A 1-1 home draw was enough for Southend United to progress to the LDV Vans Trophy final - at the expense of Essex rivals Colchester United.
In a tense match at Roots Hall tonight, the Blues triumphed 4-3 on aggregate over the U's in the Southern Area Final.
The visitors began the tie keen to make up for a 3-2 home leg defeat, and found the dream start when Kemal Izzet fired home after just three minutes.
But the U's, who play in Nationwide League Division Two, couldn't build on their early breakthrough, and the Division Three side equalised through Drewe Broughton in the dying seconds of the first half.
The second half was a scrappy affair which might easily have seen the home side go further in front. Broughton headed over the Colchester bar on 71 minutes, and Tesfaye Bramble fluffed a great chance from only six yards out on 75 minutes.
Bramble almost made amends with a 25-yard drive four minutes later, but U's keeper Simon Brown moved smartly to make the save.
It was clear it just wasn't going to be Colchester's night when Izzet appeared to be flattened inside the penalty box three minutes into stoppage time, but the U's players' appeals to the referee fell on deaf ears.
Soon afterwards the final whistle blew, sending Southend fans around Roots Hall into frenzied delight at the prospect of their side's first-ever trip to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
The U's, meanwhile, were left to contemplate the diappointment of having crashed out of two cup competitions inside three days.
- More match reports and pictures in tomorrow's Evening Gazette and Evening Echo
- Published Tuesday, February 17, 2004
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