I was in the familiar surroundings of Roots Hall, Southend United FC's home, as I made a rare appearance at one of the Blues games. At £12 a ticket and on a Wednesday night I thought why not.
After devouring a rather tasty cheeseburger, kit kat, bovril and water (proper dinner that!!!) I took my seat right at the end of the green block in the main stand (I was supposed to have an aisle seat but that must of been missed somewhere as my seat was squashed up against a wooden wall separating the green and black blocks!!!). Anyway it wasn't so bad and I soaked up the pre match atmosphere and anticipated a good battle.
The opponents for the Blues tonight were Bristol Rovers, who play in League Two, a league below the hosts. They came into this one off the back of a rather embarrassing home defeat to Evo-Stik Premier side Chesham in the FA Cup on Sunday so were no doubt looking for a reaction in this tie, the Southern Quarter's of the Football League Trophy.
Before the game the club did an amazing tribute for Remembrance Day, this being 11th November of course, and after an impeccable minutes silence was observed following the familiar tune of 'The Last Post' the sides got ready for the job in hand.
For the first twenty minutes it looked like the Blues would finally put in a decent performance and win the game fairly comfortably as they played some good attacking football and led on 11 minutes when their skipper John White headed home a Kevan Hurst cross for his first goal at Roots Hall and second for the club overall.
The visitors did look threatening when they did attack though but were unable to really test the Blues goal, that was until a moment of controversy five minutes before half time when Billy Bodin fired home from outside the box and score what he thought was the visitors equaliser. However the referee then went to consult his linesman and then decided to rule the goal out for offside as a Rovers player was apparently in an offside position in the eye line of keeper Bentley when the shot was made.
This upset the visitors somewhat as they had all gone back to restart the game thinking they had scored!!!! Oh deary me. Anyway this meant the Blues went in 1-0 up at the break.
The second half belonged to the visitors for the large part and forced Blues keeper Bentley into three brilliant stops during the half as the visitors really pressed the hosts further and further back. Time and time again they threatened the Blues goal but somehow the ball didn't go into the net and this was typified with five minutes left when Rovers centre half and skipper Mark McChrytal somehow hit wide from six yards out and you felt at this point it wasn't going to be their day.
Joe Pigott could of sealed the win in stoppage time for the Blues but he somehow hit wide when well placed in front of goal. However the Blues managed to cling onto their lead and win the tie and go through to the Southern Area Semi Finals. They made hard work of it but they got the win which is all that mattered. They will have to play better though if they are to make a fist of it in league one this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment