A SOUTHEND United fanatic has jetted across the world to watch his heroes in tomorrow’s Wembley showpiece.

Tony Smith, 48, emmigrated to Hong Kong three years ago, but despite the expense – not to mention the 12-hour flight – he said the League Two playoff final was simply unmissable.

It will continue his record of watching all the team’s crunch promotion games, which has included him writing off his car at Bury in 1991 and the elation at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff a decade ago.

Mr Smith, who has been a Blues fan since the age of seven, said: “I couldn’t really afford it, but I’m a mad fan and we are at Wembley. I thought there’s no chance of me missing it.

“My wife and son think I’m mad and they’re probably right.

“I’m nuts about Southend despite relocating to Hong Kong at the end of January 2012. I’ve not missed a Cardiff or Wembley game.”

Despite setting up residence in China, he still manages to watch two to three games a season, and jetted back for the Blues’ debut at Wembley, in the Johnston Paint Trophy final in 2013.

He founded the amateur men’s teamShrimperZone FC, and uses the ShrimperZone forums to keep up with Blues news while he is thousands of miles away.

He added: “The last Wembley game was a big occasion, but this is more important as it is a playoff final.

“In the context of how the club has been and its off-field problems, a win here could be the beginning of the end of the doom and gloom years.”

Since 1987, Mr Smith also hasn’t missed a crunch promotion game – even when he wrote off his car going to a match in Lancashire.

He said: “It was at Bury in 1991 when there were queues on the M1 so I took an A-road, and crashed right into a flatbed lorry. The car was written off, but just about drivable, with a plastic windscreen.

“But a few miles in a realised I wasn’t going to get too far with a plastic windscreen, so I stopped at a service station, and by luck, there was a coach full of supporters there that gave me a lift the rest of the way.

“I remember going to Cardiff too, ten years ago, and the whole of the M4 was a sea of Blues fans.”