Memory Lane Old Photos of Southend United.

[RobM]

The attendances in the Championship didn't fill our current 12,000 seater though.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Guys please. This is a thread full of great memories, video's, photo's and memorabilia for everyone to enjoy. Please don't turn it into a new stadium thread. We have loads of them already.

 

[LCBB72]

View attachment 4400

I finally dug out this picture from the loft.....1972 v Chelsea, great South Bank picture

The North Bank that night was rammed , the atmosphere that night was on par with the Villa cup game the season before , sadley those days on the North Bank are now in the distant past never to be experienced again , as it happens this exact time 45 years ago Southend had just kicked off against Villa , Oh happy days .

 

[Angell Delight]

The attendances in the Championship didn't fill our current 12,000 seater though.

Yes they did, we were pretty much sold out every week with a 5-figure average for the season. Obviously you need to have some segregation.

 

[AndyT]

Just wondering what time that game kicked off, as the photo looks like it's taken during the day?

Had to hook out the Chelsea side that evening, just to put names to those numbers and blimey, some names there :-

Bonetti
Mulligan
Harris
Webb
Boyle
McCreadie
Hollins
Houseman
Kember
Garland
Osgood

... and as has been well documented .. 24,160 there.

 

[LCBB72]

Just wondering what time that game kicked off, as the photo looks like it's taken during the day?

Had to hook out the Chelsea side that evening, just to put names to those numbers and blimey, some names there :-

Bonetti
Mulligan
Harris
Webb
Boyle
McCreadie
Hollins
Houseman
Kember
Garland
Osgood

... and as has been well documented .. 24,160 there.

It was a 7.30 kick off , and that Chelsea team came so close to being on the end of a giant killing and were holding on by there finger nails for much of the game .

 

[Nick Prawnby]

Not sure where I read this but when Maplin airport was given the ahead in the 70s didn't the Rubins have plans to make the East a triple decker stand as the Southend areas population was expected to grow by a couple of hundred thousand?[/QUOTE]



You mean this!

 

[Johnthebomb]

Thought I would join to hear news and opinions of other supporters. I like some of the historic comments and pictures of times past.

I first starting watching the Blues in 1951 when the club played at Grainger Road stadium, travelling there on a saddle on my Dad's crossbar and then parking the bike in a shed under the west stand and paying a small fee. Good old days.

Moving on,the greatest match I ever saw, was when we played Man City in thr FA cup January 1956. The pitch was a quagmire, as it had been raining for about four days and I remember walking down to Roots Hall in the morning watching lorry loads of sand and cockleshells being being rolled onto the pitch and supporters mopping up the water.

Myself and my Family stood on the North bank which had not been completed, so there were no steps, just grass and mud, so we had to try and get a foothold. The Blues wore a changed strip of old gold shirts and shorts, watched by a crowd of some 29,000 plus. The game started but the ball kept sticking in the mud and puddles, despite this the football played was very entertaining.

City managed to score in the first half, with a shot that just trickled over the goal line, after sticking in the mud and appearing to hit Williamson, our full back, on the way in. Blues came out determined in the second half and bombarded the City goal but could not beat Bert Trautmann, who produced one of the finest goalkeeping displays I have ever seen in 65 years of watching football.

The German keeper made save after save but the greatest of them all, was when our centre forward Roy Hollis hit a superb shot that deflected and with Trautmann diving the wrong way, he twisted his body in mid-air and finger-tipped the ball away. Hollis held his hands in his face in disbelief but then applauded the save, such sportmanship.

Trautmann went on to say that it was his greatest match and then went on to play in the cup final with a broken neck!

I still support the Blues but have been living in France for nine years, so kept in touch on Blues player. Now living in Clacton and llooking for other supporters that may live nearby, so if you do, or you know someone that does, I would appreciate a reply to this post.
Cheers,
John
​

Quick Reply

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Thought I would join to hear news and opinions of other supporters. I like some of the historic comments and pictures of times past.

I first starting watching the Blues in 1951 when the club played at Grainger Road stadium, travelling there on a saddle on my Dad's crossbar and then parking the bike in a shed under the west stand and paying a small fee. Good old days.

Moving on,the greatest match I ever saw, was when we played Man City in thr FA cup January 1956. The pitch was a quagmire, as it had been raining for about four days and I remember walking down to Roots Hall in the morning watching lorry loads of sand and cockleshells being being rolled onto the pitch and supporters mopping up the water.

Myself and my Family stood on the North bank which had not been completed, so there were no steps, just grass and mud, so we had to try and get a foothold. The Blues wore a changed strip of old gold shirts and shorts, watched by a crowd of some 29,000 plus. The game started but the ball kept sticking in the mud and puddles, despite this the football played was very entertaining.

City managed to score in the first half, with a shot that just trickled over the goal line, after sticking in the mud and appearing to hit Williamson, our full back, on the way in. Blues came out determined in the second half and bombarded the City goal but could not beat Bert Trautmann, who produced one of the finest goalkeeping displays I have ever seen in 65 years of watching football.

The German keeper made save after save but the greatest of them all, was when our centre forward Roy Hollis hit a superb shot that deflected and with Trautmann diving the wrong way, he twisted his body in mid-air and finger-tipped the ball away. Hollis held his hands in his face in disbelief but then applauded the save, such sportmanship.

Trautmann went on to say that it was his greatest match and then went on to play in the cup final with a broken neck!

I still support the Blues but have been living in France for nine years, so kept in touch on Blues player. Now living in Clacton and llooking for other supporters that may live nearby, so if you do, or you know someone that does, I would appreciate a reply to this post.
Cheers,
John Sheppard.
​

Quick Reply

Great memories John, I only started going in '71 so am a junior in comparison. There is a guy just behind me in East Green's who has been going since 1945 and hopes to lead the teams out sometime this season for his 80th birthday. I think there are one or two exiles within a few miles of Clacton, we live in Hadleigh Suffolk (go to all home games and some away) so not too far away. Maybe an 'out of town' social for North Essex/South Suffolk might be an idea with all interested as would be good to recall over a pint old SUFC memories, tho perhaps that is a topic for another thread to avoid upsetting the thrust of this one too much.:smile:

 

[Chairman Trigg]

Thanks Nick....I wasn't drunk after all...8000 seater main stand that would have taken the capacity to 40,000.....and they thought our current chairman was mad wanting a 22,000 seater stadium!

Not sure where I read this but when Maplin airport was given the ahead in the 70s didn't the Rubins have plans to make the East a triple decker stand as the Southend areas population was expected to grow by a couple of hundred thousand?

View attachment 4402

You mean this![/QUOTE]

 

[jaffa1]

View attachment 4400

I finally dug out this picture from the loft.....1972 v Chelsea, great South Bank picture

That is a great picture - thanks - still remember that game as if it was yesterday, and I actually loved that Chelsea change kit of red, white and green.

 

[AndyT]

I wonder what it must have felt like for our players that night. Must have been something special to play in.

Standing there, in that picture, and looking across and thinking "That's Peter Osgood, standing there and Ron Harris and Peter Houseman"!

 

[Mick]

Ipswich, and Norwich in the 50s 60s and 70s where not a bigger clubs than Southend United FC


Sadly we just missed out on the successes at the time just look we was very unlucky

Delusional.

Ipswich spent every season of the 70s in the top division under the superb management of Bobby Robson. They finished in the top six of that top division 6 times in the seventies and won the FA Cup. Average crowds were well in to the mid twenty thousands.

Southend spent the 70s yo-yoing between the bottom two divisions watched by not too many.

Meaningful comparison between the "size" (whatever that means) of the respective clubs is valid 'til the mid 50s.

 

[Zeuss]

Great memories John, I only started going in '71 so am a junior in comparison. There is a guy just behind me in East Green's who has been going since 1945 and hopes to lead the teams out sometime this season for his 80th birthday. I think there are one or two exiles within a few miles of Clacton, we live in Hadleigh Suffolk (go to all home games and some away) so not too far away. Maybe an 'out of town' social for North Essex/South Suffolk might be an idea with all interested as would be good to recall over a pint old SUFC memories, tho perhaps that is a topic for another thread to avoid upsetting the thrust of this one too much.:smile:

Yes,indeed-even though I was only 6(my first season)that Man City cup-tie remains the most exciting game I've ever seen.Bernt Trautmann's performance was simply stupendous(even better than the much unfairly maligned Paul Smith at Brentford!) I'll never ever forget the excitement in the"paddock" and my mum' s desperate screaming at our forwards "Quick!Quick!He's out of his goal!"

 

[Chairman Trigg]

Came across these autographs today amongst some old programmes , seeing Ian "chico "Hamiltons name,what a great player he was and the names of Trevor Roberts and Johnny Mckinven sadly no longer with us.Another great cup game I remember is the QPR cup tie where we came back to draw 2-2 .Like the Chelsea team sheet thread can anyone post the teams that day ? and any memories

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

View attachment 4406Came across these autographs today amongst some old programmes , seeing Ian "chico "Hamiltons name,what a great player he was and the names of Trevor Roberts and Johnny Mckinven sadly no longer with us.Another great cup game I remember is the QPR cup tie where we came back to draw 2-2 .Like the Chelsea team sheet thread can anyone post the teams that day ? and any memories

At the time i'm sure they were 2nd in the old 1st Division?. Webby played for them that day, as he did for Chelsea 3 years earlier.
We were 0-2 down in the 2nd half, and I think we scored twice within several minutes, for Roots Hall to literally erupt. The noise must have been heard in the High Street!.
Crowd was around 16,000(?), and after our equaliser went in, their was an almighty surge forward in the North Bank, which fortunately was contained before anyone was injured.
The replay was the following Tuesday, we lost 2-0, & a handful of us went into their Loft End (I.S, H.R, J.W, M.W, M.S, me & a couple others. But that's another story!.

 

[kaymac]

Was sitting at the back of the East stand. Up against a very strong QPR side who dominated most of the game and featured household names such as Phil Parkes, Stan Bowles and Don Givens to name just three. Gate I recall was a little over 18,000. QPR looked to be coasting to victory then out of nothing Chris Guthrie scored and when the second went in.....yep, RH did indeed 'erupt' - what a noise!

 

[AndyT]

18,100 it seems.

21,484 at the replay.

 

[LCBB72]

Was sitting at the back of the East stand. Up against a very strong QPR side who dominated most of the game and featured household names such as Phil Parkes, Stan Bowles and Don Givens to name just three. Gate I recall was a little over 18,000. QPR looked to be coasting to victory then out of nothing Chris Guthrie scored and when the second went in.....yep, RH did indeed 'erupt' - what a noise!

If I remember right most of the QPR team were internationals .

 

[billy best was god]

Remember the Chelsea match well, as a 13 year old having always gone to the match since 1967 with my dad I decided only kids went to football with their dad so went to the match with a couple of Greensward school class mates, only problem was some Chelsea supporters had got into the North bank resulting with a bottle being thrown in the air which then smashed into the top of my head resulting in a split head and lots of pain and blood, worst was trying to back in doors without my parents finding out what had happened as I was worried they would not let me go with my mates again. But what a match

Remember (I think???) a young Southend supporter with a cut on his top lip after the match later that season and was told it happened during the Chelsea match, not sure whether it did but 44 years later still see him at most matches (normally with an umbrella in the spread)