Post-Match Thread and Ratings Boston 3-0 Southend United

[Shrimp and two veg]

Why Kendal hasnt started with fresh legs i have no idea. We needed a player to boost us, knowing Golding, Ralph and Bridge are out of action, 3 very key players. Bonne and Hopper cannot unlock strong defences and Boston are just that if nothing else.
3nil thats just embarrasing, we had most of the ball.

Cannot defend for toffee. A rare trait for a Southend team. Moreton, so weak, KAF did all his running whilst Moreton gave 5yrd passes and played like a statue.
Parillon was rubbish, please put him back in the middle.

I think Kev shoulda rotated that squad better tonight, a fresh Coker even. We looked like a team that would of loved to take a point by stroking it around all night, Boston had other ideas. They had some bollocks.

 

[Sufc.2008]

The most worrying thing for me is the repetitive nature of a lot of this. How many times this season have we come out after half time and perfomed way below the standard of the first half. How many times this season have we made the same pre-planned substitutions between 64 and 67 minutes - regardless of how the game is playing out.

I’m bored of being stuck in the same cycle and would happily back major change over the summer. More depressingly, if the posts of the past couple of days are true and we’re struggling financially again, could we potentially start next season being unable to make even minor changes? Very disappointing evening.

 

[Hooly]

Snd the overreaction starts…

Aorry elokb thaw soed "Snd" neam?

I'm it Italy at the moment so it might just be Google Translate playing up?

 

[Medway Blue]

Played well and were on top in the first half without ever really creating much in the way of clear cut chances.

Second half it turned on its head. We've said that quite a few times this season, and it does make me worry about what gets said at half time. Wondering when we're going to start coming out for the second half and maintaining the high levels of the first half, or going for the jugular if we went in a goal or two up.

But yeah, we just didn't turn up in that second half. You can talk tactics all you want, but ultimately, you have to want it, and it looked like we didn't. Certainly not compared to a hungry-looking Boston in the second half, anyway. We have to find a way to put these lesser teams to the sword. We really do lack a killer instinct, and we're not being proactive enough with changes.

To be fair, we definitely struggled without Golding, and have been struggling without Ralph. Gubbins and Goodliffe are just not it, I'm afraid. We still need them to be able to do the basics, though, and they both seem to be struggling to even do that at the moment. We need Ralph and Golding back pronto.

Good wing play drove us forward in the first half, but once they found a way to nullify GSM's threat down our right hand side, it seemed like we lacked a Plan B, or the wherewithal to try something different early.

KAF and LCP generally impressed and looked to try to make things happen.

Disappointed in Hayes' roles in the 2nd and 3rd goals.

I'm sure there will be a strong reaction on here tonight, with some folks coming out of the woodwork having waited 9 games for us to lose so that they can start banging the "**** Maherball" and "Maher out" drums, but other results were kind to us tonight, and we're still just about in with a shout. Oldham is must win, though.

Hayes 5
GSM 5
Taylor 5
Goodliffe 4
Gubbins 4
Morton 5
Husin 4
KAF 6
LCP 6
Hopper 4
Bonne 4

Subs:
Didn't notice any of them.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

No stress tonight.........just depression. Apart from a short spell just before half-time, when it looked as though we were building up a head of steam, we really weren't at the races. It got really monotonous, the amount of balls being pumped into their area, just to be continuously headed away. Second-half two counter attacks tore us apart and from that there was no coming back. Defensively , we looked light, are Golding and Ralph that important??? (Obviously, yes!) KM said that there was no time for tiredness. Maybe the players showed him otherwise tonight?

 

[Farmer Fossett]

Sorry, can't understand the criticism of Hayes after one below par performance.

 

[crangoner]

State of the histrionics. Some players that were lauded on Saturday are now being written off. Their careers in terminal decline. An embarrassment to the badge. Get a grip?

Fair play to Boston, if there's one team we were at least going to lose to in this run-in, glad it's them. If we don't go up (as anyone with a modicum of perspective and reality would tell you is a near cert), then I hope this result gives them a fighting chance of staying up. Good place to go for an away day.

Onwards to Saturday.

 

[crangoner]

Sorry, can't understand the criticism of Hayes after one below par performance.

Remind me how many clean sheets in how many starts he's kept? Doesn't even bear comparing to Collin.

 

[Farmer Fossett]

Remind me how many clean sheets in how many starts he's kept? Doesn't even bear comparing to Collin.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Add to GBJ's opening comment the ability game after game to send crosses 10 ft over the box to effin no-one and waste any possession we have in the opponents end. It happens game after game after game. What effin benefit does that bring to any game for us? Absolutely sod all and makes a defenders life easy, let alone starve our forwards of any meaningful service! Haarland up front for us would fail to get 5 goals a season for us with service like we offer!

For older members we could have Pele, Gerd Muller and Mario Kempes up front and they'd get sod all for us with the service we create!

Walker takes a lot of stick on here, but he is a fox in the box type striker. Totally wasted here. Wherever he goes after us, if it's at this level, he'll get better service and he'll undoubtedly be a 15 goal a season striker. Once again we'll be left saying why couldn't he do that for us?

Answer; our midfield can't deliver a letter, let alone a defence splitting ball to put it on a plate for a striker!

Goodliffe? Is he really the best we can find? He is a goal waiting to be conceded every time he appears for us. Stop gap at best and if we had a fit squad wouldn't get a place on the bench it I was in Maher's position.

Tonight showed we badly need a ball carrying, forward thinking centre back for next season, because tonight's back three are terrifying defensively and clueless at driving forward with confidence.

Felt for Bonne, as imho he offers more running the channels than being placed out wide.

Hopper? Why on earth offer him an 18 month contract, that's 12 months too long.

Taylor, good defender, but misses the ball carrying partner at the back, and he certainly isn't one. Five paces forward and he can't wait to get the ball behind him.

Noor "Anonymous" Husin a waste of a shirt yet again tonight. Get rid in the summer.

KAF tried hard, looked OK in the first half, but over cooked it a few times rather than keeping it simple as he had in the first.

Morton did what he usually does, tried to spread the game, but when he did, especially to Gubbins in the first half, the ball ended further back behind him, than when Morton had played it in the first place.

Leon again another trier, but must work on the final ball. When it's good it's good, but that delivery when Gubbins did actually play a killer ball forward was dire.

All in all a night to forget. The first half better than the second, but we still didn't look like scoring at all from what I was watching.

I hope Ralph and Golding are fit for Saturday, because the writing is on the wall for us to get torn a new one with the same set up as tonight!

 

[SeldomSeenShrimper]

Hayes 3
Gus 4
Taylor 4
Goodlife 2
Gubbins 3
Morton 4
Husin 4
KAF 7
Bonne 5
LCP 5
Hopper 4

Honest ratings from myself and the old man

 

[McShrimper]

Any promotion would be in spite of Maher, 2nd half shambles, no proactive in game management and subs all too late.
Hayes a night to forgot, should have done better with goal number two but ok.
Defence all at sea. Gubbins is bad, Goodliffe even worse. Thank god he’s a loanee to return. Not convinced by Crowther either so needs an overhaul on personnel and Wind to get more game time. Find a way to try him and Gus in a lineup together.
Midfield our strongest area, Parillon, KAF, Coker and Morton the way forward. Probably keep Miley and bring in a wise head. Say thanks and goodbye to Husin and Bridge.
Up top - Hopper a passenger we’re saddled with another year, a poor signing. Would have been better off holding onto Waldron. Walker needs to do more but feel for him at times with lack of service. Kendall and Bonne I’d keep but neither will be prolific and like most teams we’re crying out for a big target man aka Corr / Cardwell and a clinical number 9 who can make things happen and be the difference in tight games

 

[Hooly]

Defensively , we looked light, has Golding become that important???

To be fair @yogi bear up the cagire when Kensdale went we needed something & having seen him yes I think he has.

Having said that I was in the home of Gabriel Batistuta vs David Howell tonight, drinking too much Negroni, so seeing the result I'm off for another 1 or 4.

 

[Lincoln Shrimp]

Thst was never a 3-0 game, but ultimately they stuck the ball in the back of the net 3 times in the blink of an eye and we fluffed our lines.

I was more than happy with our first half showing and our superiority should have resulted in a couple of goals.
However, unlike on Saturday, we failed to find the net and that allowed Boston to come out in the second half a different side. They denied Gus the space he was enjoying in the first half and upped their work rate across the pitch which saw us revert to playing everything in front of their defence.

All three of Boston's goals were poor from our perspective and we didn't do enough to stop the eventual scorers of each.

Hayes 5 - Poor attempt to keep out tge second goal and motionless for the first
Gus 7 - excellent first half but more subdued in the second after Boston tightened up to deny him space
Taylor 6 - decent enough
Gubbins 5 - passed the ball accurately enough but looks susceptible when anyone runs at him
Goodliffe 4 - taxi back to Colchester. Woeful. Running through treacle the whole game and slow to react to most things
Leon 7.5 - some sublime skill on show and looked to make things happen all evening.
Husin 5 - rightly hooked after a subdued performance. One decent low shot in the first half was his solitary positive contribution. Slows play down too much.
KAF 7 - Ran at the host's back line in the first half causing numerous problems. Was still chasing and harrying up until the final whistle but without the same impact.
Morton 6.5 - pulled the strings in the first half, but his influence waned in the second.
Hopper 5 - Assisted with defending set pieces but offered nothing offensively and didn't get hold of the ball enough, particularly in the second half.
Bonne 5 - disappointing performance tonight. Stooped low to head wide in the first half, but failed to rough up a resolute Boston defence.

Three points on Saturday now imperative, but that will only come if we perform for 90 minutes, rather than just 45.

 

[Callumturner22]

Hopper , Bonne , gubbins , noor , bridge , cav .. we need to do all we can and clear them out for sure . There not good enough for sure along with goodlife send him back .

We had big chance tonight and sadly we failed to be up to it and capitalise . Up to battle up to fight for the ball to try play quicker to try and get more chances ..

 

[Strykr]

All these draws, and occasional wins and way outside play off pushes are really masking the fact that we are bloody average in a league full of crap teams.

We all know the weaknesses of this squad and management team. It doesnt change.

We should never lose 3-0 to boston. And thats not just me being we are southend billy big bollocks, its a mentality thing. Play offs are there for the taking and we dont seem to have the skill or cojones to take them.

Will we be saying the same thing next march...

 

[Danshrimper]

Sorry, can't understand the criticism of Hayes after one below par performance.

I like Hayes, but one of the criticisms from Barnet was that whilst he didn’t really make any awful mistakes leading to goals, he rarely kept a clean sheet and didn’t make enough saves. It may be a bit harsh, but you can see where that criticism comes from after tonight. We faced 3 shots on target tonight and all 3 were goals. At least 1, if not 2 of them he could have done a lot better with.

Since Hayes was taken out of Barnet’s starting 11 at the start of January they have conceded 2 goals in 14 games.

In the 14 games Hayes started prior to this Barnet conceded 19 goals.

Obviously there are factors other than just the goalkeeper that affect this, but with there being such a big difference it does make you wonder if that’s more than just a coincidence and whether he is the right keeper for next season if we want to be challenging for promotion. It’s certainly something we should be looking at over the last 8 games.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

People on here were saying Bonne could get 20 goals for us next season. Doubt the strikers could get ten between them.

 

[Yer Blues]

Heroic performance from the lads tonight.

We must remember that Kev hasn't had a proper preseason. (Ignore the 2 we have had)

Oh and he hasn't signed any of the targets he really wanted it. (Ignore the 20 odd players he has signed)

Also (Insert excuse here)

I've got **** all affinity with this group. Not proud to admit it, but the current squad/ management just don't inspire me.

Can't wait for another season of being worse at football than ****ing Bromley.

 

[The Original Tribal Chief]

0/10 for all.

Minus points for the manager. About as inspiring as a pint of cold ****.