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Just four minutes later City had edged themselves further in front. Gay completely misjudged a looping Keith Sharman centre and an unmarked Dale Watkins was on hand to head home from close range at the far post.
The match, with City already two goals to the good, was more or less over as a contest, and as the home side sat back on their lead they never really mustered another real effort at goal, but only because they never really had to.
Southend began to dominate the possession, but despite having an obvious advantage over their Dr Martens Premier League opponents, the Shrimpers never made their dominance count, and the closest they ever came to scoring was on ten minutes when Mark Salter's snapshot, following a Rob Newman through ball, bounced back off a post.
Gay was forced to push a Watkins shot wide five minutes later before Tom Jordan headed a Mark Beard cross into the arms of City goalkeeper Paul Nicholls. Nicholls was then on hand to brilliantly deny a close range Salter header from a Beard cross.
A 25 yard Neil Jenkins effort forced a parry out of Nicholls and the Chelmsford shot-stopper did ever so well to block Salter's rebound.
A dull close to the first half was hardly assisted by a rather unexciting second period. Once again Southend continued to dominate with the ball, but the Shrimpers never actually threatened the Chelmsford goal. Stuart Thurgood poke the ball inches wide of the post following a Newman flick on before substitute Michael Kightly drove a shot into the side netting.
City defender Brian Statham came very close to slicing a clearance into his own net on 65 minutes before a rare Chelmsford attack saw Beard hack a mishit George Lay effort away from underneath the crossbar.
The last action of the match, amazingly with only 73 minutes on the clock, saw Nicholls do well to hold onto a Jordan header from a Tilson corner.
A rather disappointing performance from United saw Chelmsford run out all too easy winners, and the Clarets will now face either Billericay Town or Aveley in the final which will be played at Roots Hall during April.
CHELMSFORD CITY (3-5-2):- Paul Nicholls; Brian Statham, Ian Cousins, Ian Wiles; Keith Sharman, Danny Slatter (Barry Lakin 83), Mike Rutherford, Lewis Reid, Austin Berkley (George Lay 8); Phil Dean, Dale Watkins. Unused subs - Tony Samuels, Gareth Street, Jamie Darr.
SOUTHEND UNITED (4-4-2, with ratings out of ten):- Daniel Gay 6; Mark Beard 6, Steve Tilson 5, Tom Jordan 5, Stephen Broad 6 (Jamie Gray 76, 7); Stuart Thurgood 7, Rob Newman 8, Anthony Clark 6 (Michael Kightly 57, 7), Neil Jenkins 6; Barrington Belgrave 4, Mark Salter 7. Unused subs - Daryl Plummer, Flory Zinga, Joe Ilett.
TLG MAN OF THE MATCH: Rob Newman.
In all honesty this award should not be going to a 39-year old, but there is no doubt that it was the manager who had the most desire out of the whole team. Newman may have been off the pace a little at times, but he could hardly help that and when in possession we saw that he is still more than capable of his reknown accurate passes, he was often found trying to get the Shrimpers moving with a pinpoint ball forward.
MATCH STATS - ESSEX SENIOR CUP, SEMI-FINAL - Mon, 17 Feb 2003.
Bookings: Chelmsford: Watkins (41 - ungentlemanly conduct). Southend: Thurgood (41 - ungentlemanly conduct).
Shots/headers on target: Chelmsford 3, Southend 6
Shots/headers off target: Chelmsford 2, Southend 8
Blocked shots: Chelmsford 2, Southend 3
Hit woodwork: Chelmsford 0, Southend 1
Free Kicks: Chelmsford 10, Southend 15
Corners: Chelmsford 4, Southend 9
Offside: Chelmsford 4, Southend 1
Match Time: First half: 45:57. Second half: 47:48. Total: 93:45.
Attendance: approx 480 (approx 200 away fans)
Referee: Fred Graham (Stanford-le-Hope) 6 out of 10.
Mark Wallis
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