Pre-Match Thread Salisbury City v Southend United

[EastStandBlue]

John Hero?

Almost certainly a member of SZ who wrote the teamsheet, then...

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

As with many teams, the main problem will be where the goals come from.

Goalscorers and the mythical "20 goal a season man" are easily the most overrated thing in football.

Teams don't struggle to score goals for lack of a finisher, they struggle to score goals through a lack of creativity.

Have a look at our squad circa 2007. By my reckoning we had no less than four "20 goal a season" forwards on our books - 29 goal this season man Billy Paynter, 20 goals this season Gary Hooper, 18 goals this season Charlie MacDonald (28 goals in a season for Ebbsfleet previously though), 26 goals this season Lee Barnard.

Plus the likes of Lee Bradbury who scored 17 goals one season and even Richie Foran managed 16 goals in a season. Yet transfer talk was dominated by the need to sign a 20 goal a season striker.

Scoring goals is easy, creating goals is the hard bit. If we don't score enough goals, I guarantee it will be down to the lack of creativity, not the lack of a finisher.

 

[palexander]

Goalscorers and the mythical "20 goal a season man" are easily the most overrated thing in football.

Teams don't struggle to score goals for lack of a finisher, they struggle to score goals through a lack of creativity.

Have a look at our squad circa 2007. By my reckoning we had no less than four "20 goal a season" forwards on our books - 29 goal this season man Billy Paynter, 20 goals this season Gary Hooper, 18 goals this season Charlie MacDonald (28 goals in a season for Ebbsfleet previously though), 26 goals this season Lee Barnard.

Plus the likes of Lee Bradbury who scored 17 goals one season and even Richie Foran managed 16 goals in a season. Yet transfer talk was dominated by the need to sign a 20 goal a season striker.

Scoring goals is easy, creating goals is the hard bit. If we don't score enough goals, I guarantee it will be down to the lack of creativity, not the lack of a finisher.

Great point - look at the seasons we had Carruthers and Constantine. Both got plenty of goals, but didnt equal meaningful results in the league table.

I'm confident we'll get goals from the wide men, maybe Easton and some from Coughlan - without knowing who else will come in too...

 

[EastStandBlue]

Goalscorers and the mythical "20 goal a season man" are easily the most overrated thing in football.

Teams don't struggle to score goals for lack of a finisher, they struggle to score goals through a lack of creativity.

Have a look at our squad circa 2007. By my reckoning we had no less than four "20 goal a season" forwards on our books - 29 goal this season man Billy Paynter, 20 goals this season Gary Hooper, 18 goals this season Charlie MacDonald (28 goals in a season for Ebbsfleet previously though), 26 goals this season Lee Barnard.

Plus the likes of Lee Bradbury who scored 17 goals one season and even Richie Foran managed 16 goals in a season. Yet transfer talk was dominated by the need to sign a 20 goal a season striker.

Scoring goals is easy, creating goals is the hard bit. If we don't score enough goals, I guarantee it will be down to the lack of creativity, not the lack of a finisher.

I'd lay a considerable amount of that at lacking real width within the side... Without an outlet on the wings, possession gets bogged down in the centre of the park and we're left watching three central midfielders (Moussa, Macca, Grant) and a temperamental, erratic frenchman try and engineer an opening for the front two. It's easy to defend against a flooded midfield with no width.

This season, promisingly, looks different.

 

[manor15]

http://www.southendunitedpics.co.uk...iendly-salisbury-city-vs-southend-united.html


It's definitely the Histon player.

As I said previously, he's generally used as a right winger not a striker, so perhaps he's seen as the back up to Soares. Interestingly, it did seem nailed on that he was going to Dagenham in the last couple of weeks.

Could he be the 'young lad' about to sign that Sturrock told JamesTheSuperBlue about at training in the week?

4 goals in 25 games for Histon last season, although he scored on his debut for them against Grays

1 - Lee Smith - Forward

Impressed manager Steve Fallon in a pre season game whilst playing for Bury Town against Histon and then had a trial with the Stutes playing against Colchester United, resulting in being awarded a one year contract.

Full first team debut: Grays Athletic v Histon, 1/12/2009.
First goal: against Grays Athletic, away, 1/12/2009.

Histon career:
Season Appearances starts (as sub) Goals
2009/10 25 (0) 4


Clubs: Bury Town

 

[sussex by the sea]

Goalscorers and the mythical "20 goal a season man" are easily the most overrated thing in football.

It wasn't really what I meant - after all, we got to the play-offs a couple of seasons ago and I don't think anyone scored more than 10. What we did have then were 3 goal scoring midfielders plus strikers who could chip in where necessary. I am not so sure we will have a midfield that will chip in 30 odd goals - Easton and Grant won't score many - and so, in the absence of a seemingly prolific striker, we could have a problem in the sorts of matches where there are few chances.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Put up Patersons as that was more interesting.

Hall came across a bit mardy to be honest until Scriven forced a smile from him.

Maybe he just got a bollocking for his attitude?? Said he came to Southend to 'get back into league football asap'... fair enough I suppose, at least the other players who were asked had to the good grace to be a touch more enthusiastic about it...

I think that you may be right there. If I successfully cut through Sturrocks accent, I think that he did signal him out as 'one that didn't enter into the match.' I do hesitate in making accusations in case I have misunderstood what was said.

 

[dan_mays]

Very positive

There were some very positive performances last night Clohessy our man of the match, Soares very effective on the right wing. Corr was solid and won everything in the air. Rhys Evans played well in 2nd half making a couple of good claims.

We need that striker to partner Corr it wasnt Spencer last night he was poor not reading offside and not reading the play. At the back very slow in the centre Coughlan reminds me of Rob Newman his solid and battled but we just had no centre half pace, clohessy was covering alot in the middle and played a blinder.

A solid performance but im sure there will be a couple of new faces in. And of course a shout out to Bilel in a league game he would of been sent off after his first late challenge, but he showed the desire we want to be seeing. Well done lads bring on Rushden and Diamonds!

 

[TravellingBlue]

There were some very positive performances last night Clohessy our man of the match, Soares very effective on the right wing. Corr was solid and won everything in the air. Rhys Evans played well in 2nd half making a couple of good claims.

We need that striker to partner Corr it wasnt Spencer last night he was poor not reading offside and not reading the play. At the back very slow in the centre Coughlan reminds me of Rob Newman his solid and battled but we just had no centre half pace, clohessy was covering alot in the middle and played a blinder.

A solid performance but im sure there will be a couple of new faces in. And of course a shout out to Bilel in a league game he would of been sent off after his first late challenge, but he showed the desire we want to be seeing. Well done lads bring on Rushden and Diamonds!

Don't think I can agree with you my friend! I felt our performance was disjointed. Clohessy reads the game well and is a good defender, but he sadly lacks pace. Mark Phillips was obviously a good player in his day, but again lacks any sort of pace and will get caught out. Soares apart from the first ten minutes didn't get past his man, I believe he is one of the players Luggy had a go at after the game as he did with Hall, who really struggled to get past the City right back all night.

I do not believe that Corr should be our starting striker, especially after watching him last night - yes he wins headers, but that is it, there is absolutely no end product - apart from his ranting and raving. I would still go with the youthful Spencer and Paterson up front, both show much promise.

As for Bilel, he was grabbed round the throat by a City player, this caused his temper tantrums, after that every tackle was a shocker, he really was lucky to stay on the pitch, yes I like commitment, but it has to be commitment with common sense.

I would not call it a solid performance, more a 'got away with it' performance. City out played us for long parts of this game, especially once Grant went off and Easton was virtually a one man midfield.
I am very positive about the upcoming season, but we have a long, long way to go to get a settled team.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Don't think I can agree with you my friend! I felt our performance was disjointed. Clohessy reads the game well and is a good defender, but he sadly lacks pace. Mark Phillips was obviously a good player in his day, but again lacks any sort of pace and will get caught out. Soares apart from the first ten minutes didn't get past his man, I believe he is one of the players Luggy had a go at after the game as he did with Hall, who really struggled to get past the City right back all night.

I do not believe that Corr should be our starting striker, especially after watching him last night - yes he wins headers, but that is it, there is absolutely no end product - apart from his ranting and raving. I would still go with the youthful Spencer and Paterson up front, both show much promise.

As for Bilel, he was grabbed round the throat by a City player, this caused his temper tantrums, after that every tackle was a shocker, he really was lucky to stay on the pitch, yes I like commitment, but it has to be commitment with common sense.

I would not call it a solid performance, more a 'got away with it' performance. City out played us for long parts of this game, especially once Grant went off and Easton was virtually a one man midfield.
I am very positive about the upcoming season, but we have a long, long way to go to get a settled team.

I think Paul Sturrock would echo most of your thoughts.........especially the last sentence.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I think that you may be right there. If I successfully cut through Sturrocks accent, I think that he did signal him out as 'one that didn't enter into the match.' I do hesitate in making accusations in case I have misunderstood what was said.

Yogi,Glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds our new gaffer a tad difficult to understand on BP! ;)

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Yogi,Glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds our new gaffer a tad difficult to understand on BP! ;)

They do seem to have got the volume up a bit............but that doesn't help a lot. Pity that Moussa is leaving, as he was useful for his translations as well as his football skills. His continual swaying (probably due to his medical condition) reminds me that it's a long time since I've taken the cross-Channel ferry in a force 8 gale. Anyway, if he can sway us out of this division (preferably upwards)................I'll forgive him virtually anything.

 

[NobbySnide2]

Yogi,Glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds our new gaffer a tad difficult to understand on BP! ;)

Blimey, he has an opinion about everything? how would he stop the leak then?

 

[A Century United]

Blimey, he has an opinion about everything? how would he stop the leak then?

They are going to stuff the Warchest down it.

 

[Smiffy]

They are going to stuff the Warchest down it.

What Warchest?!

It's more elusive than an invoice to SUFC, with paid written on it.