In the previous season Newport had to apply for re-election for the second season running having conceding 111 goals during the season, and were already bottom of the League in the current season with two home defeats.

Southend started the game anxious to make amends for missed chances in their previous two games and it was also apparent that the Newport Goalkeeper and backs were decidedly shaky.

The first goal came after only nine minutes and was rather a scrambled affair with Lane eventually flicking the ball over the goalkeepers head, but Bolan making sure just before it entered the net.

In the nineteenth minute Goddard tapped the ball into the net for the second.

The goalkeeper was having trouble with his goal kicks, and nobody knew why he didn't pass the responsibility to one of the backs, but it was from a weak kick that Goddard was able to tap the third goal home.

In the thirty sixth minute with Oswald walking past the opposition he passed to Lane to finish the job, and just before half time County scored a consolation goal.

Three minutes into the second half another flick by Goddard produced the fifth goal, but five minutes later Newport scored their second.

After fifteen minutes Dickinson headed home from a corner to record his first goal for the club, and then Lane scored the United's seventh, and Oswald scored the eighth.

The final goal was a penalty and for the second game running Everest showed what a good penalty taker he is to finish the record breaking score.

Team: MacKenzie; Nelson & Everest; Deacon, Turner & Carr; Bolan, Lane, Goddard, Dickinson & Oswald.

Suprinsingly Southend had struggled in their first two matches only managing one goal, while their oponnents Newport had now conceded fourteen goals and found themslves pointless and bottom of the table.

The return fixture was on the 2nd January 1937, Southend were now eleventh in the table, while Newport were still bottom with just two wins from their twenty one games and had now conceded fifty nine goals. The United's hopes were high.

Sat. 2nd January 1937

No.22 Div 3 (South)
NEWPORT COUNTY 6-2 SOUTHEND UNITED

The pitch at Somerton Park is always on the heavy side, but the heavy rain on Saturday morning turned the pitch into a quagmire on which it was virtually impossible to play football. The game became more a test of physical endurance than football ability.

Firth pulled a muscle and had to leave the field for a while and when he returned he was restricted to being a passenger on the wing, added to that Mackenzie came down with a bad bought of influenza in the morning but had to play or the team would have started with ten men.

Newport opened the scoring after nineteen minutes although the Blues claimed it was offside, but six minutes later Oswald headed the United level.

County had two appeals for penalties turned down before taking the lead before half time.

In the second half Southend were overran conceding three goals in quick succession, one of them a free kick from forty yards and a sixth was added before the end, the Blues gained a late consolation when they were gifted an own goal by their hosts.

One incident of note was when the referee gave "marching orders" to a St. John's Ambulance man sitting on his seat at the side of the pitch who had been criticising the referee too much.

Team: MacKenzie; Nelson & Robinson; Spelman, Turner & Deacon; Bird, Firth, Dickinson, Lane & Oswald.

Southend finished the season in tenth place, while Newport ..... no they didn't have to apply for relection, after this win ovver the Blues they went on to win nine of their remaing twenty games and finished in nineteenth spot, two points abovve the bottom two.

Extracts from 'Southend United Under the Shadow of War' by Peter William Baker