Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-0 Millwall

[canveyshrimper]

I think most people are in agreement on here... however, I didn't think Freedman was THAT bad and neither did I think Revell was THAT good when he came on. He chased everything and hit the post with a header but apart from that I can'r think of any aerial challenge he won at all!

Again Macca and JCR were excellent in midfield and it's clear Sawyer will have to be patient. We could have done with Betsy coming on for Moussa, who was largely ineffective, just to provide some extra width.

We kept a clean sheet and looked much more solid than we did against Walsall and Wycombe and let's be honest, Millwall are a far better side than either of them.

It's certainly a more encouraging start than I think any of us thought; but we need a win fairly soon.

I agree, Revell didn't win one ball in the air, however he did offer a more physical threat than Freedman, or Barnard for that matter.

A plus point to me is the fitness (so far) displayed by Barnard, he looks to have benefitted from pre season and hopefully his previous fragility is a thing of the past.

Although we haven't won in the league as yet, the displays thus far show up the Jonahs who read too much into poor results in pre season friendies.

The structure of the team is there, and like us all I'd love to see a creative wide player, but I doubt if this will happen beyond another loanee. And I'd like to see Sawyer getting some time on the pitch, unfortunately for him the injury he suffered has put him a little down the pecking order.

 

[BlueBeard]

said at wycombe we will be extremly hard to beat away from home with that formation but and its a big but that formation will find it hard to get a win at home. We do not break quickly enough and play much too narrow. Yes all the mid-field were excellent tonight but if you want to win games at home 1 of them will have to be sacrificed to bring in a creative player or a wide player(with mark gower we had both) Inject 2 elements into that team pace and width and I fancy us to beat anyone

 

[leeblue]

Short summery:

Absolutely no cutting edge in the final third of the field.

Moussa had, by his standards, a pretty poor game.

Macca & Grant both ran themselves ragged and the last 20 minutes just begged for Sawyers dreativity.

Broke from deep on countless occasions and had them in real trouble until it came to the final third - See statement one.

Millwall - Filthy team and gobby supporters.

Special mention to TBV. Made themselves heard all night and at times really got the place going. Well done.

All eleven Blues players - Solid. Nothing outstanding, nothing dire. 7's all round

perfect, macca played very well but died down a bit in the last fifteen, I was screaming for lee to come on we needed an injection out there

 

[leeblue]

That was the first league game to remain scoreless at Roots Hall (bar Doncaster in the play-offs) since we played Norwich back in the Championship back in 2006!

when we played nornorwich in the championship at roots hall it was three all

 

[Skyblue]

Pace and creativity is what we lack. If we dont have the bottle to drop macca or jcf lets tuck Granty in and play a diamond with Moussa and Sawyer advanced and one up front, playing Sawyer in the Gerard role if you like. We dont have any width as it is so we might as well get Sawyer in the 11 and have a go at teams certainly at home.

Play a flat 4 away with Sawyer just behind a striker.

Done

Exactly what I was thinking half way through the second half yesterday. Freeman was doing nothing.We had no width to supply crosses to the likes of Revs, so why not bring on Sawyer for Freeman and have him coming from deep bedhind Barney. Revs isn't skilled enough to create his own chances without crossed coming in so the straight swap of Freeman for Revs gave us nothing.

 

[Hooly]

I think most people are in agreement on here... however, I didn't think Freedman was THAT bad.....

Excellent. I'm always worried if I agree with you fbm as I usually believed from your reports that we go to different games, so glad to see you say that. :angel:

Freedman I would give a 2 to, which would basically be 1 for each of his touches, well maybe an excagerration but not far off. I thought last night showed how truly over the hill he is, though with the thugs playing for Millwall he was the wrong choice to start. He's obviously been a good footballer with a decent football brain but he simply can't show that any more. He bottled out of any even 70/30 ball & even when we did break a couple of times managed to get himself in places where he simply couldn't receive the ball & then more often than not moaned at the player who'd not given it to him.

When he came I hoped we'd get Goat mk2, i.e. an experienced player, not at the top of his ability, who would lead the team on the field by example. That bit with the cones before the game annoys me as well. It's like he's wanting everyone to say "look at Dougie what a perfectly model pro". But that's got to be backed up by his performance & sadly it's not. Most of the time I see him talking to team mates it looks (from body language) that he's criticising not encouraging. The Goat however was always very visibly building the guys up.

He's admittedly scored 6 goals in near season he's been here but that's from only 14 starts. A club of our size just can't afford a luxury like him, whereas many other clubs could afford to carry him & play round him. He may be good on the training ground & with the younger players, but that's not what he's paid for it's what T&B, Duncan etc are there to do.

IMHO he should do what the Goat did when he knew his time was up & go gracefully.

 

[BlueJ]

when we played nornorwich in the championship at roots hall it was three all

I stand corrected, it was in fact against Preston then earlier that season.

 

[OldBlueLady]

No waffle first, most of it's been said already. It was luck cost us the full points last night nothing else, creativity was there, chances taken but just a fraction the wrong side of the post or crossbar.

Mildy - 7, confident on the whole and looks to have a much better understanding with Heath now - was it lasers he was complaining about? Some fantastically accurate kicking
Franno - 8, as a marauding RB, Franno is now showing exactly what those of us who've supported him wanted. As a defender he's also much improved, almost MotM for me, but not quite
Heath - 7.5, might have been slated before he came but I'm growing to like the guy, he kept Alexander under control and is dominant in the air - can we not try to aim corners at him rather than Adam please?
Barrett - 7, it's clear how much he was struggling with the knee injury and looks to have overcome it now, still don't like him going on those runs forward
White - 7, again, I like the guy, can tell he's still young and just needs a bit of experience. I do like the fact that it's him that stays back for corners
Grant - 7, some shockingly wayward stuff at times, but made up for it with his pace and constant threat. Players other than Macca and Franno need to look for him tho, twice he was completely unmarked and in good positions
Macca - 8.5, a deserved MotM. The Macca of 2 seasons ago would have been off the pitch for retaliation but considering what he put up with I thought he was very restrained. Great play, good heading, some lovely passing and vision and if he'd have been able to get that shot onto his right rather than left, I reckon it would have been in :clap:
Jeff - 8, the two of them are building a decent pairing, his constant harrying is winning lots of balls and he's getting shots in with both his head and feet
Moussa - 7, much the same as Grant really, some terrible passing but made up for it with his pace and threat. Still drifts too much for my liking leaving White exposed, he's not Marky G
Barney - 7.5, tireless, absolutely tireless and as Harry says, his fitness is markedly improved. Was getting nothing from the ref again, but kept it going, unlucky really
Dougie - 7, don't see why some are criticising so much, did well, was a constant thorn in their defence's side, chased balls into the corner. My only concern with Dougie is he doesn't challenge for arial balls - is this because of a concern about an injury? If so, then we have to play him further up the field and let Barney drop back

Subs: Revs for Dougie just after the hour - 7.5, for me he gave more option and was desperately unlucky again not to score

Ref: 3, over fussy and bottled it with several cards, Smith should have gone in the 1st half for the elbow on Barney and got nothing, and there was another in the 2nd half (Laird?) that I felt should have been a red

TBV: 10, brilliant guys, were Millwall there last night?

 

[jackspratt]

Mildenhall 6: Must sort out his kicking
Francis 7.5: Played pretty well tonight his freekicks very good.

Heath 7: Must start heading out of danger.

Barrett 6: Lets see what M'Voto can do please Mr Tilson.

White 6: Got caught out too many times.

Grant 7: Good 1st half tired in 2nd should have been replaced.

McCormack 8: Best player on pitch was everywhere spoilt by yellow card.

Christophe 7: Good game should of been replaced by Sawyer.

Moussa 6: Poor game apart preventing them scoring, didnt do much.

Barnard 6.5: Ran around a lot needs target man to run off off.

Freedman 6: Should have started with either Revell or Walker never in the game apart from 1 touch.

Sub:

Revell 6.5: Should have started or introduced at half time.

Ref 6

Tilson 5 needs to be brave enough to put subs on.

 

[GodblessArthurRowley]

One performance deserves a 10 tonight, take a bow TBV, magnificent quite magnificent.
Game? Sawyer where for art thou?

 

[BP Blue]

OK. Im normally a Revell fan so I'm not picking him out for special treatment. He worked hard I admit, but tonight didn't change the game as you hope a sub can do. Had needlessly strayed offside when he hit the post (the lino certainly flagged as soon as the cross went in so I assume it was against him) so I don't count that as a plus on his performace.

I may be wrong but I think Revs was onside and the flag went up when Barney picked up the rebound - it was Barney who was offside. Could be mistaken.

Tuesday night the game was screaming out for changes - we were dominating the game with ease and passed the ball at will. The game was screaming out for Sawyer and Revell with half an hour to go.

Last night Revell came on at the right time and we had our best time in the game. We dominated for next 15 mins. Why change when we looked threatening and dominated? Millwall then settled for a strong 10 mins - we needed to dig in and hold on at the period - personally I think Christophe and Macca were important in this period. It was a very phsyical game that those two guys did very well in. Macca was much better last night and thoroughly deserved MOM (despite 2 or 3 off the ball silly moments) I for one can see why last night Tilly kept things the same - we'd have been bloody disappointed if he'd come on in last ten and we'd lost the game.

In summary Tuesday Sawyer should have come on - last night Tilly was justified in keeping things the same.

 

[OlvisIII]

I may be wrong but I think Revs was onside and the flag went up when Barney picked up the rebound - it was Barney who was offside. Could be mistaken.

Tuesday night the game was screaming out for changes - we were dominating the game with ease and passed the ball at will. The game was screaming out for Sawyer and Revell with half an hour to go.

Last night Revell came on at the right time and we had our best time in the game. We dominated for next 15 mins. Why change when we looked threatening and dominated? Millwall then settled for a strong 10 mins - we needed to dig in and hold on at the period - personally I think Christophe and Macca were important in this period. It was a very phsyical game that those two guys did very well in. Macca was much better last night and thoroughly deserved MOM (despite 2 or 3 off the ball silly moments) I for one can see why last night Tilly kept things the same - we'd have been bloody disappointed if he'd come on in last ten and we'd lost the game.

In summary Tuesday Sawyer should have come on - last night Tilly was justified in keeping things the same.

The comments made by BP Blue are actually mine - didn't realise my brother was logged in!

 

[Mick]

Ref: 3, over fussy and bottled it with several cards, Smith should have gone in the 1st half for the elbow on Barney and got nothing, and there was another in the 2nd half (Laird?) that I felt should have been a red

The referee had a decent match and will have received a very reasonable or good mark from the assessor.

It was a very difficult game to referee with probably more tackles in the 90 minutes than I can remember in a match for a long while. It was played at a very fast pace with certainly more endeavour than skill and he let the game flow as much as was sensible. He missed two fouls when following the ball but otherwise his foul detection was sound. Okay he was a bit picky about placement of free-kicks. The Millwall cautions, all five of them, were justified and Macca could have been cautioned twice before his inevitable card - once for simulation and another time for his aggressive reaction to being fouled. Grant took a yellow card for the team halting a dangerous break with a clearly illegal challenge from behind. So 7 cautions, all correct, good fitness - up with play well. He allowed a little more dissent and whinging from the Millwall players than I would have liked but overall he can be satisfied with his performance.

 

[Winkle]

Good point about the set pieces Andy, and wish Moussa would stop floating them in and put some real whip on them.

A very good point but when was the last time you saw a S.U.F.C. player run in from deep to attack a corner? How many corners did we have last night?We just seem to stand there and try and out jump defenders instead of trying to do something different for a change. last nights result clearly showed that we can match any side in this division but we are sadly lacking a quality midfeilder who can change games by either running at the opposition or picking a descent pass through for one of or forwards. Dougie and barnard dont do it for me, to similar, the same when we play Macca/ Christophe/Grant in midfeild..... all very good players but to defensive minded to hurt the oppostion. Macca seems to have stopped his late runs in the box that he was rather good at, perhaps Moussa who can do a job on the left needs to be given his central role back as we lack any creativity in Midfeild at the moment.

 

[canveyshrimper]

I think that's pretty fair assesment of the ref Mick.

What was your take on the West Stand linesman? IMO I think he missed a number of (what to me were) obvious offside decisions.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Im pretty certain that shoving a player is violent conduct, which I know is a straight red card offence. Maybe im wrong, and the rules have changed since then.

Raised arms > Violent conduct > Red card

 

[Mick]

Raised arms > Violent conduct > Red card

"Raised arms" are not cited as an offence in the Laws of the Game.

That's media speak, latched on to by many supporters. Violent conduct is a red card. It is perfectly feasible to raise your arms in a non-violent, perhaps petulent, manner and be correctly shown a yellow card.

 

[Mick]

I think that's pretty fair assesment of the ref Mick.

What was your take on the West Stand linesman? IMO I think he missed a number of (what to me were) obvious offside decisions.

I was the wrong end of the West Stand to make any definitive (or fair) comment but there was one time when I expected to see a flag and he was a way behind play.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

"Raised arms" are not cited as an offence in the Laws of the Game.

That's media speak, latched on to by many supporters. Violent conduct is a red card. It is perfectly feasible to raise your arms in a non-violent, perhaps petulent, manner and be correctly shown a yellow card.

So why was Eastwood sent off for it then?

 

[palexander]

"Raised arms" are not cited as an offence in the Laws of the Game.

That's media speak, latched on to by many supporters. Violent conduct is a red card. It is perfectly feasible to raise your arms in a non-violent, perhaps petulent, manner and be correctly shown a yellow card.

We cannot have it all out own way - Grant came wading in arms up in a not too dissimilar fashion when it kicked off and if the push was a red, that should have been too.

Likewise Macca - could see absolutely clearly from the south upper that he went in to smash the player (was kind of shoulder to shoulder, but given his body language, it was a more blatent body check with no intention of getting the ball) - if that wasnt enough, he then proceeded to deliberately walk all over the back of the guys legs. He is an absolute idiot at times.

If we had gone down to 10 men, I think that would have been enough for Millwall to snatch something.