Reaching Fulham Broadway at midday last Saturday and seeing hundreds of Shrimpers get off a packed tube train certainly made this old heart beat faster.
I also knew it would take them ages to get out of the station so it was a wise decision to stay on for one more stop and reach the relative sanctuary of Parsons Green, an easy exit and a five minute walk to the White Horse pub where a number of us were meeting before the game.
Having already 'tested' the place I already knew it was one of the best pubs in London so it was great to hear the positive comments as several pints of Harveys Best or the excellent Black Sheep were sunk as the chat grew louder in anticipation of what everyone felt could be a long afternoon. Yes, there were nerves, we just wanted to avoid an embarrassment.
A mate cheered us up. He's had a dream, 1-1 with Carvaho scoring an own goal in the dying minutes. We looked at him with the smile you give a favourite aunt as she drops off after listening to the Queens speech on Christmas Day.
The walk to Stamford Bridge took under 30 minutes and it certainly is a great ground. I haven't been for many years, saw Coventry beat Chelsea 2-1 for some reason, Cyril Regis scored. It's certainly changed since then!
The crowd was building up as I took my seat in the surprisingly, for me, early time of 2.30, I wanted to make this experience last as long as possible. By kick-off time every seat in the Shed End, lower and upper, was taken. The flags were waving, the singing of 'Yellows' started, Mildenhall waving his arms, whipping up the fervour. Uncle Ron had made not one, but two trips back and forth in front of the 6,000 faithful. He was going to enjoy this as well, accepting and giving back his own applause.
Good to hear Lee Sawyer get a huge cheer when he was named as one of the Chelsea subs. Luckily he didn't come on so he's still worth buying. Well, we didn't want him cup-tied.
The game started and is far better reported on here: www.thelittlegazette.com/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=425380
However, seeing as there were 36,000 Chelsea supporters in the ground, not much atmosphere, though I did like the huge flag paraded across the opposite end to us. They tried a new bouncing song now and then, (West Brom have been doing it for years), that John Terry enjoyed in the programme, which is more than he must have been doing watching the game from the stands.
Chelsea could have been four up in the first twenty minutes and might have been if we'd been playing against the Drogba of two or three years ago, but not now. A combination of Mildenhall brilliance, Sankofa tackling, eight men behind the ball, luck, kept us in the game until the half hour when the set piece disease affected us again and we left a man free from a corner and that should have been that.
Watching Chelsea at times was a joy. The space found, the time on the ball, the turns at speed, left back Cole turned up as a centre forward in one move. Yet for all this they were still only one up.
The trouble for the home team nowadays is they can't hold a 1-0 lead as they did and they are not unbeatable at the Bridge as they were.
The second half came but no second goal.
Young Herd showed the team worth 116 million why you should always keep a man on the post, even a boy in this case. Then went up the other end of the pitch and tried to take four Chelsea players on, he lost, but it was good fun seeing him try.
Junior had a couple of clever runs but not much was happening for the Yellows attacking wise bar an odd corner. God knows how many Lampard had taken at the other end?
Tilly then made a bold move making three substitutions with fifteen minutes left. He'd started in this mood by dropping Francis, something many of us felt he never would, going for the more defensive Grant and, more surprisingly, playing Barnard instead of the experienced Freedman. Dougie now had his chance, along with the Frenchman Laurent and the returned Moose, who came on for the tirering other Frenchman, and also just returned, Christophe.
There was a sense around the Shed End this was it, only one down, let's go for it. The away singing got louder, the home support quieter. The nerves were now with Chelsea.
A few minutes to go, Clarke rises and loops a header........a deep breath......onto the bar. Heads in hands. That was that. We had done the town proud. The players had given everything. I looked up at the clock, 87 minutes. I felt a wave of emotion, only a one goal defeat to the team second in the Premiership and a penalty away from being the best team in Europe.
Three England Internationals and a few others from countries I'd never even heard of, this was a very good side. Equal to that one that had Rooney and Ronaldo in it. Only 1-0, what an embarrassment for them.
19 year old Johnny Herd had already shown us at Telford what a weapon his throw could be and it was with hope and a prayer we all got behind one more effort as he swapped over to the right with the clock now showing 90 and the announcement of 4 minutes of stoppage time. What the hell, lets give it a go.
The sound of 6,000 screaming 'Yellows' was now the loudest it had been for the whole game.
Over it came. Someone knocks it back, I can't see, there's Clarke, a nod, it's there, it's in the back of the net, the fucking ball is in the back of the net. 1-1. We'd scored at Chelsea with seconds left. I feel a whack on the back of my head as someone comes flying down from rows back and ends up in the net covering the front two rows. Jumping up and down, grabbing complete strangers, all friends now. I could have touched the players as Clarkey was submerged by the whole team. What a birthday present for him.
Shit, how long left. A cross comes over, the home crowd rise in anticipation, a clear header, fuck it's in, no, a brilliant reflex save from Mildenhall pushes it away. A boot anywhere, the whistle goes, pandemonium breaks out once again. The mighty Chelsea has been held by little Southend, 55 places below them in the league. The F.A. Cup finished, don't believe it.
My hands, turned blue in the cold, should have been yellow for this game, applauded the smiling players until they were raw. This was better than beating Manchester United for me, I mean that was easy, we had home advantage.
I tried to phone the German, got through, but couldn't get any words out other than 1-1, we drew, 1-1. "Wonderful", she said, but I hardly heard, I had nothing left, I hung up. I was fucking shaking! This was ridiculous, I've been all round the world seeing major sporting occasions, I was there when England won the rugby world cup in Sydney, but I'd never felt like this. This was simply unbelievable but it wasn't, we'd done it. Thank God we hadn't actually won!
I passed a maze of fans, and probably the odd surprised tourist, trying to get into Fulham Broadway station. Hope you didn't have to wait too long.
Somehow I found my way back to the White Horse where several Southenders had already got a round in mixing with Chelsea supporters chatting about the game. It was hard to calm down but slowly the result sunk in and a sort of calmness set in.
I reminded the mate who'd had the dream it was rubbish, he'd got the wrong scorer. He replied that he'd obviously been woken up before Clarke had run on to the Carvaho flick back. I apologised.
Living in West London I was home thirty minutes after I left the pub via the District then Hammersmith line, I left those with a longer journey in the pub. Hope the heads were OK in the morning lads.
(Some photos to be added soon when I work out the digital thingy.)
Marks:
Mildenhall - 9; What more can be said, watching that save at the end on TV, it was better that I'd thought. Must have won over the Roots Hall crowd now.
Sankofa - 8; A revelation. His zen like training regime has truly worked. I hope the now watching Francis saw how full backs should defend first.
Clarke - 8; Well, we did leave another bloke unmarked at a set piece again. Then again he did score a useful goal, 8 it is.
Barrett - 8; The sight of Captain Adam on the ground in the second half making sure the ball would not go to a Chelsea forward summed it all up, the effort put in was outstanding.
Herd - 8; Kept England's Joe Cole realtively quiet. Must have earned himself a regular start, if for nothing else but that bloody throw.
Grant - 7; If you think I'm giving anybody a 6 after that game! Gave the ball away in odd places at times but fought away with the rest of them.
McCormack - 7; There was another lively moment when Macca spun around and left thirty million ponds worth of Lampard for dead. Nice yellow card to miss the Crewe game and not the replay!
Christophe - 7; The strength of this man is incredible to watch at times. Welcome back, tired at the end but a good permanent signing by Tilly.
Stanislas - 7; Showed in cameos how exciting he can be, good to see we'll working on making the loan period longer. A class act.
Revell - 7; Good old Alex. He tried, and tried again. Tilly obviously likes him.
Barnard - 7; Still not back to full fitness but he's getting there. He may be missing chances but he's in the right position, he'll get there. Linked well with the midfield.
Subs (all on 75th minute): Freedman (for Barnard); Laurent (for Revell);
Moussa (for Christophe); all 7. They all did their bit, including Dougie, who did a nice touch of arguing with the ref to kill a few more seconds at the end, and Laurent, whose turn leaving Cole on his ass was priceless.