23rd November 2010 - League Two
Stevenage 1 vs 1 Southend United
Randomly, of all the grounds I had to catch Rich up on, Stevenage was not one of the ones I expected. Fortunately my home town side, Southend United, had a midweek away trip to the Lamex so off I went.
Having been to see his Arsenal side (or at least an XI side) play against Stevenage in pre-season's past, Stevenage of League Two was one of the more surprising sides I needed to catch Rich up on.
So after ticking off West Ham with my ex's family, and Chelsea with a colleague, it was now the turn of Stevenage with an old mate of mine from college.
James Miller, or just 'Miller' as he's known to most, was the latest person to help me along my way to doing the 92. But this time I asked him to join me rather than the other way around when I saw that Southend were playing Stevenage on a Tuesday night in November.
Miller was a season ticket holder at Roots Hall and is as die-hard a Southend fan as you'll ever find, but away trips for him were a bit trickier. He was, though, well up for the relatively short trip up to Hertfordshire to see a struggling Southend take on Stevenage in League Two.
Miller and I made our way to the ground separately - I drove and he took the train - and after having a nightmare trying to find somewhere to park I eventually met up with Miller in the nearby McDonalds in sight of the ground.
After having a little catch up about life after college we headed over to the ground to join the rest of the Southend fans in the South Stand behind one of the goals.
For me Stevenage was synonymous with non-league football and the FA Cup, thanks mostly for their fourth round tie with Newcastle United back in 1998, but the ground itself didn't have the look of a side so entrenched in non-league history.
The ground was made up of two seated stands and two terraces. The stand we were in was the biggest of the seated areas which always makes me laugh. As the home side surely you'd put your own fans in the best stands, not the away fans?
Anyway, it was a nice little ground and with Stevenage having finally broken into the football league by winning the conference the season before I expected Southend to be in for a tough test against a side who were more than holding their own in League Two.
At the time Southend were languishing near the bottom just a few points off the relegation zone but the Shrimpers started the brighter and it was arguably against the run of play that Stevenage took the lead through Stacey Long midway through the first half.
The one thing I noticed about the Stevenage fans was that they literally only had one song. I don't even think it had any words and it's impossible to describe it in a blog...you'll have to just take my word for it, but it was bloody annoying!
To the right of us was one of the terraces where the majority of home fans camped. In amongst them was a group of young lads who just bounced away and sung the same song, over and over and over again.
For that annoyance alone I took quite a bit of joy out of Southend scoring a late equaliser through Barry Corr which sent Southend home with a point - although the joy was slightly soured when Peter Gilbert was sent off for a bit of a lunge in injury time.
Southend away games would become a fairly common occurrence as Rich and I ticked off the grounds in the lower leagues. Although Miller wouldn't join us for them it was good to see an old friend and get another ground ticked off.
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