Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-2 Leceister City

[manor15]

Steve Mildenhall 7 Didn't play badly but didn't have to much to do, couldn't have done anything about either goal really
Simon Francis 4 Worst performance this year. Gave the ball away easily, no need to handball for pen (which was harsh), didn't mark at all, weak tackling, poor passing, etc.
Dorian Dervite 7 Not his finest 90 minutes, few shaky moments but overall looked solid
Peter Clarke 7.5 Kept Matt Fryatt quiet all afternoon and went forward well. Won everything in the air and made some vital blocks
Adam Barrett 7 Did well, good forward runs and good, hard tackles
Kevin Betsy 7 Didnt stand out as playing well or bad, didn't have an impact really
Alan McCormack 7.5 Good forward runs and good vision, controlled the team when going forward and was often in space
JFC 7 Good tackling and interceptions, unfortunate to get injured and was missed
Franck Moussa 7.5 Often in space, very skilfull and quite quick, faded out towards end
Theo Robinson 7 Should have done better with the 1 on 1 he had but was quick and mad good runs
Lee Barnard 7 Tried hard but didn't do much. Some good running and closing down
Subs
Anthony Grant (for JFC) 7 Only got 1 or 2 touches before being attacked
Dougie Freedman (for Grant) 6 Poor, gave ball away too often but calmed the team down
Francis Laurent (for Betsy) 7 Didn't do much

Ref 4 Very fussy and frustrating, inconsistent
TBV 9 Very good but quiet for a period in first half

 

[Alex]

Steve Mildenhall 7 Didn't play badly but didn't have to much to do, couldn't have done anything about either goal really
Simon Francis 4 Worst performance this year. Gave the ball away easily, no need to handball for pen (which was harsh), didn't mark at all, weak tackling, poor passing, etc.Dorian Dervite 7 Not his finest 90 minutes, few shaky moments but overall looked solid
Peter Clarke 7.5 Kept Matt Fryatt quiet all afternoon and went forward well. Won everything in the air and made some vital blocks
Adam Barrett 7 Did well, good forward runs and good, hard tackles
Kevin Betsy 7 Didnt stand out as playing well or bad, didn't have an impact really
Alan McCormack 7.5 Good forward runs and good vision, controlled the team when going forward and was often in space
JFC 7 Good tackling and interceptions, unfortunate to get injured and was missed
Franck Moussa 7.5 Often in space, very skilfull and quite quick, faded out towards end
Theo Robinson 7 Should have done better with the 1 on 1 he had but was quick and mad good runs
Lee Barnard 7 Tried hard but didn't do much. Some good running and closing down
Subs
Anthony Grant (for JFC) 7 Only got 1 or 2 touches before being attacked
Dougie Freedman (for Grant) 6 Poor, gave ball away too often but calmed the team down
Francis Laurent (for Betsy) 7 Didn't do much

Ref 4 Very fussy and frustrating, inconsistent
TBV 8.5 Very good but quiet for a period in first half

What game was you watching? Im not saying he was amazing but was never the worst player on the pitch. Was it a penalty, I dont think so, completely accidental and you cant moan about a player handballing it when his arms are down by his side.

 

[Shrimper]

I don't think the referee would get on my ratings, ****test i've ever seen.

 

[shrimpermatt]

What game was you watching? Im not saying he was amazing but was never the worst player on the pitch. Was it a penalty, I dont think so, completely accidental and you cant moan about a player handballing it when his arms are down by his side.

Totally agree. the guy that sits behind me absolutly hates Francis, its funny listening to him complain about everything he does. he obviously knows nothing about football.

Example: he would rather Francis man mark the left winger when the ball is on the right hand side instead of covering in the penalty box.

 

[Andyhsufc]

I thought Francis had a poor game today, even by his recent standards. Nearly gave a goal away due to his lack of concentration (passing the ball back to the goalkeeper with two leicester players lurking). His passing and crossing was very poor and his handling of the ball in the penalty box was completely unnecessary. A 4 was generous in my book. However, just to clarify, I am not blaming Francis completely for our defeat. We missed two guilt-edged chances with Clarkey and Barney both conspiring to miss from two yards. At any level of football, you have got to take your chances to win games and we didnt (and havent for large swathes of the season)

 

[Wickford Blue]

Did I miss something!! Was it the Referee who missed a free header from 2 yards or was it Barnard or was it the ref who fired over from 2 yards or was that Clarke. Was it the ref who hit the cross bar when it was easier to score!!!!

Yep the penalty was harsh, free kick for second goal was soft, their guy should have gone for kicking Mcormack, and the guy who assaulted Grant should have gone as well!

But we should have been 3-0 up before all this happened and would not have cared!!

For the second successive home game the oposition have had 2 chance to score and have, if we had someone who even looked like a striker we would have won both games.

How many goals have our strike force of 7 scored this year??

Dont blame Francis, dont blame the ref blame ourselves for being so S**T in front of goal!!

 

[Basildon Blue]

Mildenhall - 6
Francis - 6
Dervite - 7
Clarke - 6.5
Barrett - 6.5
Betsy - 6
McCormack - 7
Christophe - 6.5
Moussa - 6.5
Barnard - 5.5
Robinson - 7

Subs:
Grant - 5
Freedman - 5.5
Laurent - 5.5

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Steve Mildenhall 7 Didn't play badly but didn't have to much to do, couldn't have done anything about either goal really
Simon Francis 4 Worst performance this year. Gave the ball away easily, no need to handball for pen (which was harsh), didn't mark at all, weak tackling, poor passing, etc.
Dorian Dervite 7 Not his finest 90 minutes, few shaky moments but overall looked solid
Peter Clarke 7.5 Kept Matt Fryatt quiet all afternoon and went forward well. Won everything in the air and made some vital blocks
Adam Barrett 7 Did well, good forward runs and good, hard tackles
Kevin Betsy 7 Didnt stand out as playing well or bad, didn't have an impact really
Alan McCormack 7.5 Good forward runs and good vision, controlled the team when going forward and was often in space
JFC 7 Good tackling and interceptions, unfortunate to get injured and was missed
Franck Moussa 7.5 Often in space, very skilfull and quite quick, faded out towards end
Theo Robinson 7 Should have done better with the 1 on 1 he had but was quick and mad good runs
Lee Barnard 7 Tried hard but didn't do much. Some good running and closing down
Subs
Anthony Grant (for JFC) 7 Only got 1 or 2 touches before being attacked
Dougie Freedman (for Grant) 6 Poor, gave ball away too often but calmed the team down
Francis Laurent (for Betsy) 7 Didn't do much

Ref 4 Very fussy and frustrating, inconsistent
TBV 9 Very good but quiet for a period in first half

I'd give Dervite and 8 or 9 today, I thought he was solid and won everything in the air again

 

[Lord Football]

Firstly, well done to Leicester, they are the best side in this division and whilst they didn't bamboozle us with wonderful football they are organised, hard to break down and take their chances. It was never going to be easy. First half was fast and furious with little to trouble either keeper. Clarke blasted over from yards and Robinson hit a low shot from distance, but those aside, nothing much going.

We looked good at the start of the second half, Robinson hit the bar with a half volley and our season effectively ended with that. Leicester were given a gift of a penalty (says this referee) and took it. They then got a soft free kick, hit the bar with it and Fryatt banged home the rebound. Game over. We tried valiantly to claw ourselves back into it, but I reckon if were still playing now we wouldn't have scored.

Mildenhall 7 - No chance with the goals, other than fine
Francis 6 - Bits and pieces as usual
Barrett 8 - Best game at left back, strong in the tackle lead well
Clarke 8 - Another solid display
Dervite 7 - A couple of mad moments, but other than his usual rock solid self
Moussa 6 - Keeps drifting in. Got a lot of the ball but did nothing with it
McCormack 6 - Too many stray passes today
Christophe 6 - Too many bad decisions, injured
Betsy 7 - Better than previous performances, but created little
Barnard 5 - Too weak, again.
Robinson 7 - Quieter than usual. Never able to get the Leicester shackles off.

Subs
Grant - no mark, only on for 2 minutes. Would be very interested to see that challenge again.
Freedman 6 - Too many clever flicks and touches that others dont read
Laurent 6 - Observer.

Referee 5 - Pedantic to the extreme. Didn't play advantage when he could. As for the penalty, not the worst I've seen (Peterborough, Hereford) but certainly debatable.

Crowd 9 - Fantastic support from both sets of fans. Well done TBV, for the first time this season you could clearly be heard in the Family Stand.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Referee was very poor. The real turning point was Grant and Jeff going off injured, we went from winning the midfield battle to losing it. Jeff had been our best player, a real box to box performance before going off. We had to reshuffle and play players out of position and it gave Leicester the impetus to go on and win the game.

Francis yet again very poor defensively but at times he seemed to be our only creative outlet. Need to address the wide areas in the summer.

Also a concern the performance of our strikers. If Theo goes back, we are left with a set of injury prone inconsistent strikers. I thought Dougies performance was shocking and would be glad to see the back of him as I thin khe is massivley overrated. Laurent too looks a shadow of the player of his first 6 or 7 games.

Well done Leicester but think they will come straight back down.

 

[manor15]

What game was you watching? Im not saying he was amazing but was never the worst player on the pitch. Was it a penalty, I dont think so, completely accidental and you cant moan about a player handballing it when his arms are down by his side.

I agree completely about what you say about the penalty. However I am a fan of Francis, he is a very good player when he's in form but today I thought was the worst he has played all season and unfortunately had a bad day and in my opinion for most of the game was one of/the worst player on the pitch. Francis' main problem is that he is inconsistent

 

[Tin Bath]

Firstly, well done to Leicester, they are the best side in this division and whilst they didn't bamboozle us with wonderful football they are organised, hard to break down and take their chances. It was never going to be easy. First half was fast and furious with little to trouble either keeper. Clarke blasted over from yards and Robinson hit a low shot from distance, but those aside, nothing much going.

We looked good at the start of the second half, Robinson hit the bar with a half volley and our season effectively ended with that. Leicester were given a gift of a penalty (says this referee) and took it. They then got a soft free kick, hit the bar with it and Fryatt banged home the rebound. Game over. We tried valiantly to claw ourselves back into it, but I reckon if were still playing now we wouldn't have scored.

Mildenhall 7 - No chance with the goals, other than fine
Francis 6 - Bits and pieces as usual
Barrett 8 - Best game at left back, strong in the tackle lead well
Clarke 8 - Another solid display
Dervite 7 - A couple of mad moments, but other than his usual rock solid self
Moussa 6 - Keeps drifting in. Got a lot of the ball but did nothing with it
McCormack 6 - Too many stray passes today
Christophe 6 - Too many bad decisions, injured
Betsy 7 - Better than previous performances, but created little
Barnard 5 - Too weak, again.
Robinson 7 - Quieter than usual. Never able to get the Leicester shackles off.

Subs
Grant - no mark, only on for 2 minutes. Would be very interested to see that challenge again.
Freedman 6 - Too many clever flicks and touches that others dont read
Laurent 6 - Observer.

Referee 5 - Pedantic to the extreme. Didn't play advantage when he could. As for the penalty, not the worst I've seen (Peterborough, Hereford) but certainly debatable.

Crowd 9 - Fantastic support from both sets of fans. Well done TBV, for the first time this season you could clearly be heard in the Family Stand.

Maybe Barney isnt 100% fit, which is most of the time but sadly he seemed to have no pace today, i think my 70 year old mum could of out sprinted him today and won a 50/50 challenge

 

[Andy_S]

Spookily I said after Theo hit the bar that this was going to be MK Dons all over again..... So it proved. The amount of teams that have come to the Hall this season and mugged us is untrue. This HAS to be sorted next season for us to have a decent chance. We've got to be more clinical. Worryingly at the other end, we currently possess two of the best centre backs in the Division and yet we'll most likely be starting next season without either of them in our squad.

Yes the ref was atrocious (as Penton always is), but the bad luck with the injuries followed by IMO some more bad tactics from Tilly caused our downfall. Once we lost Christophe and then Grant, the logical thing for me was to bring Sankofa on and play him in there as he did a couple of times in pre season. Instead of disrupting one position, we disrupted THREE, by doing what we did. Not only that, our only threat, Theo, was stuck on the wing where he never saw the light of day and was wasted. The shape completely went to pot with bringing Freedman on instead of Sankofa. A strange, strange move by Tilly not for the first time.

Ratings:

Mildenhall 6: Another incredibly quiet game for him to play in. I don't think he actually had to make a save or a claim in the entire game.

Francis 5.5: At the time I thought it was a pen from my seat, but with the amount of people saying it wasn't, perhaps I was wrong. If he was switched on he would've dealt with the bounce better though instead of moving his left side towards the ball giving the ref a chance to give it. I'm losing patience with him. Big time.

Clarke 8: It's quite frustrating thinking that our best defender by a country mile is about to leave us. I'm actually quite worried as to who we might get to replace him. My opinion is, and I'll probably be slated, that if being able to keep him means we give him the captaincy and get Barrett off the wage bill in the summer, then we should do it.

Dervite 7.5: Dealt with Fryatt well on the whole, although he had a couple of iffy moments.

Barrett 6.5: Usual Barrett left back performance. Whole hearted, yet under that front, pretty average and awkward. Positionally he's still all over the shop at times. Blocked off the disappointing Gradel a couple of times though.

Betsy 6.5: Neat and tidy but I'm still stunned at his total lack of desire to actually take any full back on. He has pace, he has decent control, so why the hell doesn't he do it? He's like a tall, quicker Carl Pettefer at times.

Christophe 7: His best game since he signed permanently, although his decision making at times is still woeful.

McCormack 6: Couldn't pass water. I still can't believe he didn't look to free Barnard in the first half when he actually looked up and saw him. Dreadful decision making on that. Yeah he ran around a lot, but not a lot else.

Moussa 6.5: The usual Moussa left wing display really. He's tidy in possession and he'll have the odd drive forward but at the end of the day he's wasted out there. The game was over 5 minutes after he moved into the middle and so he was unable to show his worth in there.

Robinson 7: Always a threat. Well, until we decided we didn't want that threat anymore and chucked him on to the wing. So unlucky with the effort that hit the bar. Adding to the centre half worry for next season, if we don't keep Theo, I think we desperately need to bring in someone similar.

Barnard 6: Weak in the battle. Still hangs back and doesn't look like the clever thinking, full of running player of last season. Should've buried the free header.


Subs:

Grant /:

Freedman 5: For the first 10 minutes he was on he gave every single ball away. He doesn't look the same player as the one at the start of the season......

Laurent 6.5: His most promising performance for months and he was stuck out on the wing which is a bit random. Least he actually looked a threat today.

 

[wiggy]

Steve Mildenhall 7 Didn't play badly but didn't have to much to do, couldn't have done anything about either goal really
Simon Francis 4 Worst performance this year. Gave the ball away easily, no need to handball for pen (which was harsh), didn't mark at all, weak tackling, poor passing, etc.
Dorian Dervite 7 Not his finest 90 minutes, few shaky moments but overall looked solid
Peter Clarke 7.5 Kept Matt Fryatt quiet all afternoon and went forward well. Won everything in the air and made some vital blocks
Adam Barrett 7 Did well, good forward runs and good, hard tackles
Kevin Betsy 7 Didnt stand out as playing well or bad, didn't have an impact really
Alan McCormack 7.5 Good forward runs and good vision, controlled the team when going forward and was often in space
JFC 7 Good tackling and interceptions, unfortunate to get injured and was missed
Franck Moussa 7.5 Often in space, very skilfull and quite quick, faded out towards end
Theo Robinson 7 Should have done better with the 1 on 1 he had but was quick and mad good runs
Lee Barnard 7 Tried hard but didn't do much. Some good running and closing down
Subs
Anthony Grant (for JFC) 7 Only got 1 or 2 touches before being attacked
Dougie Freedman (for Grant) 6 Poor, gave ball away too often but calmed the team down
Francis Laurent (for Betsy) 7 Didn't do much

Ref 4 Very fussy and frustrating, inconsistent
TBV 9 Very good but quiet for a period in first half

Worst set of rating's all year!

 

[palexander]

Referee was very poor. The real turning point was Grant and Jeff going off injured, we went from winning the midfield battle to losing it. Jeff had been our best player, a real box to box performance before going off. We had to reshuffle and play players out of position and it gave Leicester the impetus to go on and win the game.

Francis yet again very poor defensively but at times he seemed to be our only creative outlet. Need to address the wide areas in the summer.

Also a concern the performance of our strikers. If Theo goes back, we are left with a set of injury prone inconsistent strikers. I thought Dougies performance was shocking and would be glad to see the back of him as I thin khe is massivley overrated. Laurent too looks a shadow of the player of his first 6 or 7 games.

Well done Leicester but think they will come straight back down.

Absolutely spot on - been saying it for ages, but keep getting shouted down, so I dont bother now.

I think his recent cameo's have been embarrassingly poor - his legs have gone and people can reel out all the stats that they like, the guy just isnt any good...

 

[BlueJ]

I don't think the referee had very many decisions come his way, but my word those that did he ballsed up!

 

[toellandback]

The radio commented on how well you played today.

There is still hope surely, results went your way

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

The radio commented on how well you played today.

There is still hope surely, results went your way

With only 2 games left, you'd get better odds on it snowing tomorrow. ( Good luck in the play- offs).

 

[Southend Neil]

There is still hope surely, results went your way

As Scunthorpe are playing Tranmere in the last game and they both cant lose, the play offs are now impossible

 

[BlueJ]

As Scunthorpe are playing Tranmere in the last game and they both cant lose, the play offs are now impossible

If Tranmere lose all their remaining games, and Scunthorpe's only win comes at Tranmere, then we can still finish above both asuming we win both our games and score a mountain of goals.