Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
In my 54 years of supporting, this is without question the very, very best opening day.
It will also go down as one of those "Games to Remember" and we were saying afterwards, it is a long, long time since we've left the Hall feeling like that. I had quite forgotten how football can make you feel at the upper end of the emotional ladder.
Given all the preceding circumstances including almost an entire pre-season that has been condensed into about a fortnight, that in my opinion has to rank as one of the best EVER Southend performances.
As
@Yorkshire Blue says, that was for the fans who cleaned up, the staff who stayed loyal, the players, everyone. If any prospective buyer/investor was watching, that is what you are going to get with this club. Incredible spirit, fantastic fan base. It was a huge 2 fingered salute at Ron Martin and showed what we could do despite him.
Everyone connected with the club needed that. Our troubles have been well documented in the media, even if not everyone has fully got to grips with the problem. But only on Monday evening did we get the news we could continue and in a bizarre way, that may have helped. There was no expectation; the team had nothing to lose., It was a free hit.
If Oldham had won by that margin we would have been disappointed, yes, but we would have been deriding Ron Martin, probably some of the players, saying things like "What did we expect?" and looking anxiously at the teams in the NLS.
This was so unexpected... but one swallow doesn't make a summer. A few years ago we beat Blackburn 2-1 and then got thumped 5-0 at Rotherham, so we are only as good as our next result.
However, there is huge cause for optimism, especially if at some point we can strengthen the squad, which would usually be an appropriate time to usually talk about the embargo but I'm not going to do that and as far as I'm concerned, the season has started, the team needs my support and they will get it 100%.
The Oldham fans were noisy and my initial thought was "I hope we can shut them up". I think it took about a minute. We started very much the brighter and had a chance to go one up before Kensdale was caught in possession, his blushes being spared by the first of three brilliant tackles by Nathan Ralph.
We could have already been two up (plus a strong penalty appeal) before Powell's 8th minute opener and we just kept turning the screw. Oldham looked disjointed, slow, uninterested and we were looking to make them pay. There were 3 clearances off the line and they were on the ropes. However, their new marquee signing James Norwood - huge at this level (in every sense of the word) - started to get involved and directed a decent header straight at Collin. They started to come into it, had forced a couple of corners and I think the general consensus was that we would do well to hang on to our lead until the break. We duly obliged and hoped the missed chances would not come back to bite us.
Not today they didn't, although I began to wonder when we weren't given an absolute nailed on penalty in the first couple of minutes of the second half for handball. The linesman was over the other side and wouldn't have had the best view; if he had been in front of the East Blacks, he would have surely awarded it.
Just shy of the hour mark in an otherwise fairly even opening to the second half, a very poor challenge on Ralph resulted in a straight red for Sutton and in truth, their captain Hogan - who had already been booked - should have been booked again as he ran 30 yards to get involved and confronted the ref. But he wasn't and IMHO that was one of the few poor decisions made by a generally otherwise decent ref.
Against 10 men we were starting to struggle a bit, they were coming in to the game and we started mucking around at the back with it, nearly causing our own downfall. We were starting to look leggy and Mooney replaced an obviously disappointed Powell to give us some fresh legs. Fonguck had become almost anonymous after a decent first half. and after 82 mins he made way for Oli Coker. The 10 men of Oldham were still in touching distance and at only 1-0, anything can happen.
Coker had other ideas and with 2 minutes of being on the pitch, he hit one from around 25 yards that nestled in the bottom corner of the net.
Cue some Oldham fans to leave, but they would have missed a goal of the season contender from Dan "I'm not playing here again" Mooney. It ended in the same net position as Cokers, but was from about 5 yards further out.
3-0 and we are all delighted, but we weren't done. Cardwell took his turn at long range shooting, his effort being batted away by the keeper, but netted a 4th with a proper header and the story was complete.
Our strongest XI is decent but a few injuries will hammer us so it's imperative that we come out of the embargo asap.
RATINGS
Ndi - 7 - Very good handling, kicking ok, two or three dodgy decisions that we were nearly caught with
Scott-Morris - 8 - Very good, long throws caused a bit of a problem for them.
Kensdale - 7 - Got caught in possession once but otherwise a decent performance
Taylor - 9 - Excellent performance, almost faultless
Ralph - 9.5 - MOM - Kept us in it 3 times with great precise tackles. One of his best performances for us.
Bridge - 7 - Unusually quiet for him
Husin - 8 - Really drove the midfield
Miley - 9 - Excellent performance, broke up their play as well
Fonguck - 7 - Excellent first half but faded after the break
Powell - 8 - An opening goal, great workrate.
Cardwell - 9 - Everywhere and got a deserved goal at the end.
Subs -
Mooney - 8 - Before he scored his performance was very Mooney-esque, but what a goal!
Coker - 9 - Showed the others how to shoot with a cracker within 2 minutes of coming on and also set up the 4th.
Demitriou - 7 - On late, not much to do.
Ref - 7- Not bad. Got most decisions right but missed a couple of penalties and also bottled giving their skipper a second yellow.
