SUPPORTING SOUTHEND United has been a mostly melancholic pastime in recent years. The club and their fans have endured existence-threatening financial woes, two relegations and barely a sniff of success since promotion to the second flight in 1990-91. By one measure, Southend are statistically the joint-worst team in English football’s top four leagues; only the Essex club and Coventry City have failed to muster a top-ten finish in any division in the past 11 years.
So it was surprising that their supporters could remember the words, but no shock that they were so eager to dust off chants about possible promotion at the end of Saturday’s match. At this stage, it is difficult to draw many conclusions, with even Grimsby Town, in seventeenth place, clasping at pallid play-offs hopes, but Southend are now just three points behind Swansea City, who are third, and the defiant and dramatic way in which they became only the second team to beat Northampton Town in the league at Sixfields this season, suggested a team of players sensing that this could be their moment.
Colin Calderwood, the Northampton manager, refused to give up hope of a top-three finish, although his team are eight points adrift. They were on top for long spells in a good game that showcased the improving standards and ambition of Coca-Cola League Two’s best teams. The ball was pinged around the midfield rapidly because the players were fit, had a good first touch and were thinking quickly, rather than because they feared being clattered by a member of the opposition with the physique of Shrek and the intentions of The Terminator if they kept possession for more than a few seconds.
“We weren’t professional or strong enough to see the game out,” Calderwood said. As a defender capped 36 times by Scotland, he must have been aghast at the way two lapses at the back surrendered three points when Martin Smith’s seventh-minute opener had looked likely to prove the winner.
Darryl Flahavan kept the visiting team in the match with a reaction save from a point-blank header by Scott McGleish, and it proved vital. Adam Barrett was twice left free to head in from corners, the centre back’s second, and ninth goal of the season, coming in the final minute.