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Accidentally boarding a boat packed with beer-swilling football fans would be some people’s idea of hell.
But Evan Johnston, a 21-year-old student from Arizona, said he “had a blast” after inadvertently joining a boat trip chartered by 150 Southend United supporters before their National League game at Sutton United on Saturday.
According to the Southend Echo, Johnston boarded at Tower Millennium Pier in London believing he was getting on a tourist boat, but he was soon taken under the collective wing of a group of Southend fans.
“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,” Johnson told the Echo. “The cruise would last an hour or so and then I planned to spend the rest of the day touring central London.
“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. But I decided to board anyways because I figured if they checked tickets they would just turn me around … But they didn’t check tickets, so I slipped on the boat undetected.”
Andy Ward, one of the Southend supporters on board, told the Echo: “Someone on the boat told me a young lad was on the wrong boat and I just wanted to make sure he was OK. 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 … He said someone gave him a match ticket but was unsure whether to go. I said to him come with us.”
The boat docked at Blackfriars Pier and the fans, their number swelled by one, caught a train to Sutton, where Johnston had an authentic taste of a football supporter’s life. Ben Goodliffe put Southend ahead on 24 minutes at VBS Community Stadium only for Ashley Nadesan to strike in the fourth minute of stoppage time to rescue a point for the hosts.
“I had a blast on the boat and at the Southend game,” said Johnston, who hails from Tempe, near Phoenix, and is in London for six weeks as part of his studies. “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 a Southend fan till I die now. I never followed much football so this is the first team I actually cared about and I’m rooting for them now.”
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A Southend spokesperson told the Guardian: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming Evan to Roots Hall this weekend for our game against Solihull Moors on Saturday. We’ll be giving him a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium and the chance to meet some of the players.
“After hearing he was one of the 1,459 fans who ended up in the away end at Sutton – by complete accident – we’re excited to show him what a home game with the Shrimpers is all about.”
