Thank god the police insisted that Canvey Island switched their dream FA Cup 2nd round tie against Southend United to Roots Hall.

The Ryman Premier League outfit were determined that the "Essex Cup Final" should be played on their tiny Park Lane ground.

But the law stepped in and, rightly in my view, decided that a ground which can hardly hold 3,000 people was not big enough or safe enough for this big local David v Goliath derby.

I understand some Canvey officials were so against Roots Hall being the venue that they even suggested Leyton Orient or Dagenham's ground should host the classic encounter.

But for me Southend's home was always going to be the only sensible option and let's hope the local soccer followers turn out in force.

I reckon a gate around the 8,000 mark is the least we should expect and I am sure it will lift Canvey to make yet another supreme effort as they will no doubt be backed by most of the neutrals in the crowd.

Their incredible 2-1 replay win at Port Vale underlined that the part-timers, who even their keenest fan would agree were probably fortunate to draw 4-4 at home in the first encounter, won't be overawed by the occasion.

And Southend will certainly need to improve on some poor recent home performances if they are not to suffer an embarrassing afternoon.

With Roots Hall now the agreed venue it throws up some interesting points because as Canvey are technically the home side they will take over the Blues dressing room and some Southend fans may get their chance to return to the away end in the North Bank.

One sour note for me was the early sugestion that tickets for the match would cost as much as £20 - thankfully someone, somewhere saw sense and reduced them to a much more reasonable £16.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.