The quiet carriage on the 11.20 to Yeovil Junction is, strangely, only half a carriage.
Which is fair enough until the True Blue crew turn up and settle in the non-quiet half, bless them all, you do pick up some interesting song lyrics.
I did have reason to envy them soon after deciding to walk into town as they passed me in their cabs picked up at the station. When you turn right to leave the station the pavement runs out 200 odd meters up the road. Bugger!
As for the poor bloke following me believing I knew where I was going, sorry mate first time leaving Yeovil Junction.
Back we both went where luckily the bus had turned up that went into town where a connection took us both to Huish Park.
The rain was starting, the wind was already turning into a gale, good football would be at a premium this afternoon.
Being a wimp I was going to pay the extra and go into the stand but a call from mate Wilf, "don't think they'll be any seats left", made me go into the uncovered away end to meet them all. There were plenty of seats lefts! We all got very wet. Cheers.
Though of course we got the atmosphere and, considering the weather, the 400 odd Shrimpers created a tremendous one.
U-S-A, poor Joycey, was replaced by Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi after several fantastic Federici saves, 'oh Southend we love you', sung with real enthusiasm. Terrific stuff. While the sight of half naked True Blue at the end singing in the rain, literally, is a sight that will remain far too long in the memory.
As for the game, it was horrible stuff at times. The wind so strong in the first half the Yeovil keeper kicked from one end to the other for a Blue goal-kick on more than one occasion. The second not much better but credit to Yeovil who tried to play some decent stuff and frankly outplayed us at times, maybe we felt we had it in the bag, one up and the wind in our favour, but it didn't play out that way.
The penalty; looked fair, waiting for the virgin highlights on that one, but no highlights needed, other than enjoying the goal over and over again, for HRK's winner. A strike of sheer class which this guy has in abundance. His technical skills, as also shown with his headed equaliser against Swansea last season, is higher than anybody else at the club, and a credit to Reading.
Typical Southend, couldn't just play the game out. "We can see you sneaking out", quickly replaced by, "we can see you sneaking back", by various wags in the crowd.
Then when we were doing the play the ball by the touchline thing Yeovil scorer Schofield got bored and tried to turn Walker into an early favourite for the 2012 Paralympics by removing his feet from the rest of his legs. Bizarre.
Rightly sent off, it caused anger amongst the home side who had another player sent off with a second yellow after having a quiet word with the ref. I thought the Glovers boss Russell Slade was going to have a heart attack!
Yes, the ref was a fussy twat but considering the conditions he seemed no worse than we see week in, week out. Yeovil players must realise they would have done exactly the same in the circumstances, they just lost the plot and seeing how we keep hearing what a small squad they've got, deserve everything they get.
For a full report on the game go to: www.thelittlegazette.com/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=410698
Waiting for a bus back into town the Yeovil faithful were ready for an uprising. Local radio reported on how the ref should be hung, drawn and quartered. "The ref was the biggest wanker I've ever seen." "That Barnard is a cheating, diving cxxt" It was like listening to a worzel version of Joe Kinnear.
More interestingly Betsy was meant to have hand balled when falling late in the second half in our own penalty area when trying a spot of defending. No way could we tell from our end, a massive shout from the home support of course, another one for the highlights. Ref gave a goal kick.
A text, from Dad of Dave the Shrimper, returning mine about the match. "Forget the game, the result was massive." Not a bad summing up.
Killing an hour in town watching Sky News, must look at my Icesave account, then Blackburn being torn apart by Man. U. Soon off to a deserted station for the 19.20 back to Waterloo.
Was I the only cheap sod who had waited an hour to get the tenner fare that was left. Three other Blue shirts left the waiting room, would be some people on the train then.
In fact it was quite packed as it passed through Salisbury, Gillingham, (no not that one), and other south western hot spots. The I-pod died on me so it had to be the radio which was next to useless on this particular service. With no medium wave being picked up, forget digital, it was the usual choice of Radio 1, Classic FM and those awful local stations that play 80's disco music.
There was also the joy of some nutter going up the train asking for a corkscrew for his bottle of cheap white wine. Oh no, he's coming up to me. "Have you got a corkscrew?" "Yeh sure, it's stuck up my ass", I thought. "Er, sorry, no", I actually said.
He somehow got it open and proceeded to drink it before Basingstoke, then asked the trolley guy did he sell any wine. That's OK, only 25cl's, he bought three!
Oh well, might as well join the party, what's on the radio?
"Get down, boggie, woggie woggie, get down, boggie woggie, woggie."
Francis - 6; Another nervy display at the back but hard to be too harsh on any of the back four when having to play in old testament conditions!
Clarke - 6; Usual Clarkey mixed performance. Was marking the best Yeovil forward.
Barrett - 8; Showed what could be done. A masterclass of hard work and skill in the tackle.
Harding - 7; Not surprising he wasn't his usual cool and collected self but still ended up looking cool and collected.
Betsy - 6; More of the same from the Betsy. Beats a few, looses the ball to a few. You feel one day he's going to tear some poor defence apart. Better than Black.
Sawyer - 6; Didn't enjoy it out there but always fighting for the ball and making a nuisance of himself.
Christophe - 6; The same as his midfield partner really with a little more frustration.
Robson-Kanu - 7; Out of the game for long periods not surprisingly but an extra point for that curling shot that won Blues the points.
Revell - 5; Nobody has backed Alex more than myself however the excuses stop here. Forget the weather this simply was just not good enough. Couldn't hold play up, hardly won a ball in the air, passing abysmal.
Barnard - 6; Well if he is, he's our diving cheat. Not the easiest of games when your hardly getting a decent pass but a nice penalty, right in the corner.
Subs: McCormack (for Christophe 54) - 6; Offered a fiver he'd be booked up to ten minutes of coming on. Nobody took me up. Was booked ten minutes after coming on.
Grant (for Sawyer 81) - 6; Did enough to close the game out which seems his full time job nowadays, shot near the end just over the bar.
Walker (for Barnard 81) - 6; Ran around OK, not much else.
Which is fair enough until the True Blue crew turn up and settle in the non-quiet half, bless them all, you do pick up some interesting song lyrics.
I did have reason to envy them soon after deciding to walk into town as they passed me in their cabs picked up at the station. When you turn right to leave the station the pavement runs out 200 odd meters up the road. Bugger!
As for the poor bloke following me believing I knew where I was going, sorry mate first time leaving Yeovil Junction.
Back we both went where luckily the bus had turned up that went into town where a connection took us both to Huish Park.
The rain was starting, the wind was already turning into a gale, good football would be at a premium this afternoon.
Being a wimp I was going to pay the extra and go into the stand but a call from mate Wilf, "don't think they'll be any seats left", made me go into the uncovered away end to meet them all. There were plenty of seats lefts! We all got very wet. Cheers.
Though of course we got the atmosphere and, considering the weather, the 400 odd Shrimpers created a tremendous one.
U-S-A, poor Joycey, was replaced by Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi after several fantastic Federici saves, 'oh Southend we love you', sung with real enthusiasm. Terrific stuff. While the sight of half naked True Blue at the end singing in the rain, literally, is a sight that will remain far too long in the memory.
As for the game, it was horrible stuff at times. The wind so strong in the first half the Yeovil keeper kicked from one end to the other for a Blue goal-kick on more than one occasion. The second not much better but credit to Yeovil who tried to play some decent stuff and frankly outplayed us at times, maybe we felt we had it in the bag, one up and the wind in our favour, but it didn't play out that way.
The penalty; looked fair, waiting for the virgin highlights on that one, but no highlights needed, other than enjoying the goal over and over again, for HRK's winner. A strike of sheer class which this guy has in abundance. His technical skills, as also shown with his headed equaliser against Swansea last season, is higher than anybody else at the club, and a credit to Reading.
Typical Southend, couldn't just play the game out. "We can see you sneaking out", quickly replaced by, "we can see you sneaking back", by various wags in the crowd.
Then when we were doing the play the ball by the touchline thing Yeovil scorer Schofield got bored and tried to turn Walker into an early favourite for the 2012 Paralympics by removing his feet from the rest of his legs. Bizarre.
Rightly sent off, it caused anger amongst the home side who had another player sent off with a second yellow after having a quiet word with the ref. I thought the Glovers boss Russell Slade was going to have a heart attack!
Yes, the ref was a fussy twat but considering the conditions he seemed no worse than we see week in, week out. Yeovil players must realise they would have done exactly the same in the circumstances, they just lost the plot and seeing how we keep hearing what a small squad they've got, deserve everything they get.
For a full report on the game go to: www.thelittlegazette.com/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=410698
Waiting for a bus back into town the Yeovil faithful were ready for an uprising. Local radio reported on how the ref should be hung, drawn and quartered. "The ref was the biggest wanker I've ever seen." "That Barnard is a cheating, diving cxxt" It was like listening to a worzel version of Joe Kinnear.
More interestingly Betsy was meant to have hand balled when falling late in the second half in our own penalty area when trying a spot of defending. No way could we tell from our end, a massive shout from the home support of course, another one for the highlights. Ref gave a goal kick.
A text, from Dad of Dave the Shrimper, returning mine about the match. "Forget the game, the result was massive." Not a bad summing up.
Killing an hour in town watching Sky News, must look at my Icesave account, then Blackburn being torn apart by Man. U. Soon off to a deserted station for the 19.20 back to Waterloo.
Was I the only cheap sod who had waited an hour to get the tenner fare that was left. Three other Blue shirts left the waiting room, would be some people on the train then.
In fact it was quite packed as it passed through Salisbury, Gillingham, (no not that one), and other south western hot spots. The I-pod died on me so it had to be the radio which was next to useless on this particular service. With no medium wave being picked up, forget digital, it was the usual choice of Radio 1, Classic FM and those awful local stations that play 80's disco music.
There was also the joy of some nutter going up the train asking for a corkscrew for his bottle of cheap white wine. Oh no, he's coming up to me. "Have you got a corkscrew?" "Yeh sure, it's stuck up my ass", I thought. "Er, sorry, no", I actually said.
He somehow got it open and proceeded to drink it before Basingstoke, then asked the trolley guy did he sell any wine. That's OK, only 25cl's, he bought three!
Oh well, might as well join the party, what's on the radio?
"Get down, boggie, woggie woggie, get down, boggie woggie, woggie."
Federici - 7; Two great saves showed his obvious class. Kicking first class considering the poor weather. Is a touch hesitant coming out to collect the ball at times, could be our defence!
Francis - 6; Another nervy display at the back but hard to be too harsh on any of the back four when having to play in old testament conditions!
Clarke - 6; Usual Clarkey mixed performance. Was marking the best Yeovil forward.
Barrett - 8; Showed what could be done. A masterclass of hard work and skill in the tackle.
Harding - 7; Not surprising he wasn't his usual cool and collected self but still ended up looking cool and collected.
Betsy - 6; More of the same from the Betsy. Beats a few, looses the ball to a few. You feel one day he's going to tear some poor defence apart. Better than Black.
Sawyer - 6; Didn't enjoy it out there but always fighting for the ball and making a nuisance of himself.
Christophe - 6; The same as his midfield partner really with a little more frustration.
Robson-Kanu - 7; Out of the game for long periods not surprisingly but an extra point for that curling shot that won Blues the points.
Revell - 5; Nobody has backed Alex more than myself however the excuses stop here. Forget the weather this simply was just not good enough. Couldn't hold play up, hardly won a ball in the air, passing abysmal.
Barnard - 6; Well if he is, he's our diving cheat. Not the easiest of games when your hardly getting a decent pass but a nice penalty, right in the corner.
Subs: McCormack (for Christophe 54) - 6; Offered a fiver he'd be booked up to ten minutes of coming on. Nobody took me up. Was booked ten minutes after coming on.
Grant (for Sawyer 81) - 6; Did enough to close the game out which seems his full time job nowadays, shot near the end just over the bar.
Walker (for Barnard 81) - 6; Ran around OK, not much else.