their best, running out 3-0 winners and moving into the Play Off places, with one match to go.
We received the following “thank you” from Mark, one of the coaches, and a parent, at Jobstown Celtic, which says it all:
“I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to all at Southend United who made last weekend possible for the kids from Jobstown Celtic to have the opportunity to play a game of football in a different country but also attend last weekend’s game against Wealdstone FC.
What a game to attend for our first experience at Roots Hall (with the exception of Brian) and no doubt we will be back as fans to support a truly incredible club in the future. I expect that the club has made some lifelong supporters from Ireland on the back of this trip.
What an experience we had and all the kids and adults had amazing experience and commented on the openness and friendliness of anybody representing Southend United that we had the pleasure of interacting with.
Our kids have created brilliant memories that will stay with them a lifetime and no doubt the Southend United trip will become an important milestone on these kids football journey.
Kay, thank you for being the architect behind this trip, Southend United has provided a very special experience for our team / club, of which we were the first team to travel representing the club in a long time.”
The Trust would like to extend our grateful thanks to everyone who helped to make this visit, which is a true example of how we work best when we work together.
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