Past Southend goal-keepers

[B.B.The Legend Lives On.]

The worst was poor old Ray White who as a youngster was called up to play for the first team as the regular keeper was injured. Ray had a nightmare game and I am not sure if he played any more first team games

Ray White was still an apprentice when he made his league debut at York City in October 1965 when blues won 3-0 with goals from Malcolm Slater, Andy Smillie & Mel Slack. This was to be our only away win that season and we were relegated to Div.4 for the first time in our history. Ray also played in the following matches that season against Millwall at home lost 2-0, Peterborough away lost 4-0, Oxford United at home won 2-1 and his final match of 1965-66 was in November 1965 at the Goldstone Ground when Brighton won by 9-1, Mel Slack was the scorer of our goal that day and I have been told by a couple of people who witnessed this massacre it was the best goal of the game??. Ray then signed as a professional on January 1st. 1966 on his 18th, birthday. Ray's next appearance in the first team was over two years later at Exeter City when Billy Best scored a couple of goals in a 2-0 win just a week after scoring his first goal for the club in a 2-2 draw against Halifax Town at Roots Hall. Ray then played just a few more games, Doncaster Rovers away lost 2-1 + Chesterfield 1-1 and then the final match of that season a 3-1 win against Rochdale both matches at Roots Hall. Ray White left the club in June 1968 and joined Bristol Rovers.

 

[mfurok]

That ‘performance’ at Donny was another really sad one.

 

[Chrisb]

Will always remember Spud Taylor and Tes Bramble's emergency stints in goal. The best for me probably Neil Freeman, Trevor Roberts, Flavs and Dan Bentley.

 

[turkishm]

Harry Threadgold...blind as a bat and loved eating the sweets the kids used to throw into the goal for him!

 

[Stuart W]

Picked out seven. For different reasons I loved them all:-
Trevor Roberts
Derek Bellotti
Mervyn Cawston
Paul Sansome
Simon Royce
Daryl Flahavan
Dan Bentley

Unfair to pick out the rubbish ones, but if I did it would probably be about the same number.

 

[Napster]

He was a lovely guy and I had the privilege of nursing him

So did my wife. He also worked at my dads scrapyard after playing football

 

[Ricey]

For me it’s easily Darryl! An outstanding goalkeeper who was involved of some of the greatest moment I’ve experienced as a Southend fan. His performance against Manchester United preventing one of the greatest players of all time from scoring numerous times will live with me forever. And for the fact I’ve watched the game back at least 10 times now!

I know they were loan keepers but I always loved Andy Woodman, his character and the way he was with the South stand made me really like him. My first season as a season ticket holder and thought he was brilliant.

And for ability you can’t beat Adam Federici, he was the first keeper I remember who used the volley distribution. It went miles and picked out whoever he targeted 99 times out of 100. I really thought he was going to play for a top team and I’m sure he came close. Another top bloke!

We’ve been pretty lucky with keepers and had some great ones even in my time as a supporter.

I think Mark Prudhoe was the only one I remember being particularly terrible. Other than that I don’t think we really had any shockers in my time. I know Oxley gets a lot of stick but I actually quite liked him.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Interesting - the results in his last 26 League games for us W0 D9 L17 conceding 56 goals, 17 of which were in his last 5 games in 1984. Pretty hard to survive that.

He did have one decent spell in 81/82 when he was in a run of 12 games without defeat. But then he had Moody and Cusack as centre halves in front of him. Later it was Whymark and Steggles.

Overall he was only on the winning side 12 times in 63 League starts.

If I remember correctly part of his problem was that he didn’t realise that he was short sighted and needed contact lenses- but I may be making that up.

He did do well to make a career out of football after that.

Top stats - impressive.

 

[wiggy]

Best......Flavs and Roycie

Worst..... Hands like dinner plates Cumbersome and Prudhoe who came off at half time for Mel

 

[stewart]

Only ever saw two keepers Harry Threadgold and dont know who the pther was back in 1987, only know he let 3 goals in in a loss at RH against Halifax i think it was ,we lost 3-2 in front off a handful of spectators. But liked Flahaven watched SUFC V MANU a few times now . Federii has to be one of the best weve had also .

 

[Farmer Fossett]

Best for me was Simon Royce, worst Mark Prudhoe!

 

[RHB]

Fascinating to see how this thread has developed. I guess it depends on how old posters are which governs who they have seen. I went for Trevor Roberts but interestingly my most favourite all time G/K moment in a game was Daniel Bentley's penalty saves at Wembley, and yet he doesn't feature much on this thread.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I think Flahavan might have been better than Cawston even ——-if only he’d been 6 inches taller !

It wasn’t his height that let him down so much as his decision making.

If anything his lack of height actually helped his reputation as his lack of reach turned what would be standard saves for most keepers into finger tip saves at full stretch which looked more spectacular.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Crap?

He wasn’t that good.

As you know Ray I have strong opinions about most things.That includes football,SUFC (in particular),politics and a rather long list of etcs.

 

[shrimpled]

Has one of our Goalkeepers ever scored for us?

 

[londonblue]

Talking of goalkeepers, could we include Tes "The Cat" Bramble? We never lost a game with him in goal.

On a more serious note, I've never been able to find out if the darts player Ted Hankey (who's been in the news a bit recently) is related to our ex-player Ted Hankey who actually played a whole game in goal when our keeper wasn't available.

 

[londonblue]

If we could bottle the Brentford away performance from Paul Smith and have that for every one of his performances I would include him. He was world class that night.

 

[Tommy2holes]

If we could bottle the Brentford away performance from Paul Smith and have that for every one of his performances I would include him. He was world class that night.

He was. He singled saved us from a 8 goal mauling.

It was at this game that I realised that Brentford had gone up several levels and that we had began to slide.

Brentford are a club who were a lot similar to us. The difference is that they got an owner with a clear vision and deep pockets.

We find ourselves in tier 5 with Ron still at the helm and no new stadium.

Brentford are a prem side, new stadium and have just battered Chelsea at the bridge.

 

[Whispering Bob]

Has one of our Goalkeepers ever scored for us?

Tes Bramble.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

He was. He singled saved us from a 8 goal mauling.

It was at this game that I realised that Brentford had gone up several levels and that we had began to slide.

Brentford are a club who were a lot similar to us. The difference is that they got an owner with a clear vision and deep pockets.

We find ourselves in tier 5 with Ron still at the helm and no new stadium.

Brentford are a prem side, new stadium and have just battered Chelsea at the bridge.

Brentford were a division higher and we’d played them that season in the JPT and had deservedly beaten them. Then we drew them in the FA Cup and held them at home in a game we should have won and then they complete battered us in the replay.