1929-30 was a realtively good season for Southend United but to show that times don't change that much the trip to Brentford was the usual disaster.
Travel was then as now by train, road or coach; the coaches costing 20p and admission 5p, this year supporters coaches were £10-£12 and admission £20-£21.
So to compare the prices in 1930 were 25p while in 2009 it was £30-£33, but in 1930 coach travel was four times the admission price but in 2009 the cost of the coach was only half the admission price.
SUPPORTERS NOTES
Travel was then as now by train, road or coach; the coaches costing 20p and admission 5p, this year supporters coaches were £10-£12 and admission £20-£21.
So to compare the prices in 1930 were 25p while in 2009 it was £30-£33, but in 1930 coach travel was four times the admission price but in 2009 the cost of the coach was only half the admission price.
In conjunction with the Westcliff Motor Services a trip will be run to Griffin Park, Brentford on Saturday April 6th leaving the L. and N.E.R approach at Noon the return fare is 4s (20p).
On Good Friday the Supporters Club in conjunction with the Southend Motor Navigation Company will run a Saloon Motor Yacht to Gillingham at a return fare of 1s 9d (9p).
From the Southend Standard 27th March 1930
Saturday 5th April 1930
BRENTFORD 2-1 SOUTHEND UNITED
Match No. 35 Division Three (South)
Match No. 35 Division Three (South)
Brentford had played nineteen home games and won all nineteen of them, scoring sixty two goals and conceding only twelve. There impressive record included two matches where they had scored six and four where they had scored five.
"You won the match yet you lost it" was trainer Cartwright's cryptic comment after the game.
For three quarters of the game there was only one side in it and that was Southend, they took the lead just before the interval as a result of a perfect movement in which Robinson, Donoven and Johnson paved the way for Baron to finish off with a first time drive.
The second half continued in much the same except the homesters start to have a "never mind the ball get the man attitude", and several cautions were administered by the referee.
The Blues tried to continue to play their passing game but eventually got caught up in the unpleasantness. The last ten minutes were dramatic, during which Brentford equalised, Southend had a goal disallowed, and then Brentford scored a goal, while French was off the field injured, which certainly looked offside.
Brentford kept their 100% home record, but this record was sorely tested by the Blues. (Brentford won every one of their 21 home League fixtures during the season. It didn't do them much good though as only one team was promoted and Brentford finished a distant second to Plymouth Argyle. Plymouth themselves only dropped three home points during the season).
Southend dropped to seventh in the League.
Team: Moore; French and Robinson; Dixon, Ward and Johnson; Barnett, Jones, Baron, Donoven and Clenshaw.
Extracts from " The Forgotten years of the Kursaal" by Peter Baker