Post-Match Thread and Ratings Coventry City vs Southend United

[OldBlueLady]

Chris Phillips suggested that he struggled last night.

Let's not be so quick to dismiss some people's views as a conspiracy or campaign against a player. We all know people see things differently.

Chris Phillips is continually hard on White. His missus has questioned him on it, and so have we. It's a bit of a running joke now! Never gives him more than a 6.

White had an excellent game last night against a tricky opponent in Jacob Murphy, who has improved loads since we had him on loan. He also had the ineffective Atkinson ahead of him who gave him no cover whatsover. I like Will, I really do and sometimes he can be a total workhorse but last night he was a definite weak link. White was much more in focus last night than Coker, he made some very decent tackles and was unlucky to have the crowd on his back in the 2nd half which I do think influenced the ref a little.

Loved the ground, were made very welcome in the Grosvenor Casino underneath the pitch, found some comfy armchairs and watched the end of the cricket over a few pints. Probably should have eaten in there too as the food in the ground wasn't great. Ran out of burgers 3/4 of an hour before kick off! Stewarding was poor on arrival, no doubt down to the arena event of the weekend, but they could have dropped us closer.

Interesting line up, felt Prosser was unlucky to be dropped but my goodness, Rea was impressive. Cracking debut, only put a foot wrong once all evening and fortunately it was mopped up pretty quickly. Delighted to see our two strikers line up together, their work rate during the first half was immense, I can only assume Mooney was substituted because he was knackered as the introduction of Weston at that point seemed odd. I might have understood if his introduction had been for Atkinson. I thought Pigott should have come on for Mooney to maintain the balance and shape.

Bentley - 9, MOM, cracking performance, another fantastic penalty save and a couple of other top drawer ones
White - 8, a very decent performance against a tricky opponent
Rea - 8, great debut, very composed and covered Barrett a couple of times when he got caught out of position by playing higher up the pitch
Barrett - 7, pretty usual stuff from Adam, couple of very good clearances against the man mountain Coventry no. 5
Coker - 7, fairly quiet night for Ben, didn't switch the ball so much, played more through the middle
Atkinson - 5, felt he was really quite poor, kept giving the ball away and didn't make much impression against the opposition
Leonard - 7, building good understanding with the forwards, needs to get the shooting practice back on track as had two blasted well wide of target. Unlucky to give away the pen but a forward is always going to "trip" over a trailing leg
Timlin - 7, usual Tims' performance, bit quiet
Worrall - 8, some good work down the wing and cutting in, I do see why he prefers the left but with bringing McLaughlin in, surely he's more likely to be set up on the right now?
Hunt - 8, love him and his work rate! Never stopped all evening and delighted to see him score. Building good rapport with others in our team with vision
Mooney - 8, worked hard and thoroughly deserved his goal

Subs:
Weston for Mooney - 6, didn't think it was the right choice at the time
McLaughlin for Worrall - 7, you can tell he's a little unfit but there were a couple of bright moves
Wordsworth for Atkinson - 6, yet to be convinced

Officials:
The lino to our left was appalling, couldn't see things going on right under his nose, poor Adam was practically strangled and the foul was given the wrong way. The officials managed to miss several blatant hand balls and the ref was also overly fussy and too quick with the yellows. Felt a few more could have gone Coventry's way.

 

[Bolton Shrimper]

Oh and as for us being physical, the ref bought a lot of diving nonsense from Coventry and let them off with a lot. Even their penalty was a silly leg dangle from
Leonard that their guy made a lot of. It used to be cheating but now it is called being professional. lHopefully Leonard wil learn against hopeful leg dangles at this level.

As in leave well alone or take clean off. :nope:

 

[TTS]

Yes...literally all half. We didn't dare commit players forwards and Bentley was taking an age on goal kicks as soon as the second half began...what happened? Coventry used us as target practice, missed a penalty, equalised and really should have won. We did not deserve our point because although we were very good in the first half, we did not even attempt to play in the second. Poor old Hunty's first meaningful second half touch was in about the 80th minute, after being all over them first half. He learned what it was like to feel lonely leading the line for Southend....again.

This a wind up ?? As an away team we were always going to be under the cosh in the second half against a good attacking home team.

We more than deserved our point, because of the way we played in the first half and the way we battled hard in the second half. You cannot attack for 90 mins, you have to set your stall out to protect what you have and to not lose the game and we did that extremely well.

A think you are doing a disservice to the team last night, but hey, this is only my opinion (however I would say that your opinion of the game would appear to be in the minority)

 

[rigsby]

Yes...literally all half. We didn't dare commit players forwards and Bentley was taking an age on goal kicks as soon as the second half began...what happened? Coventry used us as target practice, missed a penalty, equalised and really should have won. We did not deserve our point because although we were very good in the first half, we did not even attempt to play in the second. Poor old Hunty's first meaningful second half touch was in about the 80th minute, after being all over them first half. He learned what it was like to feel lonely leading the line for Southend....again.

Sorry, you are talking complete B*** S***. Even if we had kept Mooney on the pitch Coventry would have still attacked us. Its what happens way from home against a bigger club who are higher than us in the league. Get use to it, or stay at home.

When McLaughlin came on the left, we pushed Weston out to the right and both these players had more of the ball in Coventry's half than in their own half. The fact that they never made good use of it has nothing to do with tactics or being too defensive. Hunt had plenty of touches deep in their half and was effective the whole game. We even bought on Wordsworth for the last ten. We needed some calm in the middle and although he produced some decent passes out to the wide players, again we never made much use of the space.

 

[Trav]

You are half right..they would have attacked us either way, so knowing that we should have carried on going at them to make sure we had a chance of scoring further, which is inevitably what we needed to do. They were finding their way passed us in the first half but we were giving it back. There is no way in god's earth that the instruction was not to sit deeper in the second half. Atkinson was virtually marking John White. The starting position for the wingers was far further back when we were on the ball 2nd half than in the first. I agree, we were wasteful in the rare times we got the ball and someone needed to calm down and get a foot on it, so that partly the player's fault, but when you are further back inviting the play to come at you, it is a lot harder to get back up the field. That is tactical fault.

 

[flangejackrabbit]

Didn't they bring on an extra striker shortly before we changed?

 

[OldBlueLady]

Didn't they bring on an extra striker shortly before we changed?

Do you mean Marcus Tudgay?!

 

[TTS]

You are half right..they would have attacked us either way, so knowing that we should have carried on going at them to make sure we had a chance of scoring further, which is inevitably what we needed to do. They were finding their way passed us in the first half but we were giving it back. There is no way in god's earth that the instruction was not to sit deeper in the second half. Atkinson was virtually marking John White. The starting position for the wingers was far further back when we were on the ball 2nd half than in the first. I agree, we were wasteful in the rare times we got the ball and someone needed to calm down and get a foot on it, so that partly the player's fault, but when you are further back inviting the play to come at you, it is a lot harder to get back up the field. That is tactical fault.

To be fair to the players, we played at quite a high tempo in the first half, allowing us to break as well as we did, however it is difficult to keep such a tempo up. The players worked extremely hard when we didn't have the ball, which does then affect your ability to break at the same speed as we did earlier in the game. Also, we should give some credit to Coventry, they kept their head, they kept stretching the game out and tried to pick their way through us, which further put us on the back foot. Saying that, they spent a lot of time playing in front of us, as we quickly put ourselves positionally into 2 banks of 4. This team works incredibly hard off the ball, again a trait that Brown has added to our set up since his arrival, this is one of the fittest Southend teams I have seen, this trait also makes us further hard to beat and yes I appreciate people want to see us being gung ho, I prefer the fact that teams know that they have to work equally hard to break us down.

Again, I really enjoyed the game, both from a entertainment point of view and also what the players gave me, as a travelling fan in return. I don't think they could have given us any more and from a fan that's all you can ask.

 

[HudsonNo1]

If that's the top of your list of points I hope its because you were tired last night.

White had good game, As Lenny has just said up against their crowd favourite he gave a real captains performance.... blocks, tackles, headers and again reads the danger well. Despite their attempts to get him sent off for his second yellow John White showed yet again why he is held in high regard by his fellow team mates and PB. This targeting of him needs to stop NOW. I will report some far more positive points later.

you can't just assume I'm targeting white. I say what I see happen with my own eyes and from where I was it looked like white struggled.. His man was constantly getting round the back of him. And you could see from his frustration it was getting to him. If it was anyone else I would've said the same.

 

[rigsby]

you can't just assume I'm targeting white. I say what I see happen with my own eyes and from where I was it looked like white struggled.. His man was constantly getting round the back of him. And you could see from his frustration it was getting to him. If it was anyone else I would've said the same.

So how many dangerous crosses came from their left ? Their 2 goals were from corners. The penalty was down our left.

I've just read Chris Phillips report and he makes their first half penalty shout sound close... Sorry Chris I was on sitting high up about half way and that was a perfectly timed and vital tackle by White. The crowd may have shouted but the players had no complaints.

 

[Trav]

yes I appreciate people want to see us being gung ho, I prefer the fact that teams know that they have to work equally hard to break us down.

There is a world of difference between wanting to go "gung ho" and supporting our (often lone) attack properly like most professional football clubs with different (dare I suggest better) managers seem to manage.

 

[onceknownasrab]

Sorry, you are talking complete B*** S***. Even if we had kept Mooney on the pitch Coventry would have still attacked us. Its what happens way from home against a bigger club who are higher than us in the league. Get use to it, or stay at home.

When McLaughlin came on the left, we pushed Weston out to the right and both these players had more of the ball in Coventry's half than in their own half. The fact that they never made good use of it has nothing to do with tactics or being too defensive. Hunt had plenty of touches deep in their half and was effective the whole game. We even bought on Wordsworth for the last ten. We needed some calm in the middle and although he produced some decent passes out to the wide players, again we never made much use of the space.

Oddly, and I know you may need to sit down to hear this, but just because you disagree with a point it does not automatically make it B*** S***.
Yes, if Coventry had any gumption, they would have tried to attack as much as they could in the second half but they also did that in the first half but were found wanting.
Yes they put another guy up front and the immediate idea from Brown is that we need to have an extra middle man to nullify there two pronged attack and stifle their midfield. Obversely he could have realised that they could not contain us when they had the extra man in midfield for the first half so why should they be able to with a mid less in the second half?
PB likes clean sheets. They are gold dust for us in this division and the only way to be sure of taking any part of the spoils is to score goals. Not gung-ho but not restrained either.
We cannot, as a team, rely on DB to save our bacon and be happy about it. he can't do it every game and what if he were to leave? What is PB's plan B then?
We have moved up a league and for my money have significantly improved the personnel but are adopting exactly the same tactics as last season and I'm afraid that is not good enough.

 

[Jam_Man]

Oddly, and I know you may need to sit down to hear this, but just because you disagree with a point it does not automatically make it B*** S***.
Yes, if Coventry had any gumption, they would have tried to attack as much as they could in the second half but they also did that in the first half but were found wanting.
Yes they put another guy up front and the immediate idea from Brown is that we need to have an extra middle man to nullify there two pronged attack and stifle their midfield. Obversely he could have realised that they could not contain us when they had the extra man in midfield for the first half so why should they be able to with a mid less in the second half?
PB likes clean sheets. They are gold dust for us in this division and the only way to be sure of taking any part of the spoils is to score goals. Not gung-ho but not restrained either.
We cannot, as a team, rely on DB to save our bacon and be happy about it. he can't do it every game and what if he were to leave? What is PB's plan B then?
We have moved up a league and for my money have significantly improved the personnel but are adopting exactly the same tactics as last season and I'm afraid that is not good enough.

His plan B?

He played a completely different system yesterday than the game before, surely one of them must be a plan B?:smile:

Even before he made the change with Weston we had less impact on them and were and were lucky to still be in front after Dan saved the penalty.

I could see the sense in the change, its not like bringing on Weston is to help keep a clean sheet.

 

[RHB]

Seems to me that 'Match reports and ratings' means exactly that. Give your match report and include your ratings.

I don't do away games and I value reading reports and ratings from all sides of the spectrum, good and bad. It's the only way I can get a picture of away games apart from the Echo. Diversity of opinion is what makes SZ a good read and fans taking the time to post reports should post what they see and think. by the way, all those that posted photos and vids last night, thank you, they really added to the picture.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Have to add, great effort by our travelling support - when did Twist and Shout get adopted? It was brilliant! Also loved the humour of the 10 stewards one, though it could be ended with "and a traffic cone in goal"!

 

[HudsonNo1]

So how many dangerous crosses came from their left ? Their 2 goals were from corners. The penalty was down our left.

I've just read Chris Phillips report and he makes their first half penalty shout sound close... Sorry Chris I was on sitting high up about half way and that was a perfectly timed and vital tackle by White. The crowd may have shouted but the players had no complaints.

thats just like saying how many dangerous crosses does worrall get in.. He beats his man alot but actually dangerous deliverys are few and far between. As they are with most of our crosses. To be beaton time and time again isn't good for a full back. Their job is to stop the ball from going into the box, Of Coventry executed it better then they could've got a fair few in down that side because white was constantly being pulled in the middle. From my point of view it was like he was constantly ball watching and not worrying about where his man was. Obviously murphy is always going to be tricky to deal with, no doubt. And I'm not starting or carrying on any vendettar against our club captain. But that's how I saw this particular game. Like it or lump it, you won't change it.

Feel free to have a look at the fleetwood thread, I said Bolger looked like he was struggling, Swindon, I thought Lenny could have been better. I'm not targeting white, and overall I'm happy we could grind out a draw in the second half. Against a team that will be there or there abouts come the end of the season

 

[Jam_Man]

As I said earlier , Paul Clarke said he played well and he has a decent perception of whats going on defensively.

 

[HudsonNo1]

Two other things that put a downer on a decent result for me last night was when Weston come on. It can be a great tactic with his pace and weve seen it work before. But as soon as he come on last night we looked so one dimensional, if it didnt go through weston then it didnt happen it seemed, and we all know how hit and miss he can be when his on the ball. Just seemed to give the ball away a lot more then before he come on and we used other options. Im not sure if he was being double marked last night or not, but always seemed to be crowded when he tried to find space. If that happens again PB needs to have another plan in mind.

Also around 70/75 mins, we looked absolutely spent, i know it was a hard physical match in the rain so it may just be because its early in the season, still getting up to speed with fitness etc... Last season it was those last 20 mins when we was getting at teams with our fitness levels normally being superior.

 

[fbm]

Two other things that put a downer on a decent result for me last night was when Weston come on. It can be a great tactic with his pace and weve seen it work before. But as soon as he come on last night we looked so one dimensional, if it didnt go through weston then it didnt happen it seemed, and we all know how hit and miss he can be when his on the ball. Just seemed to give the ball away a lot more then before he come on and we used other options. Im not sure if he was being double marked last night or not, but always seemed to be crowded when he tried to find space. If that happens again PB needs to have another plan in mind.

Also around 70/75 mins, we looked absolutely spent, i know it was a hard physical match in the rain so it may just be because its early in the season, still getting up to speed with fitness etc... Last season it was those last 20 mins when we was getting at teams with our fitness levels normally being superior.

Can't agree with that last bit, we were on the back foot certainly but not spent. Hunt looked out of it at the end but he hasn't had a proper pre-season. Otherwise I thought we looked very fit.

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Glad I drove on the M6 in the pouring rain for that one. Good game and a good advert for League One. Thought we played really well in the first half, as Brown said we could've been further ahead at half-time and their goal came a bit out of nothing but we responded brilliantly. Hunt and Mooney linked up well and it was nice to see them both score their first goals. Second half they gradually pegged us back and I never felt comfortable at 2-1. They looked dangerous whenever they came forward, Armstrong and Murphy in particular caused us problems and the big number 5 was a threat at corners. At first I thought their penalty was a bit soft but there weren't many complaints from our players or fans and the ref was probably evening things up having given ours. Their equaliser was coming and they almost nicked it at the end but for a couple of great saves from Bentley. So overall a draw was probably fair. Definitely would've taken a point beforehand but always a little disappointing to throw away a lead. If we play like that and battle like that for the rest of the season we'll be fine, wouldn't be surprised to see Coventry in the top 6 at the end of the season especially if they can keep Armstrong for the rest of the season.

Have to mention the away support which was superb. To take over 800 on a wet bank holiday Monday night with a limited train service is a great effort, some Championship/Premiership clubs probably wouldn't have taken that many. Felt very proud. Great noise for the whole 90 minutes. Good home crowd too although they were pretty quiet. Ratings:

Bentley 9 - MOM - If he's still a Southend player by 6pm this evening we are very lucky. Had a pretty quiet first half but salvaged a point for us in the second half. Yet another great penalty save (and some nice psychological tactics again) and then a phenomenal save with literally the last kick of the match.

White 6 - He did struggle a bit against Murphy, particularly in the second half when he got turned inside out on a number of occasions. As the bloke behind me said, he probably wasn't far off a second yellow. But also put in some important headers and interceptions.

Rea 6 - Looked a little shaky to start with but grew into the game and was pretty solid overall. Looks composed on the ball.

Barrett 7 - Did well against some dangerous attacking players.

Coker 7 - Solid as ever, and good cross for the first goal

Atkinson 5 - Gave the ball away in some bad positions on a few occasions. Couldn't help feeling that Deegan should at least have been on the bench for a game like this.

Timlin 6 - Forgot he was playing on a couple of occasions but he did his job.

Leonard 6 - Scuffed a gaping chance at 0-0 but got forward and supported the front two well.

Worrall 7 - Looked a threat in the first half and linked up well with the strikers. Quieter second half until he was subbed.

Mooney 7 - Great to see him lift that first goal off his shoulders, he looked more confident and could've scored a couple more. Clearly better having someone alongside him to link up with.

Hunt 8 - Would've got MOM were it not for Bentley's heroics in the second half. Gave Johnson a really good battle with his strength and aerial ability, Johnson had to resort to tugging at his shirt which the ref let him get away with it. Worked his socks off and lasted the 90 minutes too. I like his fieriness.