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Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend 3-2 Hartlepool

You all seem to have given Scannell a 7. Despite the fact he gave away a penalty, never tracked back, had a far worse first half than Betsy at Orient and never made himself a viable outlet until the 50th minute or so?
 
moussa 6 thats for the goal which looked great..but for the rest of the game looked a liability. continually drifting infield leaving barret few options down the left. his passing was generally p1ss poor either over hit or mis placed.


I thought his defence-splitting passes for the first and third goals were particularly p1ss poor.
 
Match Report

The classic 'game of two halves' comes to mind with some excellent football and excitement in the first half and a dire and frustrating showing in the second.

I felt they were unfortunate to have their keeper sent off although according to the laws of the game it was a penalty and the ref had little option other than to show the red card. This really shaped the game and the win as I felt Hartlepool were a good footballing side with neat passing and a good and direct wingman on the left. It did make me yearn for a Gower type in our line up.

It may be me but on so many ocassions this season visiting teams seem to have the better passing technique, knocking the ball around with accuracy. So many of our passes seem to be at 100 miles an hour which makes the receiving player look as if he has poor technique. So many times in last night's and previous games the ball comes to the player at such pace that it seems to flick into the air resulting in a poorly directed header giving the player receiving the pass little chance to do much with the ball.

We did in fairness knock the ball around across and back but lacked the killer pass when going forward. Again the pace on the ball resulted in an appreciative round of applause for the player chasing the ball but with little chance of him actually getting to it to be effective.

On the plus side in the first half I thought Moussa's goal was tremendous and probably the goal of the season, certainly from what I have seen at the Hall. I don't particularly rate the Mousse because he is so frustrating and does not seem to me in most games to stick to the game plan by staying out wide and stretching the opposition defence, wandering inside to what is probably his more natural position. However if he can do what he did last night in scoring the goal, going forward and taking on defenders then opinions will change! I know he is young and a developing player, certainly not the finished article but he must frustrate many fans, certainly those sitting around me!

In the first half we looked very comfortable, Barney's penalty was a little fortunate to go in, Moussa's goal fantastic and Robinson's effort an excellent finish after I thought he had been a little greedy and lost the opportunity for us to score by not passing to Barney. We did not seem to miss Dervitte and although their penalty was cleverly played for Hartlepool did not really threaten us too much.

The second half was poor due to Southend going off the boil and Hartlepool's ten men raising their game. In fairness they had at least three excellent chances apart from the goal to score due to a combination of very good approach play and almost farcical defending. We certainly did miss Dervitte in the second half!

On one ocassion near the end when we were holding on for dear life Betsy just watched the ball in the area, did not attack it, and they nearly nicked it before a desperate clearance was made. A couple of good chances for us to score in the second half and one miss where it seemed easier to hit the net than to put the ball over the bar!

I felt it was an exciting game in the first half which we dominated whilst the second was frustrating. In my opinion the substitutions should have been made a little earlier but putting Laurent on for Barney, keeping Damian on a little longer as he still seemed to have lots of running in him, instead of bringing in Freedman and Betsy.

Player by player ;

Mildy ~ solid although a couple of crosses he came out for were never his to claim!

Francis ~ good in parts but blasted quite rightly by Brushy for his part in their second goal, still seems to me to be lacking in confidence.

Clarkey ~ solid again and I hope he is not allowed to go at the end of the season.

Sankofa ~ did a good job in the middle against a poor central strike force ~ will struggle against bigger strikers.

Barratt ~ good game, some attacking threat but would like to see an earlier cross into the box.

Scannell ~ looked really useful when going at their defence, they had no answer to his pace although did drift out of the game for short periods. Not sure he was in my opinion MOM but good anyway.

Granty ~ excellent tonight, wholehearted and some very good, if sometimes scary and possible booking type tackles breaking up their play. Ran his heart out and the victim of some terrible tackles himself! My MOM.

Macca ~ good most of the game but some dodgy passing, couple of excellent shots and I thought the drag back and shot in the first half was very classy and did deserve a goal.

Mousse ~ great goal and a few good runs but did sometimes look a little lightweight in the tackle, drifting out of the game for short periods.

Barney ~ not back to his best, fortunate penalty and seems to be lacking confidence. Again looked a little lightweight at times.

Robinson ~ full of running, good eye for goal but a bit greedy at times, keeping the ball when a cross or pass may be more effective. Cannot fault him for effort.

Freedman ~ good to see him back, nearly put back on the bench by the first tackle on him. Hopefully we will see the best of him next season.

Betsy ~ one little incident as mentioned before summed him up ~ can and should do better!

I hope we can do something to keep Robinson, dig into the war chest Ron and we need a Dervitte type dominant big defender at the back for next season.

Three points nearer the playoffs..................



 
Mildenhall 7.5 - average still annoys me as a person
Francis 4.5 - absolutely woeful and should be replaced by Sankofa next game
Clarke 8 - in command most of the time
Sankofa 7.5 - not that bad, thought he adapted well
Barrett 8.5 - solid rock of a performance stay at LB Mr B
Scannell 7.5 - still bit of headless chicken at times, but provided a few decent moments
Macca 8.5 - fine performance
Grant 9.5 MOM - fantastic, only lost 0.5 cos he lost the ball on build up for their penalty
Moussa 7.5 - great goal but faded in the match, wasn't getting much service
Theo 8 - good performance, should of scored another 2
Barnard 6 - did he play?????????

Subs
Freedman 5.5 - Would of played Laurant, didn't do anything
Betsy 6 - did he kick the ball??????

Ref - 8.5 - probably one of the best performances of the season
Crowd - 5 - bit flat for a win and a few frustrated people in south upper. no singing!
 
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Had forgotten it was Nardiello that fouled Clarke right at the end. He's another one to add to that list of players you hate, been a problem for us before hasn't he? Total ******. :censored:
 
Agree with much of what has already been said. A win is a win and there were many positives:
1) Theo continues to terrorise defences. Even if he does muck up the odd one-on-one he forces the opposition to play deeper, giving us more of the ball. And, let's face it, at least he is able to get into those positions!
2) Macca looked really good to me - I am surprised he is taking so much criticism for missed passes. His quick turn and shot were a joy to watch. He hit an amazing crossfield ball to Robinson as well. Grant did pretty well too with some great tackles but Macca is more reliable.
3) A lot of excellent crosses from Franno. I'm surprised that Moussa takes the corners as he can't whip the ball in like Francis (although to be fair I remember Francis mucking up quite a few corners when he last had that role).
4) What a goal from Moussa! And a good few killer passes too.

However, we should have wrapped up the game in the first half so on the negative side....
1) Why did Barney play virtually the whole game? He doesn't look like the player of last season. He has little pace or strength. His passes are usually very conservative and almost invariably backwards. He almost fluffed his penalty. He can score wonder goals (cf. Brighton) but when they don't work out (he tried a similar shot yesterday) he offers little.
2) Scannell is afflicted with the same disease as Moussa. Neither had the discipline to stay wide so everything was down the middle with the players getting in each other's way.
3) Come back Dervitte. We play deeper without him and lose our heads in defence. He seems to bring order in a quiet manner. When he's gone you can see why we've conceded so many goals this season.

Playoffs? Unlikely but at least it's possible. And we're still the form side in the division!
 
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Grant was my Man of the match last night, I thought he was superb.

We missed Dervite in the defence. Sankofa had a couple of shaky moments and I didn't have the best view on the handball incident towards the end.

Moussa's goal is the best goal I have seen from a Southend player for a long time, Probably going back to the Freddy days.
 
Mildenhall 6 - Good save early on but came out and missed the ball a few times.

Francis 6 - Fairly solid, couple of dodgy moments

Sankofa 5 - Didnt really notice him but everyone seems to think he played badly. Didn't see the penalty appeal against him.

Clarke 7 - Bossed the defence again, I really hope he signs a new contract. More chants of "sign up clarkey" needed.

Barrett 6 - Bombs forward recklessly at times.

Scannell 5 - What do people see in him? Didn't get in the game again except for conceding the penalty with a stupid, needless foul. Can't tackle.

Grant 7 - Good defensive performance, won a lot of crucial tackles.

McCormack 6 - Usual performance i.e. got stuck in, got wound up by the opposition.

Moussa 8 - My MOTM. Best goal I've witnessed this season, good passing. Gets better every time I see him.

Barnard 5 - Doesn't deserve to be in the starting line up at the moment. Half the player he was last season, very quiet performance and normally lost the ball whenever he did get it. Rubbish penalty which the keeper should be disappointed with, why don't players just smash penalties these days?

Robinson 7 - Chased a lot of lost causes and took his goal well but should have scored another near the end which would've wrapped the game up.

Did Betsy or Freeman touch the ball?
 
Woah, woah, WOAH! Goal of the season? Are you sure? :stunned: He did well, yes, but not a goal of the season contender for me - Barney's at Brighton, Jeff's overhead at Peterborough, even Macca's last week - all way ahead.

What is the rule about linos changing sides? That's the 2nd time we've had a dodgy lino for the whole game in the last few games, I thought they're supposed to stay where they are. Poor decisions, Sankofa definately handled, but then Scannell's conceding of the pen was really harsh, so they evened each other up.

Moussa goal > macca's
 
Had forgotten it was Nardiello that fouled Clarke right at the end. He's another one to add to that list of players you hate, been a problem for us before hasn't he? Total ******. :censored:

Agreed, an absolutely disgraceful challenge. It was obvious that he wasn't even going for the ball and just hacked him in frustration. Think the ref bottled it not sending him off. Very late and a tackle from behind, surely equals a red card.
 
being postive,

everyone always moans about the ref and linesman, at least lastnights ref lmissed a sure fire hand ball goal (sankofa), and from my position in block Q Robinsons goal looked offside . Lots of people around me felt the same.
 
amazing range of opinions and rating on this thread.
the one thing that stood out for me in last half an hour was that all of hartelpool's attacks came down their left and our right. it was obvious what they thought was the weakest spot in our defence ie francis.
of the 3 positions he has played in this season his apparent prefered position seems to be his weakest

my goal of the season was grant's at walsall - a bullet-like header giving the keeper no chance
 

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