Rovers at Solly Campbell’s skint Southend

I was listening to BBC Essex on the way, and they were saying how some of the staff and players haven’t been paid this month, and the fans aren’t being told anything, and Sol wasn’t banging on doors to make demands on players’ behalves, and for the first time in a long time I thought how good it is to be a Rovers fan.

Walking to the ground I was talking to some Shrimpers who told me that things were near rock bottom, with the owner having tons of businesses but seemingly tons of problems with each of them, so that they are playing the youth squad (unlike earlier in the season when some experienced players were still around), who don’t yet have the stamina for the last 15-20 minutes.

Then the teams came out and, apart from Shaughnessy at the back, they were all little shrimps. I thought, with Ben Garner back on his home Essex soil, our larger size and greater experience would mean that we were odds on to bully and outsmart them, and I was feeling all positive and seasidey in spite of their drum and the grey skies and typical March temperatures.

I was sat behind our goal. Last time I was sitting there Matty Harrold headed home from about a yard out against his old club, and didn’t hesitate to celebrate royally. Good memories, and the fairly low vantage point emphasized how quickly the game moves, even at League One level.

Blackman stood in front of us. I hadn’t been close to him before, and he’s a very big bugger. I realised that he has a pretty intricate hairdo, but kicks from the floor almost as well as he goalkeeps overall, although he’s not all that verbal with the defence.

We bossed the game at the start, and made them look like a team of youngsters with only one home win behind them this season. Hare started at right back, and I wanted us to give him the ball all the time to see more of his crosses as the solution to some of our problems going forward, but that’s unfair on a young ‘un who’s just got back, and probably ill-suited to a team with 2 forwards whose aggregate height is about 11 feet.

Harries made his debut, and didn’t do a lot in the first half apart from a splendid ball-winning tackle on 2 men. Daly also made his first start. He didn’t lack legs or commitment but, like many of his predecessors, he struggled to make an impact.

We went fairly close early on, and were having the possession, but without really threatening. Then one of our blokes flubbed a pass, and their centre forward ran onto a through ball. He still had a lot to do, but picked his spot and did it. 1-0 down, against about the least successful team in the universe.

They didn’t do much more, but nonetheless had 2 deflected shots which were the closest things to another goal that half – one hit the bar, and the other was about a foot wide of Blackman’s post. Ho hum.

So half-time was pretty subdued, apart from some dancing girls away in the middle of the pitch, and the deafening speaker above me. One bloke said how this football reminded him of the stuff we played under Ray Graydoom, and I found it hard to disagree.

Our early possession had given way to a lot of aerial ping pong, and we weren’t really getting the better of it.

But at the start of the second half their defender Elvis flubbed a pass and JML was clean through. I thought he’d held onto it for too long, but it turned out that he judged it perfectly and it was a clinical finish which buoyed the mood as Rovers pressed forwards.

It didn’t last though, and Rovers seemed to get worse rather than better as they pushed forwards.

The little shrimps pushed the ball around more effectively, and less predictably than Rovers did, and soon they fashioned a second goal with some good passing finished by the smallest shrimp of all.

Our defence just didn’t seem to join up somehow. I was surprised that Millwall Tone was given the job of marking their only big bloke at corners, and he played 30 seconds of British Bulldog with him before each delivery.

Blackman made a superb save, before the 3rd Shrimper deflection was put into his own goal by Alfie K. Just the sort of thing that happens when things aren’t going your way.

The drumboys piped up with ‘how bad are you, we’re winning at home?’, to which the Gas immediately fired back ‘you’re nothing special, we lose every week’.

The crowd was announced as 5,800, with 537 Gas. When the Gas number was announced, the bloke behind me shouted ‘idiots’. No-one seemed to disagree.

Bennett, Rodman and Timtam came on, and there was a bit more huffing and puffing, but it didn’t obviously make much difference, although Rodders made a bit of an impact, and his head was 2 inches away from meeting a great cross, and Timtam looked vigorous and had a half-chance. I don’t need to tell you how Bennett played, as you know without being there.

I’m not sure that Southend deserved the 3-1, but they took some chances, came closest to scoring throughout, and made Rovers look worse and worse as the match went on. So Rovers didn’t really deserve a point.

So, at the end of the game, I thought how it isn’t always all that good to be a Rovers fan after all.