American tourist Evan becomes accidental Southend United fan

From the Southend Echo

Southend is the biggest seaside town (it’s a city now) in Essex out of London along the north bank of the River Thames and into the Thames estuary; I was there only last week and was within sight of the pier yesterday. 

EVAN Johnston became an accidental Southend United fan this weekend – after getting on the wrong boat in London. Evan – who is visiting from Arizona – thought he was set for an afternoon of sight-seeing in the capital.

But the 21-year-old had actually joined a group of Shrimpers supporters heading to the National League clash at Sutton United by water.

A group of 150 Southend United fans hired a ‘party boat’ to take them down The Thames to their match away to Sutton on Saturday and they soon noticed that an American tourist called Evan was sitting quietly by himself, so they asked him if he was OK.

“I had originally planned to board the river cruise boat for the Hop On-Hop Off tour, which I assume was located on the same dock,” explained Evan. “The cruise would last an hour or so and then I planned to spend the rest of the day touring the central London area on the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. I had some suspicions when I was in line to board behind all of the Southend fans because they seemed to know each other and were making chants I didn’t understand. . . I figured if they checked tickets they would just turn me around and there would be no harm done. But they didn’t check tickets so I slipped on the boat undetected.”

And passionate Blues fan Andy Ward was among the first to make Evan feel welcome.

“Someone on the boat told me that a young lad was on the wrong boat and I just wanted to make sure he was OK,” said Andy. “When I found him he was drinking and dancing with other Southend fans and even though you could see he was nervous everyone was just trying to make him feel welcome. When I spoke with him he said someone gave him a match ticket but was unsure whether to go. I said to him come with us and I will make sure he got home safely to Kentish Town which he did.”

And Evan now plans to watch Southend again this weekend. “⁠I had a blast on the boat and at the Southend game . . . I had so much fun I plan to go to another Southend game next weekend and hopefully they can pull out the win. . . I’m rooting for them now.”

If you kept hearing the chant ‘Evan is a Shrimper’ on the radio – now you know why!

The match ended in a 1-1 draw which kept the Shrimpers a point outside the play-offs.