Most of us have a hobby we enjoy.

Some people collect stamps, others like train sets, but South Woodham Ferrers' Melanie Thompson loves Southend United so much she has been to every Blues game for the last 20 years.

Melanie has been following the Shrimpers' fortunes for 34 years in total, but has never failed to miss a First-team league fixture, cup clash, friendly or pre-season tour, home and abroad, for the last two decades.

The administration clerk at Southend Job Centre estimates that she has seen Blues more than 2,000 times - at a cost of more than £3,000 a season!

"Most people think I'm mad and I must be just a little bit crazy," admitted the 46-year-old.

"But I love watching Southend and it is something I will carry on doing until the day I die."

However, Melanie wishes the players showed the same enthusiasm as some of the supporters who trek around the country watching them.

"It doesn't matter where the team is travelling to, you will always find the same hardcore of 100 or so fans that make every trip," said Melanie, who has followed Blues as far afield as Italy, Majorca and Tunisia.

"But some of the players don't seem to be interested in us, which they should be because they are supposed to be ambassadors for the club and, after all, we pay their wages.

"If the players got involved with the fans it would attract more people to matches and build a better spirit around the club."

Melanie, though, has many fond memories of Southend and picked out the 1981 Fourth Division Championship season and Blues' elevation to the old Second Division in 1991 as her all time highs.

"I'll never forget those two campaigns, especially our promotion to what would become the First Division for the first time in the club's history," said Melanie, whose favourite Southend player is former striker Billy Best.

"I can still remember the day we won that promotion at Bury, with a 1-0 victory at Gigg Lane, it was all very emotional and I saw grown men cry on the terraces."

Melanie lists the consecutive relegations from the First Division to where Blues are now, back in the Third Division basement, a couple of years ago as her biggest disappointment.

"It took more than 80 years for this club to get into the First Division and it was so disappointing the way in which we let it all slip away," she added sadly.

"But I'm an eternal optimist and I still believe we can get back to those dizzy heights, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later."

Memories are made of this - devoted Southend fan Melanie Thompson with some of the Blues memorabilia she has collected over the years

Picture: STEPHEN LLOYD

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