Game Sixty Eight - Southend away

18 April 2009

Promotion D-Day - a chance to reclaim our place in the Championship and take the league title in one swoop. Three points and the dream would be a reality with two games of the season to play. Southend and Roots Hall were all that stood in our way!

With the planned (possible) celebrations for this one, there was no way that I would be venturing up on Fox Travel so managed to get a lift with James (C-man) in his car along with Joe, Ben and Mikey so the banter was rife from the start. We set off from Leicester at around 8:30 picking the others up on route and were bombing down the motorway towards London. A quick stop off at the services and the ambitious hitch-hiker with his sign "home to mum" was all that slowed down the travel.


We arrived at Roots Hall in plenty of time with Toppy from Topps Tiles helping to point us in the right direction of the ground. When in doubt, follow Toppy!

We parked up and headed into Southend town centre (or what we though was the rough direction) but soon ended up at the beach via an eventful Ladbrokes adventure. Beach might be pushing things a bit far as it was just the sea and some type of muddy rubbish - a poor excuse for sand, but it was better than anything else so we headed off along the sea front in the general direction of the pier where we had heard that others had gathered.

After a long period of walking we stopped off to see where others were and to see if it was worth us carrying on on the long walk.... course it was! We finally made it to the area where all the Leicester fans were gathering for their pre match drinks and bumped into Chloe, Bert, Tommeh, Ched and others and embarked on a bit of a kick around before being asked to stop by the owner of the arcades after some drunken guy hit the ball at the window. The blue army were out in force for this one and the entire sea front was a sea of blue with some of the locals (one large man in particular) did not seem quite as happy to see us as the bar men did! In good time we left the pubs and started heading towards Roots Hall via a detour as Chloe got us lost in Homebase's car park. Never trust that girl's directions!! Finally arrived at the ground and all gathered together in an attempt to recreate foxestalk terrace.... due to the lack of space though, we all gathered into the space between the blocks of seats and Foxestalk aisle was born. Dangerous and crammed.... it had the makings of a classic!

As kick off came closer, there was a carnival atmosphere in the away end with beach balls, balloons and confetti being thrown around so by the time the teams were on the pitch, we were ready to get started.

With news that Steve Howard was out through illness was a real blow. The game itself though was a very tense affair with no real chances from either team in the first 30 minutes. A tight, tense midfield battle seemed to be the way forward with neither team giving or requesting an inch.

In fact there was only one real effort on goal and that was a 30 yard effort that Stockdale had to get down quickly to turn around the post. At half time with the scores level and MK Dons and Posh both a goal up, nerves were still around and it finally crossed our minds that we might not actually win promotion that day....

Just after the restart and the nerves were on again as some neat play from Southend saw the ball lifted over the defence and Theo Robinson smashed an effort against the underside of the crossbar.

On 50 minutes, it was our turn to hit the woodwork as Fryatt danced through the defence, rounding two players and the goal keeper before hitting the base of the post from a very tight angle. Would have been a brilliant goal but it wasn't meant to be. Nine minutes later though and we had the first goal...

A blocked clearance flew high into the air, and the ball spun on the turf and struck a Southend defender's arm. Very unlucky but we had our chance and we had to take it.

Fryatt calmly despatched the penalty to the keeper's right hand side and chaos ensued in the crowd. We flew around the place like mad things bouncing up and down the aisle - bodies everywhere as the party kicked into real force.

Ten minutes later, we had just about recovered... just as we doubled the lead. A Lloyd Dyer free kick from 25 yards was swung in and the keeper made a great save pushing the ball onto the crossbar but the ball fell sweetly for Fryatt to nod the ball into the empty net.

Party time again and we shot our way down to the front, me with Karl (Smuts) on my back bouncing around like idiots. From then on, we knew we were there and it was just a case of seeing the game out while hugging each other at any interval. As we edged towards the end of the game, the "Champione Champione" songs were ringing out along with "We're going up in 5 minutes" as the amount of injury time was displayed.

As the final whistle sounded, we had done it. In our first ever season in the third tier, we had beaten it and got ourseleves the first league title of my life time and a season that will stay with me forever. Who cares what people think when they say it's only league one - we're the only big club to have bounced back in the way that we have and that's huge praise to Nigel Pearson and his back room staff.

The celebrations on the pitch and in the stands were brilliant as the players celebrated as if they were real fans of the club. Having had the dip of form last month which nearly cost us, this was such a massive weight from our shoulders and there was no doubt that we deserved the title that we had won.

The players appreciate the fans once more and more importantly, we appreciate the team that we support. For too long the players in the colours of Leicester City have just been here for another pay day with no real care if the team succeeded or failed so long as they got their wages at the end of the week. Now, we have a bunch of honest players who have put themselves on the line at times to get us across that finish line. We respect them, we thank them, we will remember them!

Promotion could not have happened at a better place than away from home with the friends that we have found through the club. We were all together when we got relegated at Stoke last season so it was so fitting that for our return to the Championship, we were all together once more. Promotion faces galore:

As we left the stadium, we headed back to James' car to make our way back to the beach to party hard and celebrate a memorable day. The only pub we could find that showed the FA Cup semi final game was the destination and it had several plastic Chelsea and Arsenal fans who have probably never been to Stamford Bridge or the Emirates. This proved good fodder for us. We sat in peace watching the game discussing the day and the season when it flashed along the bottom of the screen that Leicester City had been promoted as Champions... this kicked things off as we let out a big cheer and started singing "We Are The Champions. Champions of League One" which seemed to really shock everyone else in the pub. As the Arsenal fans reacted, we increased the volume and knocked them back with renditions of many of our classic songs to which they had no answer. The 12 days of Ormandroyd really left them dumbfounded by what a massive club we are!

One Arsenal fan in particular, reeking of booze didn't like the fact that we were outdoing them in their own pub and told us how when he was a lad he went to Filbert Street with 10,000 fans and they stuffed us.... or at least that's what I think he meant as it came out as "we tukkk ten fooousand to Lestuuuuh and we facking mooordered ya". Take that as you will!

This didn't stop us and we just turned to him and his mates and waved them off as Chelsea promptly knocked them out at the semi final stage. Still.... Im sure those Arsenal fans will be displaying Chelsea shirts this time next week.

As people started to head off, we decided to get a group picture to remember the promotion day by. Memories are made of days like this so it's great to be able to capture a small part of the day so we will never forget.

Promotion drinks were had as Fez and Katy celebrated promotion in the best way!

As we finally left, we walked out the pub with one last rendition of WACCOLO and we all headed off our seperate ways to make our long journeys back home.

The sun was setting over Southend and also over our time in League one. It had been memorable for all the right reasons but now it was time to go and be back where we belong with some of the bigger teams that England has to offer.
The journey home was dominated by banter as some things that stay on tour were talked about while Mikey and Lil Dave took time to wear there shirts in a new manner....

Mother Dave and Mother Mikey :
and then as turbans:
It had been a memorable day and one of the best that we've experienced not only this season but in general. Everything had gone to plan and it was as close to perfect as we will ever experience. We joked that we were only on a season long loan to league one and that's how it had turned out. 12 months on from that horrible day in Stoke, we had had the ultimate day out in Southend. Sums football up right there. 2 more games to go for Leicester, we have promotion and we have the title.... now we can relax and just enjoy ourselves. Champions!!