In goal for Southend was former Norwich City junior Mervyn Cawston who had been released by the First Division side after brief first team experience with them. After a short spell with Gillingham he had spent some time playing in America before joining Southend where he was now in his third season.
Also in his third season at Roots Hall was right back Micky Stead. Coming through the ranks at Tottenham Hotspur he had made 15 appearances for the White Hart Lane club before being released. At left back, Steve Yates was another player to have started out with a top-level club, playing 19 times for Leicester City before joining Southend in 1977. The centre of the defence showed plenty of experience, with the 29-year-old Alan Moody having played around 50 times for Middlesbrough before signing for Southend in 1972 and was well on his way to what would be a total of nearly 500 games for the Essex club. Alongside him was big Dave Cusack who had played around 100 times for Sheffield Wednesday before joining Southend for a club record fee of £50,000 in 1978. Before the decade was out, he was to have experience as player-manager of both Doncaster Rovers and Rotherham before moving to Boston United in the same capacity in 1990.
Strength in midfield was provided by Essex boy Tony Hadley who had joined from Basildon United and was closing in on 200 appearances for Southend. He was partnered by the hard-working Ron Pountney, the previous season’s Player of the Season and now into his seventh year with the club for whom he was to play over 350 times. Skill and flair was provided by Anton Otulakowski and Terry Gray. The Yorkshire-born Otulakowski had brought a club record fee of £60,000 for Barnsley when sold to West Ham four years before. After 17 league games in three seasons for the Hammers he had then moved on to Southend in March 1979. Another Yorkshireman, Terry Gray had played almost 200 games for Huddersfield before moving to Roots Hall for the start of the previous season, scoring 8 goals for the relegated side. This time around he was the second highest scorer with 16 so far.
Outscoring Gray was the 29-year-old Derek Spence who had recently made his 28th international appearance for Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifying game against Scotland. His most prolific scoring spell had been with Bury with 44 goals in 140 league appearances before two spells in the Second and Third Divisions with Blackpool sandwiching a brief period playing for Olympiacos in Greece. He had moved to Southend midway through the previous season and was currently top scorer with 20 goals. Partnering Spence was Keith Mercer who had come through the ranks at Watford, holding the record of being their youngest ever player. After scoring 25 goals in the 1976/77 season for the Hornets he then began to suffer intermittent injury problems although still playing a part in Watford’s promotions under Graham Taylor. He had moved to Southend at around the same time as Spence and had 10 goals in the season so far.
Substitute was youth product Garry Nelson, aged 20, who had broken through into the first team the season before. He was to go on to have a lengthy and fairly prolific goalscoring career with second tier clubs such as Charlton, Brighton and Plymouth where he was voted into the Devon club’s Team of the Century.
Given the high profile of the game it not surprisingly attracted Southend’s biggest attendance of the season of 11,955 including an estimated 2.500 from Lincoln. Some of these were not best pleased by Southend’s cashing in on the importance of the match by doubling the cost of stand tickets to £4 for those paying on the day, this being made worse by them not telling City of it in advance. Although it seemed Southend were within their rights to do this, City chairman Dennis Houlston said he would be contacting the Football League to register a protest.
I wasn’t personally affected by this price increased, as visiting Roots Hall for the first time I stood on the open terracing behind the goal with the bulk of the visiting support. I was unimpressed with the match programme, which although appearing quite bulky was two-thirds made up of a standardised programme insert covering football in general called ‘Programme Plus’.
Just 60 seconds into the game City goalkeeper David Felgate pulled off a brilliant save from a header by Derek Spence which alone was enough to earn him the man of the match accolade from Echo reporter Maurice Burton. Felgate was beaten 20 minutes later but Southend midfielder Tony Hadley’s header hit the post and rebounded into the Welshman’s arms, an incident which prompted City manager Colin Murphy to say afterwards “God was with us then”. However, City by no means sat back on defence and although the home side had a lot of the play were always dangerous on the break.
Southend’s only other clear chance came when Anton Otulakowski, starring in midfield for the home side, went on a run to set up full back Steve Yates for a low cross which was put over the bar from six yards by Keith Mercer. For their own part City came close when defender Alan Moody cleared the ball from close to the line before Gordon Hobson could get to it following a shot from Tony Cunningham which was parried by the goalkeeper.
City striker Derek Bell, on as a late substitute for young Wayne Biggins fired a half chance over the bar, and there were appeals for penalties for hands at both ends, but generally it was the midfielders and defenders for both sides who had the biggest say in the game.
City’s performance had assistant manager John Sheridan enthusing “I always knew we were better than Southend. This afternoon we proved it. They were playing flat out, but we have not yet reached our peak”.
I only have vague memories of the match, but my player ratings showed I agreed with Maurice Burton about Felgate being man of the match, with Trevor Peake not far behind. The only players I gave a merely average mark to were the three strikers (plus sub’ Derek Bell) so this evidently fits in again with Maurice Burton’s assessment that the game was all about midfield and defence.
City, of course, remained two points behind Southend and defeat at Mansfield a week later meant that despite otherwise matching the Essex club’s results in the last few games of the season two points was the margin that saw them finish in second place. A full nine points ahead of third-placed Doncaster Rovers the Imps also set a new divisional record of only 25 goals conceded.
For Southend, goalkeeper Mervyn Cawston, defender Dave Cusack, midfielder Anton Otulakowski and Derek Spence were all named in the PFA Team of the Year. However, John Sheridan’s words about City not yet having reached their peak in comparison to Southend were perhaps proved right with the Imps coming close to promotion in each of the following two seasons while Southend gradually declined to relegation back to Division Four the year after that