By Dave Goody & Peter Miles

Twitter:@sufc_history

MEDALS? Southend United?

Most people will think that there can’t be very many medals around that relate to the history of Southend United.

But there are a few through the years that have an interesting story to tell.

Back in the 1920s and 1930s, Blues played charity matches to raise funds for the newly-constructed Southend Hospital.

Whoever the invited opponents were, the teams played for the John Moss Cup, and medals were awarded to the players of both teams for their efforts.

The 1921/22 match was against Arsenal and gold medals were presented to all the players.

The front was a very nice enamelled Southend United Football Club badge and the reverse was engraved with the players’ name.

The 1936 match was played against West Ham United.

The players were presented with their commemorative medal and the John Moss Cup awarded to the winners.

The medals this time were of a base metal in a presentation box, the front stating that they were awarded by the Southend-on-Sea Sportsmen’s Appeal Fund.

At the end of the 1949/50 season, Southend’s reserves were runners-up in the Football Combination Cup competition and were awarded silver medals, the one shown having belonged to goalkeeper Ted Hankey.

One of the most famous medals to have been won by players of Southend United is the Fourth Division Championship medal, under the managership of Dave Smith.

This was awarded at the end of the 1980/81 season, one in which the club broke a number of club records, including most points and most wins.

The gold medal awarded states Football League Championship Division Four winners on the front and season 1980/81 engraved on the back, although it appears that the club couldn’t run to the expense of having the players’ names engraved on the back!

Coming right up to date, players will have been awarded medals for the LDV final defeats against Wrexham and Blackpool at the Millennium Stadium, the 2005 play-off final victory against Lincoln City and the JPT Final defeat against Crewe Alexandra in 2013.

But the most important medal of recent times is the one the players were awarded for their League Two play-off final win at Wembley against Wycombe Wanderers in 2015.