Seaside Special

Congratulations to Southend :)

The Play Offs might not be the way most teams plan to get promoted, but it surely is the best.
Always feel sorry for teams that get the automatic promotion but miss out on the Trophy celebrations.
If Southend had held on to 3rd spot and not blown it on the last day of the season, they would have missed out on one of the greatest days in their history.

I was offered tickets for the game free of charge because it was my Birthday yesterday by one of my son's, but told him I didn't want to curse Southend as I seem to have done over the last few years.
Been to all 3 of their JPT/LDV finals and they have lost all of them without scoring a goal.
I had to work the last time they made the play off final and they won that one.
Also been to handful of home games in recent years and haven't seen them win for about 6 years, so I'm feeling like a bad luck charm :(

Yesterday's game had all the twists and turns that make it a classic :)
After a fairly average 90 mins Wycombe took the lead early in extra time with a flukey goal, Jacobson's free kick came back off the bar and hit Bentley on the back and went in, Southend really didn't look like getting back into it after that and Wycombe should have sewn the game up near the end but for a brilliant last ditch tackle by Ben Coker.
With just 20 seconds left of injury time, Joe Pigott got an equaliser with Southend's first real chance of extra time.
The penalties, at 1-1 Coker blasted his penalty down the middle but the Wycombe keepers foot got in the way, at 3-3 Dan Bentley made a great save to level things up.
Good penalties followed until at 7-6 Bentley made another great save turning Wood's penalty onto the post :)
As for next season who knows? I don't think the team is strong enough to challenge for promotion again and it could be a real anti climax, but hopefully the feel good factor will continue.

Would be great if that mystery Billionaire decided not to waste his money on Carlisle and brought his fat wallet down to the bright lights of Southend :)