Penalties, Bad Refereeing and Complaints: Southend v Southampton 1919/20

Saturday 20^th March 1920

Southend United 2-1 Southampton

Southern League

It was a beautiful spring afternoon and the best attendance since the Christmas Holidays brought in gate receipts of £290, but Southampton were attractive opposition after only fourteen minutes a penalty was given after Young was impeded, and the kick entrusted to Wileman who promptly lashed the ball into the net.

After this Southend had the best of the half and had a goal disallowed and another good penalty shout dismissed. In the second half a moment of slackness in the United defence allowed Southampton to equalise with a grand oblique shot.

Southend pressed hard to retake the lead after a succession of corners a visiting defender handled the ball and the referee pointed to the spot for a second time. Again Wileman was entrusted with the free and he scored with a tremendous drive to the goalkeepers left. While two penalties was an unfortunate way to win, it was a well deserved win for the Blues.

8^th November 1919

Southend United 0-2 Southampton

South Eastern League

The Reserves put on a good performance against Southampton at the Kursaal, but the Saints proved to be the stronger side, with the Blues down to ten men in the second half when Upex had to leave the field.

The visitors opened the scoring five minutes into the second half and a second was added two minutes later but this appeared to be offside.

The referee refused all appeals and after this received a lot of barracking from the home supporters, his referring had been weak all afternoon. Upex scored for Southend before his injury.

A letter to the Standard

I visited the Kursaal last Saturday and watched a creditable display by the local men against the more experienced opponents, and also a sorry display from a small section of the spectators in the north west side of the ground, towards the visiting players.

I have always understood that the Southend public paid their money to see a game of football to be played by teams that strive to mastery by all legitimate means and I was therefore astounded to hear from some of the crowd reported exhortations to the local players to "lay them out Southend" and to see with what pleasure an accident to a visiting player was greeted.

In the second half the Southampton outside left received a bad kick and left the field for a short time, but with commendable pluck resumed at a crucial period of his side, and because he strove to overcome the effects of his blow was greeted for the rest of the game with cries such as "Get off the field", "Swanker", "You never were injured", "You ought to get the V.C."

The decisions of the referee who seemed very fair was also subject to some uncomplimentary remarks from these same gentleman.

From the Southend Standard 13^th November 1919