BARNEY or WHITHAM?
Barney's made an impressive start to the season, but in 1923-24 a bright young lad named Victor Whitam also started well with five goals in the first three games:
Saturday 1st September 1923
SOUTHEND UNITED 3-1 MERTHYR TOWN
Division 3 (South)
Merthyr had beaten the Blues on the opening day of the season but had lost at Exeter by a single goal and found themselves in ninth place.
However, they were beaten when they played the return fixture at the Kursaal losing 3-1 with Victor Whitham getting two of the goals the Blues we had scored 7 goals in 3 matches and he had notched up five of them, quite an impressive start.
So although only 11th in the league the United went to Charlton for their next match quite optimistic being the second highest scorers in the league.
It was thought that the gate of 8,500 was a bit disappointing after 8,000 had turned up for the previous midweek game but they faced stiff competition from the Leigh Regatta.
Team: Hall; Taylor and Gibson; T. Evans, Edwards and Dreyer; Middleton, Whitham, Goodwin, Slater and Davies.
Division 3 (South) P W D L F A P 8 Watford 2 1 1 0 3 2 3 9 Northampton Town 3 1 1 1 4 3 3 10 Aberdare Athletic 3 1 1 1 5 4 3 11 SOUTHEND UNITED 3 1 1 1 7 6 3 12 Charlton Athletic 3 1 1 1 6 7 3 13 Brighton & Hove 3 1 1 1 4 5 3 14 Gillingham 3 1 1 1 3 4 3
London Combination: The reserves visited the Valley at Charlton and won their first Combination game 2-1. In a well fought first half Charlton scored and McClelland equalised, in the second half another well taken corner by Maycock resulted in McClelland and Smith combining well for the winning goal, in front of a moderate crowd with barely 1,000 present.
THE PROGRAMME
Sir - A regular supporter of Southend United I should like to protest against the increased charge for programmes. However having paid two pence for a programme we do not expect to read that "Sayles was the most effective of the two backs" and that "he is hurt more serious than was at first thought". Although we do not expect literary gems for two-pence we are entitled to expect that the elementary rules of grammar should be complied with. No half time results were also put up.
From the Southend Standard 6th September 1923
The Standard commented that the Club did not control the cost of the programme and that it was the printers that determined the price.
The programme cost 2d and admission was 5d which is the equivalent of 7½d as opposed to £23 today.
First Away game of the 1920-21 Season
Monday 30th August 1921
GRIMSBY TOWN 1-0 SOUTHEND UNITED
Division Three
Southend's first away game in this new division seems a strange one, the Division was almost entirely southern having been made up of the former Southern League except for our first away opponents Grimsby Town.
In the previous season they had finished bottom of the second division with Lincoln City one place above them, Grimsby were not re-elected to Division 2 but although they had finished below Lincoln in the table they had polled more votes in the re-election ballot and were elected to the New (Southern) Division 3.
Lincoln in the meantime were condemned to the Midland League. Then as now Grimsby played at Blundell Park, they had already beaten Northampton at home 2-0 on the opening day and kept an unchanged team.
It was a long trip to Grimsby which took two and a half days for the return journey, the Southend team travelled on Sunday and stayed at the Royal Hotel, on Monday they spent the morning watching the trawlers coming in and selling their fish at the market.
The kick off was at 6.00 p.m. and while they returned home pointless their reputation had been added to as they put up a magnificent, but losing fight.
In this first meeting between the two clubs the game was played more like a cup tie than a League encounter, it was vigorous and keenly fought and the pace was a cracker throughout never wavering until the final whistle had been sounded. Grimsby won by the only goal but even in the final moments Blues nearly brought off an equaliser.
The Grimsby directors were quick to sing the Blues praises saying that this game had been harder than most their second division encounters the previous season. The people of Grimsby are an example, for purely by voluntary means that have banked all four sides and added to that they have erected stands to the North, South, East and West of the ground.
The gate was about 10,000 people and they took £530.
Southend were in sixth place in the table, Grimsby were top.
Team: Capper; Reid and Newton; Wileman, Henderson and Martin; Nicholls, Nuttall, Fairclough, Myers and Dorsett.
Other Third Division Results:
Monday 30th August 1921
Brentford 1-0 Millwall
Luton Town 2-2 Portsmouth
Southampton 4-0 Swindon Town
Wednesday 1st September 1921
Brighton & Hove 0-0 Merthyr Town
Bristol Rovers 3-2 Newport County
Crystal Palace 0-0 Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City 1-1 Norwich City
Reading 1-2 Gillingham
Thursday 2nd September 1921
QPR 1-2 Northampton
Swansea 2-1 Watford
Third Division | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | |
1 | Grimsby Town | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
2 | Southampton | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
3 | Exeter City | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
4 | Portsmouth | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
5 | Merthyr Town | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
6 | Gillingham | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
7 | Millwall | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
8 | SOUTHEND | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
9 | Swindon Town | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 2 |