One final look back to the mid-week game at Adams Park which saw another draw for the Blues and a surprising amount of lager drunk by EEB.
After the joys of Walsall a trip to the leafy suburbs of High Wycombe seemed like a holiday.
There were plenty of trains leaving Marylebone and was able to catch the 17.10 for the 35 minute journey.
First stop; Wembley Stadium. Will I be returning sometime in May? Well, not if we keep drawing, but the dream must stay alive, especially in August!
Welcome to Wycombe; 'sorry, we're out of the good stuff'
Having only driven here before I was pleasantly surprised when one of the pub crawl choices, the Flint Cottage, was right in front of me when I left the station.
Wikipedia tells up the pub is made up entirely of Flint pieced together, I didn't bother to confirm with the landlord, then again I didn't have a smoke outside.
'A WARM WELCOME TO ALL SOUTHEND UNITED SUPPORTERS' greeted me as I went in, and a group of Shrimpers were already enjoying the late afternoon sunshine in the beer garden.
Ahh beer, the primary business of most pubs, but a problem here as all the real ales were off. All of them! Fosters, Kronenbourg, Strongbow, even Guinness; fine. A pint from the handpump, forget it.
'THE OFFICIAL PUB OF WYCOMBE WANDERERS AND LONDON PUBS' was the proud boast of another sign. Not without proper beer I think!
Fosters Top it was then, well it was a warm day!
Then I made a fateful decision, as a cab pulled up to whisk the Southend four off to the ground or a pub nearer anyway, I was going to walk. Yes, I knew it was at least 45 minutes but it wasn't half six yet and I could do with the exercise.
Big mistake! Armed with my map I found myself on the West Wycombe Road which I was to be on for a long time. A very long time. It didn't look this long on the bloody map!
Passing several pubs, including a Hobgoblin which I'm sure had a decent beer, I had to keep going as the watch hit seven.
Even the legendary White Horse with it's all hours strippers, 'free entry', had to be missed; shame, wanted to see what that place was like, purely for research.
Eventually I found the Hour Glass on Chapel Lane, nearly an hour after I'd left the Flint and still a mile from the ground!
I needed a drink, there might have been a decent ale but my tastebuds had been corrupted, Fosters Top again, oh dear, I should resign my post of editing the Pub Crawl forthwith.
There were plenty of Shrimpers here, many wearing the new Yellow shirt that was making it's debut at Adams Park.
I had got talking to a Chairboy who was concerned about the season ahead. 'We were lucky to get promoted in the end'. What, by a goal difference of ONE over Bury, never!
'As for that Harrold, thanks a lot, never looks like scoring'. I nodded in agreement.
Less than 15 minutes late I was in my seat in the Dreams Stand, and very nice it was too after Walsall, went right to the back where I had a perfect view of the whole pitch and the hundreds of Shrimpers that had made the trip to Buckinghamshire.
United had lost the toss and the home skipper changed ends so his team would kick towards our supporters in the second half, always a bottle job, and probably not welcomed by the home fans at the other end on such a big pitch.
On saying that we ended up catching Christophe's brilliant header right in front of us while not having a close up of Prince Harry scoring and his Klinsmann style celebration. That and the Fosters would have been too much!
(For a full match report with player ratings go here:
www.southendunited-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=458609)
This was a better performance overall than Walsall but we still lack a cutting edge through midfield and up-front and, with Harrold having a free header that even he couldn't miss, the back four and keeper are still vulnerable.
What's the use of having M'Voto on the bench?
However, there's still promise here with more than enough talent to make sure we stay a mid-table club at least. Anymore and we need those 'one or two players' that Tilly was talking about earlier this week.
No walking back. Straight on the bus and a ₤2.50 single back to the station for the 22.06. Except it didn't move, it couldn't, as the crowd, in cars and on foot, left down the very same road the bus wanted to go there was nothing left to do but wait.......and wait.
Eventually it left and got to the station where the 06 was missed by about ten minutes and the next train was 22.59!
What was a few waiting Shrimpers meant to do?
Back to the Flint of course.
At least the Timothy Taylor had returned.
