Post-Match Thread and Ratings Rochdale 0-1 Southend United

[Shrimp and two veg]

Great day out.
Fans focus... lots of singing in the concourse under the stand pre game, had to laugh when one of our players doing the warmup put an acknowledging hand up to fans he thought he could hear, but they werent in sight !
Great to see the drummer. Lots of people leading the singing section today, sometimes it was noisier than W block at home, thats some fantastic support a long way from Southend. Created a brilliant atmosphere in the away end and the singing literally didnt stop all game.

The home fans held mobile phone lights up for whatever reason, so we chanted "lights on, if youre 1-0 down"
Then Southend fans holding lights up singing "lights ON if youre 1-nil up"

Their right back came in for some roasting, for no particular reason, which was funny in itself. Bedlam in the stand when we scored, fella knocked my phone out of my hand, it flew up and amazingly i managed to catch it before impacting concrete, Mervyn Cawston-like, talk about lucky.
The football wasnt great, fuggit who cares, a win away from home is always priceless.

Wind was shaky to begin, but grew brilliantly into the game. Taylor, typical performance. Crowther kept heading back to their players, otherwise decent. Collin, some safe hands catching corners, well done fella and the support given in the stand was quite fitting.
Ralph, strong game, shoulda coulda scored, keeper was all at sea. Husin, meh, not bad not great. Coker not bad at all tbf. Pepple showed his lack of quality but exposed his heart of a lion.
Anyway, Kev Maher shrugged a couple of times at the end when the Shrimpers sung "theres only one Kevin Maher" but i reckon this win was massive for HIM, after all the hate recently.

Time i got my head down, been up since 4am, helluva drive and long day. Still buzzin though !!

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Yeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaa.
That is all

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Just home
No particular man of the match, they all gave 100%

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Over to you D1

 

[smudgster]

Just watched The Rochdale managers post game interview. So pathetic, blamed it all on 25 seconds of extra time in the first half allowing us to score.

Needs to look at his own failings rather than someones else's.

 

[shrimperjon]

Just watched The Rochdale managers post game interview. So pathetic, blamed it all on 25 seconds of extra time in the first half allowing us to score.

Needs to look at his own failings rather than someones else's.

Was a dreadful interview. 11 mins of complete nonsense

 

[choggy]

Tried to listen to the BBC Radio commentary of the game, it......as..........ard..........ork but great result! 2 wins on the bounce UTB!

 

[HUMBLEPIE]

I listened to on BBC radio had no reception problems and I thought the commentator didn’t get his name was excellent, ideal replacement for Nick Alliker.

 

[choggy]

I listened to on BBC radio had no reception problems and I thought the commentator didn’t get his name was excellent, ideal replacement for Nick Alliker.

Should have been clearer, I was listening via the internet, not BBC Essex on the radio. Sadly can't listen to BBC Essex on the radio up here in Worcestershire. Check the match thread, lots of us exiles had the same issue.

 

[Barling Magna]

I thought Kev and the coaching team got the selection and tactics exactly right against a very good NL team whose manager was described by the DAZN commentators as the National League's Pep Guardiola. Stand off Rochdale's tippy tappy play out from the back but press, press, press as soon as they abandon passing it across the pitch and pass it forward. Don't let them get comfortable. Excellent.

 

[Jai]

Great result against a side who will challenge for sure. As Medway Blue says, we had the spine ripped out of the team and we needed to get back to basics. The last couple of wins have not been pretty, and have been more defensive than we have tended to be under Maher, but it's not important how we have won these games. The clean sheets in particular are vital for confidence.

Walker looks like he will thrive once he gets used to the players around him, a poacher with a bit of pace and nous. Wind looks very solid and what a debut, but Maher likes his wing backs to push right up the pitch as wingers really, so I'm not sure he'll be picked for the two forthcoming games when you would expect us to have a lot more of the ball.

Bim is great. Work rate, a bit of quality and seems an infectious character. Looks a really good find and will be a fans favourite I am sure. Kudos to Morton and also to KAF who I thought gave us a lot of energy when he came on.

We set up right for today. Leaving Jack Bridge one on one with Allarakhia would have been a mistake, but he didn't get much change out of Ralph. On the other side, Wind nullified their winger almost completely. Rochdale's game is similar to ours from the last couple of seasons. Control the ball, get it wide and put crosses into the box to a big man. We never let them settle.

 

[sufcjoe]

Yea totally uncalled for, it was a cameo role to add experience to front line. Did little wrong, had a couple of shots and did well at the end to hold ball in corner. Job done.

Absolutely bizarre response from @Cricko

The ball was lumped way over his head to the centre half and the guy behind me started slagging him off, had to say what do you expect him to do with that. I thought he led the line well last week and done well today apart from a really poor pass to Bridge on the break. Bonne isn’t going to be chasing lost causes we all know that but some of the criticism he gets is quite bizarre, this seasons scapegoat

 

[Clarky176]

James Morton is the type to go underrated throughout the season. Very good technically and keeps us ticking over, don’t think it’s a coincidence that when he starts and plays the 90 we tend to do well. Perfect for playing in the deepest CM role.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Might of missed this, anyone know how many of us Shrimpers attended yesterday, looked more than Eastleigh ?

 

[overseas shrimper]

I'd be sorely tempted if I was Kev to not drop Wind. We are probably going to lose GSM in january/ summer, so giving him experience when he's playing well makes sense. I actually think GSM could do a job as one of the wider midfielders,decent on ball, superb cross and can certainly score- got to be worth a shot

GSM has a superb cross? Really? I like GSM, but the quality of his crossing is not one of the reasons why. I actually think his crossing is pretty poor.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

What’s good is seeing some positivity creeping back after a couple of wins. If Kev can get a tune out of this lot and get us on a run we’ll see players get more confident. Collin’s already probably feeling much better for the 2 clean sheets.

Bridge, Moncur and Bonne on the bench shows we’re not afraid to change things up and rest players if we’ve got options. We’ve played Pepple and Walker up top which people have been crying out for. I like Pepple, great attitude. Wind seems to have stepped up and the minutes will help him.

Good result against a good team. Let’s not go into meltdown again if we lose the next one!

 

[rigsby]

That was great effort and result against a team who are miles up North, top 7 and like to score goals. Some good individual performances. Special mention to Collin for a real steady performance and some point winning saves. Pepple for making things happen in the first. And of course the great support we had for a 5:30 in Rochdale.

George Wind, easily my MOM. Tough first start for him, stepping into GSM's slot.

Performances like that will get you into the play-offs. Lets hope we can kick on further by the end of the week.

Not sure why Bonne had to be singled out. Its clearly good tactic to not try and win the most headers when your the the last man and up front on your own. It had worked well for Pepple and Walker. Yes mix it up and challenge but we picked up lots of second ball in that vast space between their defence and midfield. They like to press and commit numbers so Collin got good distance and players like Gubbins wasn't afraid to delivery it long. Like I say we often profited with the ball from their headed clearance or a throw by the boys up top just applying pressure rather than flick the ball on to their keeper.

George W has great pace and looks like a good 800m man when he glides ups and down. Great individual tactic to rattle their cocky winger. That way a dangerous player gave up his team game to take on George. You could see he was never going to deliver or pass early. No he was thinking I'll mug the is Wind bloke off. George knew it and picked him off. Like good counter puncher who can predict his opponents next attack.

We had a very poor record v Rochdale and haven't done to well v Aldershot. Best correct that one as well on Wednesday.

 

[palexander]

GSM has a superb cross? Really? I like GSM, but the quality of his crossing is not one of the reasons why. I actually think his crossing is pretty poor.

Agreed. His goals are what catches the eye and has people putting silly price tags on him and linking him to big moves. I think as a rwb and certainly a rb he’s pretty limited. It’s why he’s at this level. He might move on I suspect but I expect a lot of noise on here when the fee isn’t £3.6m!

 

[Barling Magna]

This is from the Rochdale fans forum. A case of the boot being on the other foot.....?



"The frustration around the stadium is palpable and it's becoming a staple diet of watching football at the COA. McNulty likes his facts and figures, yesterday was another home game where we hardly registered a shot on target. Southend's keeper didn't have a shot to save until well into the second half, we played some lovely little triangles around our own penalty area though, that would have pleased the manager. The longer the first half progressed the more Southend grew in confidence and the goal was definitely coming. These are lower league footballers, they are being asked to play a style of football that they can't produce on a consistent basis, it's too intricate and i don't think their levels of fitness are at a high enough level to play a high tempo, two touch style of football, theres no fluidity in our play because everything is too slow. I sometimes also wonder if the ****ing about with the ball at the back is designed to give them all a breather. Whatever the reasons, it's not happening at home and i think it's the management duo who need to shoulder the criticism for that probably more than the players. We've got some big home games coming up now, games that will involve winning the battles and realising the important of the fixture, let's see how we approach those games."

 

[BriggBlue]

Aaron McLean was commentating on DAZN and seemed to think Bonne was doing the right things when he came on

I tend to agree with him, he was brought on to be a point in attack. He occupied defenders and stopped them committing forward to the attack.

He showed some half decent football nous to close the game out.

Is he the second coming of Cardwell? No, has he got ability? Yes.