Graham Coughlan's Southend United reserves took on Watford seconds for the second time in a fortnight at Roots Hall Tuesday afternoon in their latest Totesport Football Combination East Division fixture and ended the game 3-0 winners which handed the title to Ipswich Town, who had beaten Luton Town reserves 1-0 the same day.
Culum Butcher; made a second successive appearance for Blues Two's
The game saw a welcome return for left-back Johnny Herd, who may not have many moments left in the Blue of Southend, but good to see him back here starting in midfield, and he rewarded his fans with a goal!
The Hornets were the present Totesport East Champions and are quitting the league next season so would have wanted to have ended on a high note, but it was not to be as a relatively strong Shrimpers seconds, relative to what we've put out on occasions this term, brushed their Hertfordshire opponents aside helped by two goals in the last ten minutes.
To be fair there was little between the side before the break which ended goalless but that changed soon after the hour mark when Louie Soares finished well from a Herd cross.
Then as the clock ticked past 80 minutes Johnny decided to get in on the act, providing Louie the chance to return the defenders earlier generosity ans seeing his cross turned in by Herd lurking at the far post.
Soon after the scoring was completed when under-18 squad member and substitute here Seedy Nije, who has been getting himself noticed with a couple of decent strikes for Ricky Duncan's lads in the Youth Alliance recently, showed he could step up a couple of rungs by accepting an accurate long pass from fellow youth Anthony Furlonge, lost his marker, and smashing the ball past Hornets keeper Jack Bonham, not bad!
That leaves Stevenage at home on Tuesday, May 3rd, kick-off 14.00, to complete the Shrimpers reserve season for 2010/11, a mixed bag, but far more promising than last term, which player/coach Coughlan agreed with.
The former Shrewsbury skipper told www.echo-news.co.uk: "I was really pleased with how the lads played. You can count on one hand the games they haven't done well in this season and it was another good performance against Watford. We've had a lot of young kids coming in and we've had Mark Bonner and Luke Hobbs in the coaching set up to carry on working with them for the reserves. They have been fantastic to have around and we have great morale and cohesion at this football club now."
Southend United: Evans, Comminges (Furlonge), Butcher, Baucutt, Nesbitt, Woodyard, Bouzid (Stephens), Soares, Herd, Smith, Asante (Njie).
Subs not used: Bentley.
Watford: Bonham; Thompson, Hoban, Bevans, Tumwa; Isaac, Murray, Rosier; Bryan, Assombalonga, Massey. Subs: Horner, Irving, Hamilton-Forbes, Gardner, Deer. (Apologies, no information on substitutions made.)