2012-13 Uncovered: Tuesday 11th December - It Could Do With Being A Bit Colder

   Hurrah and huzzah.  The tiniest glimmer of a silver lining coming through.  You never know, I may not be homeless in the next few weeks after all.  I did talk about confronting problems a few days ago.  It's a salutary lesson.  Let people know what's going on, don't put your head in the sand, and a problem simply turns out to be an opportunity waiting to be discovered.

   With this in mind, and my immediate financial and housing problems easing, though not quite yet solved, the time had come to get back onto the midweek football circuit.  I took a wander out to get a feel of the weather.  After all, that was the nearest I'd get to a feel for some time.  It was bum numbingly cold.  Icier than Christmas pleasantries between the Bridge and Terry families.

   I quickly surmised that all the local non-league football would be frozen off, which left the glory, the glamour, the romance of the FA Cup.  In any case, how could anyone resist the lure of Southend United v Bury in sub zero temperatures?  It's the stuff dreams aren't made of at all.

   Since that dream draw away at Chelsea, which possibly hastened the departure of Scolari from Stamford Bridge, the stuff of nightmares has been what Southend United supporters have had to contend with.  Essentially, Chairman Ron chased the dream of a new stadium, forgot to put anything by for a rainy day, was caught out by the recession, and put the club in Shit Street.

   Players departed, wages weren't paid, the club relegated to the bottom tier, boss Steve Tilson sacked by stealth - handy little thing that, 'gardening leave' - and since then have been regular trips to the High Court for unpaid debts and taxes.  

   Current boss Paul Sturrock has done a magnificent job in the circumstances, somehow cobbling together a side from absolutely nothing in two years that went within a point and a play-off game or two from promotion. 

   Normally, in cases like this, you feel for the supporters, as it's the paying punter who usually suffers the most.  This time, though, for whatever reason, I don't.  In the past decade or so, I've sort of felt, well, not quite an arrogance among the faithful, but certainly a more intolerant attitude of where the club is and should be.

   Nothing wrong with dreaming, having ambition.  Back to back promotions show the club can at least make it into the Championship.  In all my time going to see the Shrimpers, though, a good 80% of that has been spent either in the basement division or third tier.  'Good to excellent 4th Division side, average to poor 3rd Division side' was a summary shared by many.

   There's been murmurings, though, of the club getting out of 'this awful division'.  Other clubs where things have gone wrong when Southend have visited have been derided as 'Mickey Mouse'.  Complaints about 'hoofball', losing, or playing badly when they win were becoming more prevalent.  An awful lot of the fun of supporting Southend United is being slowly eroded.

   I still want them to win every game, though, and going to Roots Hall there there were still loads of people I know who have been going for years.  Out to simply back their side, and able to take victory and defeat as twin imposters.  The less tolerant are certainly in the minority.  It's still a good place to be, whatever goes on off the pitch.

   Tonight's visitors for this replay have the distinction of being the biggest ever FA Cup winners.  The Shakers hammered Derby County 6-0.  Unfortunately for Bury, that was 109 years ago.  Look on the bright side though.  That still happened after the last time Hibs won the Scottish Cup.  Chortle.

   I didn't have high expectations for tonight's replay.  True, there was still a day out at Wembley should either side embark on an amazingly amazing run of amazement.  And I'd already seen one of the best ever FA Cup matches in a qualifying round this season.  For one night Rookery Hill was Nirvana

   At Roots Hall, though, grim reality had set in.  It was so bitterly cold that frost were settling on the pitch.  It was going to be a game about just keeping your balance and making the fewest errors to get through.  The crowd was relatively meagre and understandably so.  The weather was bound to put off the casual punter.  A night for the diehards.

   And that's how it turned out for the first half an hour.  Nothing happened.  It wasn't that it was error strewn, with just the odd sloppy pass, it was more to do that players were trying to just stay upright and not make the mistake that cost them a goal - and additional £9,000 of prize money.  For Football League clubs like Bury and Southend, that meant a lot.

   The visitors took control, though, just before the break.  A nice run at goal, then a thundering shot.  Shrimpers keeper Dan Bentley done superbly well to parry it around the post for a corner.  With the dearth of chances, shot stopping might come in very handy at the end of the evening.  It wasn't mounting excitement and led me to think this was going to penalties.  Just a lack of real chances.

   You didn't need to be Nostradamus to predict that either.  Most people around me in the South Upper felt the same way.  It was a big enough task simply staying warm even with all our layers on.  The players, in just flimsy football shirts and shorts, must be close to hypothermia.  Why doesn't the ref just blow up for full time now and just go straight to pens?

   I was wishing that even more in the early part of the second half.  Bury just shading it, as you'd expect from a side a division above Southend, but not really threatening, but then bugger, a bit of a defensive slip, Zac Thompson gets a free shot at goal inside the area, and a little lob puts the ball nicely into the back of the Shrimpers net.  Oh f***.  

   Normally, you'd expect the home support to show a bit of that bad attitude I alluded to earlier.  But not tonight.  Not so much backing their team, but more a case of understanding that on a frosty pitch against a higher rated team, these sort of things could happen.  The silence was heartening.

   It certainly seemed to help Southend United.  A few minutes later there was a roar of encouragement as they approached the South Stand goal on the right.  A nice cross to the far post.  And there was Gavin Tomlin.  They played the Kings of Leon at half time.  I don't care if Gav's sex is on fire, but he is on the pitch at the moment, in spite of the ice.  Great header.  1-1.  Get in there.

   I was surprised at the areial equaliser, as in the Bury ranks was Efe Sodje.  He's just one of those players you can't help but like.  A Londoner by birth but spending almost all of his career in Northern England.  He had a brief break dahn sarf.  

   With Southend United.  He was an integral part of their League One title winning side and the next season spent 90 minutes with Wayne Rooney in his pocket as Southend humbled Manchester United.  He still looked a bit of a twat with that bandanna, mind, but he remains possibly my favourite centre half ever.  Not the best but my favourite nonetheless.

   The next hour or so, played in bouts of thick freezing fog, had an air of inevitably about it.  Both teams were cancelling each other out.  The best opportunity to grab a winner was going to come from a set piece, but both sides looked pretty good in defence, although a late home header in normal time almost nicked it.

   

   There was also a seminal moment in extra time.  By then, another hero of Roots Hall, one time goal machine Freddy Eastwood, was on the pitch for the Shrimpers.  He'd lost a bit of his early career sparkle but he was still a Southend great.  He bore down on the Bury box.  

   Running out to the right hand side of the area, well, it had to be Efe.  For a moment, the two of them stood there, these legendary names in Southend United's history, now taking each other on.  An Eastwood jink or two doesn't shake Sodje off.  Freddy tries a shot but mishits it.  They run back towards the centre circle, shaking each other's hands.  The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

   All too soon, though, it's Nostradamus time.  Penalty shoot out.  Now's the time for heroes to be made.  Even if it's a freezing Tuesday night in December.  Even if it's Bury.  This is the FA Cup.  That old magic is still there.  The crowd become animated.

   So does Dan Bentley.  I remember that shot-stopping moment in the first half.  He does too.  He saves one.  Another Bury penalty narrowly misses the corner flag.  It's all set up for the scorer of the equaliser, Gavin Tomlin.  He does a Panenka.  Straight into the Bury keeper's arms.  What a twat.  It doesn't matter though.  A hero is made.  19 year old Bentley saves the next one.  Southend are through.

   

   For the first time all night, there's a Roots Hall Roar.  It's been a tough night for everyone, on and off the pitch, but we're through.  The prize money rises nine grand to £27,000.  That might just save Southend from another visit to the High Court.  You never know.

   And in the 3rd Round, it's the glamour of a home tie against Brentford, through after their opponents in the 2nd round fielded an ineligible player.  The team who made that fateful error are appealing though.  So it might still be them.  Bradford City.  Who have just knocked Arsenal out of the League Cup.  On penalties.  And who face Southend at the Hall on Saturday.  Sometimes these things just write themselves.

   I get back to the Bay not being able to feel my backside.  Then again, who would really want to?  Any sane person would ask why the hell I'd spent a night sat on a frozen seat, or stood in a frozen stand, watching frozen players on a frozen pitch.  They wouldn't understand though.  Bury. 1903.  Sodje.  Eastwood.  The FA Cup.

   Fantastic.

   Southend United 1,  Bury 1  

   (aet.  90 mins 1-1.  Southend United win 3-2 on penalties).