Post-Match Thread and Ratings Oldham FC 3-2 Southend Utd

[andyt63]

Spoke to a number of Oldham fans after the game, all really friendly and happy to talk over the game and their club in general. Their perspective was interesting: despite the results against Halifax and York the fans unsure about MM's tactics during the season (too negative) ; Fondop good but could be better, despite the goals; really rated Pett, (who I thought had an excellent game); relieved to have won, thought they had blown it in ET; already worried about having too many players out of contract or going back after loan spells.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Funnily enough, l am not too down after yesterday, I thought I would be, but l have some more great memories in my locker.

Firstly meeting up with my eldest daughter, Em, my son in law, Kev - @The General and my eldest grandson, starting the day off with a couple of sherbets at Hamilton Hall. Well not him yet lol.

Then, and this was a star moment for me. When we got on at Euston, great banter on the train, with a boisterous bunch of Latics fans, who as the four of us and a couple of other Shrimpers boarded, we walked into a quiet carriage of other Oldham fans. The louder lot a few strides down welcomed us with a chorus of "You all support West Ham....."

Well I had to counter with "Man U, you all support Man U...."

A couple of non football types asked what that was all about, and an Oldham fan and l cordially let the know about non league football and who we were, Follow by from Further back "Southend give us a song......."

I led a reply of "Rochdale is my second team....."

Claps from the back, more Oldham songs, and during their next pause, My 7 year old Grandson shouts out "Oldham fans ssh" , breaking our mixed carriage into laughter. I look at my daughter and her husband and said, " he's gonna get us into trouble today lol"

We all left the train at Wembley Central wishing each other good luck.

In the stadium sitting with jackie @Tinks , Tony, April and Si.

Game finishes Dylan is in tears in his mother's arms, I said: give him here.

So hugging him I said to him, "what don't we do when we lose,? Cry. What do we do? Bite your bottom lip, applaud our players AND the winners. When we leave the stadium, wish Oldham supporters Good Luck for next season and congratulations. Now dry your eyes and give me a smile."

"OK Grandad" says Dylan .

And that's exactly what he did with me all the way to the queue for the train At Wembley Central.

Except one more thing, he said. "Grandad will we go up next season?"

"What do you think?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we'll give it our best won't we?"

"Of course we will, 'cos we're Southend United" l answered "and what do we do?"

"Never give up" he answered.

Those moments from yesterday will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Next season is my 50th year as a Shrimper and it'll be a Golden one if we can get promoted and l can share it with a certain 8 year old.

#NEVERGIVEUP

 

[EastStandBlue]

Overall, and despite of the result, I suspect yesterday was and will be a cathartic experience for the club. It should be proof that it has well and truly begun to shake off the rot and rust of the last 5+ years. You can see it not just in the way the management and playing staff turned the season around from January onwards, but how the club and supporters managed to mobilise en masse and put together an experience like yesterday in just over a week.

Right the way from contending with the shambolic National League to organising the tifo/display – there are very few clubs outside of the Championship that could pull something like that off. Oldham obviously deserve great credit as well: yesterday was more of a League One final than most League One play-off finals have been.

On the match, I think Oldham probably just about shaded it over the course of 120 minutes. I thought they dominated the first half after a shaky start and then very much had us on the ropes for the first 15/20 minutes of the second half. After watching them rip York apart in the semi-final I wondered how we’d cope with their physicality and directness, and at times yesterday we simply couldn’t. How Fondup’s chip late in the first half didn’t nestle in the bottom corner I don’t think anyone will know.

Of course, that physicality did spill over at times. A stronger referee may have controlled that more adequately, but then also probably would have seen us down to 10 men as well. Not to absolve the officials of too much blame though, they were fairly abject.

Credit to Maher and his subs – Bonne and Parillon gave the attack another dimension and pushed Oldham back, and you can’t say we didn’t have chances to win the game. We finished the second half much more strongly than we did the second and Oldham definitely grew tired.

Walker obviously should’ve converted his chance, but KAF also had a handful of chances to create something and we should’ve done a lot better given our dominance in wide areas, particularly late on in the game. I personally thought GSM looked some way off the pace and struggled throughout, either carrying a knock or feeling the effects of a long season where he’s had to carry the side for a lot of it.

Stand-outs on the day were unquestionably Taylor and KAF. Taylor’s display was as commanding as you’re likely to see at this level, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have potential suitors this summer. Likewise KAF, yes his end product is a little inconsistent, but his drifting between the lines yesterday had Oldham’s back line panicked.

On the other side of the coin, Miley was a gamble that didn’t pay off (although I understand Maher including him to counter Oldham’s threat through the middle) and we looked considerably better after Coker came on. Hopper toiled but was ultimately a blunt instrument. Goodliffe looked increasingly cumbersome as the game wore on, should’ve been subbed off at HT of ET and could’ve done better for both of the goals after. Hayes should’ve done better with the second, but then kept us in the game with a critical save from Fondup when they were properly in the ascendancy – if that goes in, we’re buried.

That’s why I’m loathe to criticise anyone too much. Every player has played a key role in dragging the club from a dark place in January to 10 minutes from League Two. Both of Oldham’s goals came relatively out of nowhere and they looked completely spent right up until Walker’s failure to convert his chance, which looked as if it shook them back to life. Oldham’s third was also a proper lightning strike of a goal – 99 times out of 100, that’s not creeping in.

A gut punch, but the club’s fought back from worse. This summer should be all about targeted strengthening rather than the wholesale rebuilds and staving off doom we’ve become accustomed to. Give Maher & co the room to build. If we can keep up lobbying efforts to get 2 + 1 up from this hellscape of a division as well, then all the better.

 

[leeblue]

Apologies if this has already been covered, I haven’t had a chance to read all the posts on here but has anyone seen our penalty shout on Appiah-Forson? In the second half of normal time. From the angle we was in the crowd it looked a definite penalty! And I make that a penalty we should have been awarded in each of the playoff games.

Immaterial now I know but just wondered other people’s perspectives on it. Was it a penalty?

Nah never a pen.

 

[IloveShrimp]

Yes on my way to Gatwick for lunchtime flight. I said to my son this morning would I do the same next year if we end up back at Wembley, the cost, (I’ve not added them all up yet and I’ve been very conservative on what I’ve told the wife back home!) and the answer is a resounding YES!

I would like to think our upward trajectory takes us beyond the lottery that is the Play Offs, but I think it will be very difficult especially if we lose key players and the incoming ones take time to gel.

Crucially we need proper planning, planning to replace players that might go, planning to work on what went wrong this season and put measures in place to mitigate. Yes a lot went well but improvement can be made.

I was in block 122. We were on halfway line just a small gap separated us from Oldham fans. Being so close the noise level was louder from them than ours. Our block whilst not noisy did have its moments. Me and a few others did try and get the whole group up and singing with mixed success.

All said and done, the disappointment may diminish over time but I’m glad I came over, to see so many Southend fans gladdens the heart and the atmosphere at the Boxpark (pre game) was something else and worth the entrance fee (although rumours of cheaper pints were not exactly true!).

Up the Blues

Block 123 for me, just the tunnel between us. The Oldham fans were the loudest and I think the seating arrangements must have better arranged to ensure the loudest ones were situated together.

 

[Holy Joe]

Block 123 for me, just the tunnel between us. The Oldham fans were the loudest and I think the seating arrangements must have better arranged to ensure the loudest ones were situated together.

I think they could buy 20 seats together whereas we were limited to 4. Makes it much easier for groups of people to sit together. Maybe, because of the distance, less people come for the 'day out' as well?

 

[Derbyshire Blue]

I've needed a day to get over the disappointment, the drive home late last night and I needed to put on a brave face for my son who was gutted. I've also been made redundant today after 30 years with my employer, so a lot to take in but no violins as the result yesterday is still the worse part!

As a self-confessed day-tripper, yesterday just reinforced how much I love the club and hopefully did so for many thousands more. I felt all the emotions yesterday, the elation, the stomach punching sadness, I'd love to be a STH but I feel it all the same.

I do feel positive about the future though, yes Oldham could have buried us with their chances but we took the lead twice and showed over the playoffs we can put up a performance and get results. With some tweaks over the summer and the course of the season I'm confident we'll be at the right end of the table. I don't have any arrogance to expect to win the league as much as I'd love that, but I suspect other clubs and their fans will be looking at us as an up and coming force again and will count us in the reasons why it will be difficult for them to get back up again.

I know the way we lost was a shell-shock, but with time to reflect I'm happier with the fact we made a fist of it and came close, than being rolled over. There were some errors from our boys, but I expect it at that level, from both sides. I personally thought there were more positive performances that get overlooked in defeat. The low save Hayes made in the second half had a young lad behind me in awe celebrating what an amazing keeper he is, I know that might be stretching it but I hope this kid remembers these good moments and goes on to celebrate the positives.

Oh, and the banners at the start, that really tested me welling up in front of my son. So so proud to be a Shrimper, and my kids are too as they already don't care how many Forest fans (suddenly a lot of them near us) at school laugh at them for saying they support Southend.

I'll be making every effort to see them again more times next season, and I really hope to see the Never. Give. Up. banner, absolutely love it! After the recent rat years and death by a thousand cuts, I feel more positive about our club than I have done in a long time.

UTB

 

[IloveShrimp]

I wonder if, once the dust has settled - if Kev will regret a couple of decisions.

Firstly, the big decision was to start Miley over Coker. He went with Miley's experience and defensive qualities but given he's not started since January, I think it put a lot of pressure on him. He's been really effective as a closer and I would have loved to have him in the latter stages/extra time. His early yellow also nullified what he was able to offer, and he was blowing after 60 mins.

Secondly - Hopper over Bonne. Again, I think we missed Hopper in the second half of the match, when we need to defend at times and someone to take the pressure off the back line. Automatically he dropped back in the first 20 mins and left Kendall a bit isolated, which put us under pressure in the first half. Bonne has more pace and would have worried their defenders a bit more. We brought him on when we weren't exactly chasing the game, but just needed fresh legs up front as Hopper was exhausted.

TBF, I think our bench made a positive impact, which I expected it would have. Just a shame we didn't have the quality and experience of Cav and Hopper to bring off the bench to help us close the game out, in extra time especially.

Personally I think with 20 mins to go and Oldham needing 2 goals to win was the best time for us to 'shut up shop'. Our players were getting caught upfront with no energy to be able to get back. Oldham demonstrated this well as we got sucker punched by them as they were keeping players back and attacking on the break. Their managers experience outdone us I'm afraid.

 

[RONMARTINOUT]

Realistically only Ralph and Taylor played a 8/9 out of 10 and that isn’t enough to win you a game at Wembley unfortunately. But they did great to get there. I personally think GSM and KAF looked absolutely shattered understandably so after last couple of games, especially in ET, and probably should have been subbed earlier

 

[Tinks]

Funnily enough, l am not too down after yesterday, I thought I would be, but l have some more great memories in my locker.

Firstly meeting up with my eldest daughter, Em, my son in law, Kev - @The General and my eldest grandson, starting the day off with a couple of sherbets at Hamilton Hall. Well not him yet lol.

Then, and this was a star moment for me. When we got on at Euston, great banter on the train, with a boisterous bunch of Latics fans, who as the four of us and a couple of other Shrimpers boarded, we walked into a quiet carriage of other Oldham fans. The louder lot a few strides down welcomed us with a chorus of "You all support West Ham....."

Well I had to counter with "Man U, you all support Man U...."

A couple of non football types asked what that was all about, and an Oldham fan and l cordially let the know about non league football and who we were, Follow by from Further back "Southend give us a song......."

I led a reply of "Rochdale is my second team....."

Claps from the back, more Oldham songs, and during their next pause, My 7 year old Grandson shouts out "Oldham fans ssh" , breaking our mixed carriage into laughter. I look at my daughter and her husband and said, " he's gonna get us into trouble today lol"

We all left the train at Wembley Central wishing each other good luck.

In the stadium sitting with jackie @Tinks , Tony, April and Si.

Game finishes Dylan is in tears in his mother's arms, I said: give him here.

So hugging him I said to him, "what don't we do when we lose,? Cry. What do we do? Bite your bottom lip, applaud our players AND the winners. When we leave the stadium, wish Oldham supporters Good Luck for next season and congratulations. Now dry your eyes and give me a smile."

"OK Grandad" says Dylan .

And that's exactly what he did with me all the way to the queue for the train At Wembley Central.

Except one more thing, he said. "Grandad will we go up next season?"

"What do you think?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we'll give it our best won't we?"

"Of course we will, 'cos we're Southend United" l answered "and what do we do?"

"Never give up" he answered.

Those moments from yesterday will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Next season is my 50th year as a Shrimper and it'll be a Golden one if we can get promoted and l can share it with a certain 8 year old.

#NEVERGIVEUP

Kev, great to see you all and sit with you yesterday
This is lovely what you have said

 

[Tinks]

I've needed a day to get over the disappointment, the drive home late last night and I needed to put on a brave face for my son who was gutted. I've also been made redundant today after 30 years with my employer, so a lot to take in but no violins as the result yesterday is still the worse part!

As a self-confessed day-tripper, yesterday just reinforced how much I love the club and hopefully did so for many thousands more. I felt all the emotions yesterday, the elation, the stomach punching sadness, I'd love to be a STH but I feel it all the same.

I do feel positive about the future though, yes Oldham could have buried us with their chances but we took the lead twice and showed over the playoffs we can put up a performance and get results. With some tweaks over the summer and the course of the season I'm confident we'll be at the right end of the table. I don't have any arrogance to expect to win the league as much as I'd love that, but I suspect other clubs and their fans will be looking at us as an up and coming force again and will count us in the reasons why it will be difficult for them to get back up again.

I know the way we lost was a shell-shock, but with time to reflect I'm happier with the fact we made a fist of it and came close, than being rolled over. There were some errors from our boys, but I expect it at that level, from both sides. I personally thought there were more positive performances that get overlooked in defeat. The low save Hayes made in the second half had a young lad behind me in awe celebrating what an amazing keeper he is, I know that might be stretching it but I hope this kid remembers these good moments and goes on to celebrate the positives.

Oh, and the banners at the start, that really tested me welling up in front of my son. So so proud to be a Shrimper, and my kids are too as they already don't care how many Forest fans (suddenly a lot of them near us) at school laugh at them for saying they support Southend.

I'll be making every effort to see them again more times next season, and I really hope to see the Never. Give. Up. banner, absolutely love it! After the recent rat years and death by a thousand cuts, I feel more positive about our club than I have done in a long time.

UTB

I am sorry to hear about the job. Fingers crossed something in the pipe line
Onwards and upwards (as they say)

 

[tommy tucker]

I watched the game on Dazn The comentators where sadly one sided They kept harping on how stong there was And how good mellons is to the point it got boring . If i did not know diffrent you would thought there was only onr team there yesterday .

 

[Mad Cyril]

I am not angry and don’t blame Kev or the players. If this had been a cup game against a team in a higher division nobody would be saying they were the better team and deserved to win.

 

[The Original Tribal Chief]

Back in Oregon. It's been a very draining few days, both physically and emotionally. I remain bitterly disappointed that we are still in the godforsaken National League. No excuses next year - we must get promotion.

 

[A Century United]

It’s going to take a long time to get over that one. Did they probably just about edge it? Maybe.. but I don’t care about that. I’m more ****ed off over the fact we’ve got the football league in our hands and a couple of minutes lapse of concentration sees us staying in this god forsaken league. I’m proud of what the boys have done this season but I’m afraid they’ve thrown that one away today.

No. They have played three high intensity important cup ties (effectively) at the end of a hard season. They were drained by the end of the first half of extra time. They threw nothing away, they just didn't have quite enough energy to get over the line.

 

[greyerfox]

That was most peculiar.

It was not only the lack of ball boys which was most surprising and annoying but also the lack of extra balls. For players to be jumping the barriers to recover the ball was ridiculous in a showpiece final. Was this farcical arrangement repeated in the other playoff finals I wonder?

 

[Richard Hearn]

It was not only the lack of ball boys which was most surprising and annoying but also the lack of extra balls. For players to be jumping the barriers to recover the ball was ridiculous in a showpiece final. Was this farcical arrangement repeated in the other playoff finals I wonder?

Yes, that too was commented on.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Funnily enough, l am not too down after yesterday, I thought I would be, but l have some more great memories in my locker.

Firstly meeting up with my eldest daughter, Em, my son in law, Kev - @The General and my eldest grandson, starting the day off with a couple of sherbets at Hamilton Hall. Well not him yet lol.

Then, and this was a star moment for me. When we got on at Euston, great banter on the train, with a boisterous bunch of Latics fans, who as the four of us and a couple of other Shrimpers boarded, we walked into a quiet carriage of other Oldham fans. The louder lot a few strides down welcomed us with a chorus of "You all support West Ham....."

Well I had to counter with "Man U, you all support Man U...."

A couple of non football types asked what that was all about, and an Oldham fan and l cordially let the know about non league football and who we were, Follow by from Further back "Southend give us a song......."

I led a reply of "Rochdale is my second team....."

Claps from the back, more Oldham songs, and during their next pause, My 7 year old Grandson shouts out "Oldham fans ssh" , breaking our mixed carriage into laughter. I look at my daughter and her husband and said, " he's gonna get us into trouble today lol"

We all left the train at Wembley Central wishing each other good luck.

In the stadium sitting with jackie @Tinks , Tony, April and Si.

Game finishes Dylan is in tears in his mother's arms, I said: give him here.

So hugging him I said to him, "what don't we do when we lose,? Cry. What do we do? Bite your bottom lip, applaud our players AND the winners. When we leave the stadium, wish Oldham supporters Good Luck for next season and congratulations. Now dry your eyes and give me a smile."

"OK Grandad" says Dylan .

And that's exactly what he did with me all the way to the queue for the train At Wembley Central.

Except one more thing, he said. "Grandad will we go up next season?"

"What do you think?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we'll give it our best won't we?"

"Of course we will, 'cos we're Southend United" l answered "and what do we do?"

"Never give up" he answered.

Those moments from yesterday will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Next season is my 50th year as a Shrimper and it'll be a Golden one if we can get promoted and l can share it with a certain 8 year old.

#NEVERGIVEUP

Ah that’s made me smile. My son was devastated, in tears. I think the first thing he said was “great, Borehamwood, Brackley”.. but he insisted on staying and applauding the team. I told him it’d make next season sweeter when we go up.

 

[Che's Left Foot]

I've needed a day to get over the disappointment, the drive home late last night and I needed to put on a brave face for my son who was gutted. I've also been made redundant today after 30 years with my employer, so a lot to take in but no violins as the result yesterday is still the worse part!

As a self-confessed day-tripper, yesterday just reinforced how much I love the club and hopefully did so for many thousands more. I felt all the emotions yesterday, the elation, the stomach punching sadness, I'd love to be a STH but I feel it all the same.

I do feel positive about the future though, yes Oldham could have buried us with their chances but we took the lead twice and showed over the playoffs we can put up a performance and get results. With some tweaks over the summer and the course of the season I'm confident we'll be at the right end of the table. I don't have any arrogance to expect to win the league as much as I'd love that, but I suspect other clubs and their fans will be looking at us as an up and coming force again and will count us in the reasons why it will be difficult for them to get back up again.

I know the way we lost was a shell-shock, but with time to reflect I'm happier with the fact we made a fist of it and came close, than being rolled over. There were some errors from our boys, but I expect it at that level, from both sides. I personally thought there were more positive performances that get overlooked in defeat. The low save Hayes made in the second half had a young lad behind me in awe celebrating what an amazing keeper he is, I know that might be stretching it but I hope this kid remembers these good moments and goes on to celebrate the positives.

Oh, and the banners at the start, that really tested me welling up in front of my son. So so proud to be a Shrimper, and my kids are too as they already don't care how many Forest fans (suddenly a lot of them near us) at school laugh at them for saying they support Southend.

I'll be making every effort to see them again more times next season, and I really hope to see the Never. Give. Up. banner, absolutely love it! After the recent rat years and death by a thousand cuts, I feel more positive about our club than I have done in a long time.

UTB

All the best for the future

 

[Southend1991]

I agree with this post if we fail next year, and definitely the year after. But with the dodgy pre season and the mess at the start of this season and what happened last season they was almost a write off.

I mean to have 12 players some the season and finish 8th with - 10 deduction then finish 7th after being 15th in January due to a dodgy start and reach Wembley in them play offs is pretty impressive.

We do need to kick on from here though, interesting to see if we’ll show title winning transfer ambition or play off ambition.

I agree, plus the season before that, we also only lost out on the playoffs by 2 points. 3 seasons out of 4, we have been in with a shout. All without a proper pre season and the ability to sign players.

It’s gutting to lose but we are in the strongest position we have been for a while.

With a decent pre season and a few signings, we will be up there again come the end of the season. No denying that it’s a difficult league to get out of but 2 teams get out every season. No reason it can’t be us!