Southend Charity Cup (Section A)
Semi Final
Wednesday 13th May 2026
Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.03
Wakering Sports 5 Shoebury Town 3, attendance 70
2’ 1-0
20’ 2-0
22’ 2-1
31’ 3-1
66’ 3-2
71’ 4-2
89’ 5-2
90’ 5-3
@ Shoeburyness High School, 3G Pitch
Caulfield Road
Shoeburyness
SS3 9LL
No Admission or Programme.
The caged pitch here at Shoeburyness High School has a designated spectator area along three quarters of one side, with the changing rooms being inside the Shoeburyness Leisure Centre, about fifty yards from the pitch. Parking is available at the school, where toilets were also available and there a couple of vending machines just outside the cage entrance.
The match involved two teams from the Essex Olympian League. Wakering Sports are 4th in the Premier Division and Shoebury Town 8th in Division 3 South East, with this being played at the regular home ground of ‘the visitors’. It was a really keenly contested contest and the difference in playing level between the two was not really noticeable. Wakering were ahead after two minutes and hit the crossbar shortly afterwards too. When a lob over the ‘keeper made it 2-0 after twenty minutes, I feared it might be too one sided, but Shoebury hit back within two minutes to make it 2-1. Just after the half hour mark Wakering headed in at the far post, to go 3-1 up, and surprisingly there were no more goals before halftime.
With twenty four minutes left a cross from the right was headed in at the far post for Shoebury to pull it back to 3-2 and it was game on once more. Unfortunately for them, Wakering got the next goal, with an angled shot into the far corner to make it 4-2 just five minutes later and there was no way back from there. A corner from the left was forced in at the far post to make it 5-2 in the last minute, before Shoebury scored their third goal with the last kick of the match.
The 60 mile journey into Essex took a ridiculous two and a quarter hours, not helped by a four mile queue at the Dartford Crossing and very slow moving traffic from the M25 along the A13 towards Southend-on-Sea. Thankfully, totally trouble free on the return, although there were two lanes closed on the Dartford Crossing.
