It was an epic performance from the team and the fans. In the circs, probably the best game yet at the (new) Meadow, and I've hardly missed one. Not for quality of football, though ours was high, but for drama, atmosphere, tension and the importance of the result. Had we lost, a 10 point gap would have left us rank outsiders to win the league, though still in the top 3 race. Winning puts us right back in it and I hope this will be the turning point of our season, the day we really began to turn our potential into achievement. Time will tell on that but I'm still on a high from that game over 24 hours later.
I said last week that the place would go mental when Grandison scored his first goal but I hadn't imagined it coming the way it did and meaning what it did. Fabulous moment.
Morgan was unlucky with the red. I didn't think it was bad at the time and the replay shows a late, but certainly not reckless, tackle. Yellow only. Their player made a meal of it, then trotted back on to play the full 90 mins. He deserved the constant booing he got. I'd accept Dickinson's claim that it was a clash of heads with Sherriff except that he was clearly late, so why no straight red for him as well? Why was his challenge not reckless when he clearly was no more in control of it than Morgan. And of course he did far more damage than Morgan, not that that's the criterion on which cards are judged. Terrible referee yesterday and no blame from me for Morgan. We need him back soon.
However, the red card galvanised the team and the crowd responded to the sense of injustice. The intensity level went through the roof for the rest of the game and I think it got to Southend. They knew the crowd would howl for everything and the ref would be under pressure. We seemed to win most of the 50-50 balls for the rest of the game and were first to the ball many times when I thought we had no chance to be.
Special praise for Collins, not because he worked so hard - for me that's a given for all but the most gifted players - but because of the real quality he showed. He won balls I didn't think he'd get, he held the ball intelligently and brought others into the game and he worried the Southend defence throughout. Outstanding performance. Richards and McAllister were a great partnership, the defence was magnificent, everyone played their part.
My only real criticism would be that we stopped trying to play when we were 1-0 up and gave up possession too easily. That left them free to come at us and the equaliser wasn't a great surprise. The amazing thing was that we then picked our game up again and dominated and, at 2-1 up, we'd learned our lesson, kept possession better and looked as likely to score a 3rd as concede another equaliser.
Now we have to put it behind us, come back to earth and start improving that away record. Let's sell out our Hereford allocation, get a result there and then follow up by raising the roof with another big derby against Vale.