So close for them. please log in to view this image BBC SOUTHEND WIN 7-6 ON PENALTIES AND WIN PROMOTION TO LEAGUE ONE. GOAL 120+2 mins ET: Southend United 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers (Joe Pigott) SOUTHEND EQUALISE! Myles Weston puts in a peach of a cross, a superb knockdown to Joe Pigott, and the substitute fires in from 12 yards. Phil Brown is punching the air, Southend delighted, Wycombe dejected, penalties imminent. please log in to view this image
That is something I could never feel! The most horrible club in the world lost in the worst circumstances possible. BRILLIANT!!! I will go to my grave hating/loathing that club & town. It's a South Bucks thing!
Not the best of games but entertaining! Gutting for wycombe fans. Southend keeper was the most unsporting I've seen in run up to every kick. Highlight was a Southend director screaming F off at us and gesticulating as they equalised, having bit heavily at some gentle teasing. Looked rather deflated when I laughed back explaining I was just there for the free beer!
Wow - you've clearly never had the misfortune of visiting Aylesbury or anywhere in Bedfordshire for that matter.
Apparently Aylesbury caused deep upset in Afghanistan when they tried to twin it with Helmand Province, the Afghans didn't want an association with such a rough hellhole. There is a level of desolate, bleak misery about Beds that is difficult to replicate or explain. Particularly, Luton and Leighton Buzzard. Given the choice, I'd rather visit Dignitas than Beds.
To others, of course the actual town is probably no worse than Aylesbury, Slough, Luton, Milton Keynes etc. It may be no worse than my home town of Chesham! However, from my very first memories, I had inherited a very real loathing of THAT club. Back in the 50's & till the mid 60's not many people regulary travelled to London to watch football & supported their local non legue team. There was no love between the followers of Chesham, Slough, Maidenhead, Aylesbury etc. towards each other, but we all had one thing in common. W****** W****** were the work of Satan & by definition this extended to the town. It was on a par with how all supporters of other London clubs detest C****** now. At that time WW were regulars to finishing near the bottom of the Isthmian League but behaved as if they were the greatest club in the world. Come the mid 60's & they were the best side in amateur football. What brought about the change? Well according to the club they were still true amateurs & unlike the rest of the league (apart from Corinthian Casuals) did not pay their players. Of course, they refused to answer as to how they had managed to sign all of the top players in the country from clubs that openly paid players! Sheer hypocrisy! The Russian billionaire down the road probably based his philosophy on how WW was ran in those days. One of their players (allegedly) was unemployed but received a new car every season as a signing on fee & kept refuing offers to sign professionally for Football league clubs. YET, they wern't paying the players! My best day of watching football came in 1965 when Chesham were losing 2-0 to them with ten minutes left. Stewart scullion then took them apart & we won 3-2. This is why, even now, Mr. Scullion is my favourite footballer. How I wish he had worn the hoops! Then in 1968, Chesham reached the Amateur Cup Final at Wembley (a town of 20,000 sold over 30,000 tickets!) & the committee of the W****** Combination refused to allow Chesham & Amersham clubs to postpose their games on that day, even though they cancelled all matches when WW were at Wembley! More than anything, this summed up how that town regarded their superiority in the area. A rarity then occured! All clubs that were due to play the C & A teams called the matches off in support of us! Also, anyone that suffered watching Procol Harum "perform" at HW Town hall will know what I mean when I say I saw my worst gig ever in that town!
Thanks very much for your detailed explanation Terry. Like yourself, my earliest recollection of watching football matches was at local non-league level in the late 50's, early 60's, in my case, Andover FC, where I lived. From a young age I attended most of the home matches with my Dad at the local Walled Meadow ground. The highlight was the FA Cup run where we beat Hendon 5-4, but lost to Gillingham 1-0 in the next round. When I was 12, my Dad obviously considered that I had come of age and it was time to step to watching the R's, my first match being away at Bournemouth & Boscombe in October 1966, a match we won 3-1 and my first glimpse of Rodneeeeee in action. From the Andover FC wiki - I see that club eventually dissolved but reformed in 2013 as Andover Town FC:- In 1962, the club followed Salisbury and stepped up to the Western League. This proved to be quite a different challenge—whereas before they had only competed against local teams in league competition, they now faced opposition from teams as far afield as Avon, Somerset and Devon as well as the reserve teams of league clubs such as Bristol Rovers, Bristol City and Torquay United.[10] They generally fared well, only failing to finish in the top half of the table twice during their time at this level.[1] Their first season in the Western League saw the club reach the first round proper of the FA Cup for the only time in their history after defeating Hendon 5–4 in a fourth qualifying round replay.[1] On 3 November, Fourth Division side Gillingham came to the Walled Meadow and won 1–0 in front of 3484 spectators, a figure which would remain as the club's largest attendance for a home game.[4] In the league Andover finished fourth, but that was their highest placing until 1969–70 when they finished as runners-up.[1] This was repeated the following season, and so in 1971 Andover took another step up and joined the Southern League.[1] Now competing against teams from an even wider area spanning almost the entire width of the country (ranging from Bideford in the west to Bury Town in the east) and in some cases with a larger budget and fan base, competition was always tough with the club generally finishing in the bottom half of the table. The highest position the club reached at this level was the sixth place reached in 1987–88 and again in 1991–92.[1] Here is a photo of the Walled Meadow where I watched my early football action, also notably the site of the annual fairground. please log in to view this image View of the Walled Meadow's main stand c.1988. Damage sustained during the Great Storm of 1987 can be seen on the near side of the stand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andover_F.C. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andover_Town_F.C.
