Post-Match Thread and Ratings Cheltenham Town 1-2 Southend United

[TrueBlue]

There is a thread on the Cheltenham fans site entitled 'Southend Fans', example post –

Applaud them - good numbers, non stop support. Great effort.
Put us to shame - I have no recollection of any CTFC chants today ?

Well done to all who went, you obviously made a favourable impression with the Cheltenham faithful. Reckon the team must have responded to it as well.:clap:

Nice to be acknowledged from another club, just goes to show what great support we have at SUFC which makes whats going on off the field i.e the Stadium even more frustrating

 

[Norwichshrimper]

When I get a free evening I'm going to look at how prior form potentially affects playoff performance. I think there's always been a view that momentum rather than placing is important... however I'd like to see how the data stack up.

I always think its more than momentum. A lack of injuries / a few decent loan signings before the window can change a mid table team into a top of the table team.

"Momentum" is basically form..forgetting the play offs for a minute, if you came up against a side above you in the league who were in woeful form and lost 5 on the bounce, you'd want to play them rather than a team below you who were coming off 5 wins on the bounce.
Your final league postion is a reflection of how you have performed over 8 or 9 months, your "recent form" is how you've performed over a few weeks/months...surely play off chances should be judged on form?

Every team that makes the play offs is either good enough to win them, or has been good enough to win them for most of the season....momentum may not be essential, but I'd much rather be coming into PlayOffs in good form than bad form, regardless of League Position

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Its already been said that Sokolik is out of contract next year, I do think he is a possibility especially if we were to go up.

If anyone from Liverpool has been watching his performances I think they'll want to keep him. Centre-back is probably Liverpool's weakest area at the moment. Likewise with Egan, I wouldn't be surprised if he was knocking on the door of the first team at Sunderland soon, especially if they get relegated.

 

[Greebosan]

Here are my thoughts.

Bentley – 6.5. Looked to get down late for the shot, could possibly have done better. Couple of nervy moments, but overall pretty solid.
Coker – 7. Always gets forward well.
White – 6.5 Couple of cracking shots at goal, won’t be long before he scores again I think.
Egan – 7.5 Towering and majestic.
Sokolik – 7.5 Majestic and towering.
Atkinson – 6. Industrious as ever, but a quiet game by his standards.
Leonard – 7. Would have benefitted from the ball on the ground a bit more.
Timlin – 6.5. A lot of energetic moves from the tiny dancer – a few very poor short passes in the opening stages.
Hurst – 7.5 Put over a few decent balls, worked hard.
Loza 7 – when playing through the centre he looked more dangerous, but was out wide for long periods.
Barnard – 6.5. Took a few shots, but seemed to struggle to get any power behind them.

Murphy – 7. Lots of pace, took people on, I like him.
Clifford – 7. Got tight to his man, broke up play, chased everything.
Corr – 7.5. Started the fightback.

TBV – 10. (fans of the match) Stupendous support the entire game. It was like watching the game with a loud stereo playing Southend songs in the background. Endless noise and support – well done.
The man in Betfred in Cheltenham – 2. Nice enough chap but couldn’t find Loza on his screen. I’ll be surprised if we see him again.
The girl in William Hill in Cheltenham – 8 (Bookie of the match). Found Loza on the screen, very chatty, nice smile – a joy to lose my money to.
The good people of Cheltenham – 9. Everyone I met was extremely polite, friendly and helpful. It was a pleasure going there to collect our points.
Cheltenham fans – 1. No noise at all. Of course, it could be that they were so polite that they simply didn’t want to disturb our singing, in which case that was very thoughtful of them.

In general, we played with a bit more drive than against Torquay, but the ball seemed to spend even longer than usual in the air. The team seemed slightly hesitant and dwelled on more than a few passes and/or shots when I thought they could have been taken quicker. I suppose the thinking is to retain possession and get a medium quality ball over, rather then risk losing the drive forwards on the chance of a killer ball. Given that we give it away a reasonable amount anyway, I’d personally prefer gambling on a quick ball more often.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Seems as though the problem with the Southend commentary on BP was sorted reasonably early on, however due to my predicament, I was stuck with the Cheltenham commentary until half-time as I mentioned earlier. One thing I forget to mention, was that the one of opposition commentary team stated that we and Oxford were two mediocre sides in the play-off positions :smile:............and that was after saying he had seen the game on Sky.

 

[Zeuss]

Yes,well said.It was after Sokolic's first game that I said that Egan was looking championsip-standard and Soko perhaps even better,whereas Prosser could struggle badly in League 1.Egan and Soko are the main reason we've been getting clean sheets and earlier it was Kiernan who is now in the Wigan team-interesting if he plays against Arsenal on Saturday.

If anyone from Liverpool has been watching his performances I think they'll want to keep him. Centre-back is probably Liverpool's weakest area at the moment. Likewise with Egan, I wouldn't be surprised if he was knocking on the door of the first team at Sunderland soon, especially if they get relegated.