"Roots Hall"

Southend United are the closest thing I will ever have to a second team (after Arsenal of course!). I've enjoyed myself there with family who live there and support them, I find myself pleased whenever I see them winning, and all-in-all I've found Southend United to be a fantastic day out. You can expect a decent atmosphere perhaps sometimes bordering on intimidating, regardless of the fixture, fairly good food and a good game of football.

Location

I'm not in a position to rate this location, as I've always done trips to Southend by car and therefore haven't tried it by train before.

View

I found the legroom to be quite poor. The view is normally okay but there are pillars in the west stand and south stand that can restrict your view a bit.

Facilities

Facility-wise I was very disappointed. I have been to Roots Hall numerous times as a neutral, and sat in the three home stands (east south and west). I found the toilets in all of them fairly acceptably clean except for the east stand, which was worse than my high school toilet. Also I found the east stand to be very small and getting out of it after the game was very difficult, I got separated from those I had gone to this game with on more than one occasion, and I couldn't help but wonder what they would do in the event of a fire.

Food & Drink

Can't fault the food. Pricing is okay, tastes great.

Police & Stewards

Generally, the stewards, when I've spoken to them, have been very friendly. That is, when they're around. As I mention in the atmosphere section, I saw a massive fight break out between three away fans who were, stupidly, in the home end, and a small group of angry hardcore Southend fans. Whilst the local police were on the scene VERY quickly, I didn't see a single steward there. So, credit to the local police, but the stewarding I find is quite poor here. I notice a lot when I come to Roots Hall that whilst there are a fair number of them out on the pitch around the stands, there aren't many actually in the stands, perhaps somewhere out of the way like I've seen at other clubs. Not to make comparisons, but at the Emirates there are at least two stewards outside each exit from the stadium, as was the case at Ewood Park and the City Ground.

Atmosphere

Every single time I have visited Southend, the atmosphere has been fairly good. The local support is very vocal, especially on the big occasions - I was at their play-off game vs Doncaster in 07/08 and they were very noisy - and the majority of their fans are very, very friendly and are there to enjoy a game of football, win lose or draw. At times they can be intimidating and goad at opposition fans. But it is very noisy

Write your own review of Roots Hall

Have you been to Roots Hall? Write a review!