Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers

[GBJ]

How can any one of these players be given 7's and 8's? That implies they played good or fairly well.

FWIW, every one of them deserved a 3/10 and that's being generous.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Not a great deal to say, thought we were undone tactically, and having seen Scotty Spencer rip through Huddersfield's defence last week would have hoped he'd be given longer on his home debut, and preferably with Matty Patterson.

Macca and Ossy the only outfield players to emerge with any real credit, I stand by my belief that Franny Laurent plays best when Jeff is on the pitch as well. Patterson was given a completely unenviable task and I thought this was pretty rough on him as well for his home debut. Glad Anthony Grant went and changed those awful cat sick yellow boots before the match started, maybe a little less vanity and more attention to the job in hand. Moose, well, nothing more to be said than what I've said already on him; Scannell, just doesn't cut it.

This was a game we should have won, Wycombe were not good, but as we know only too well, we tend to play worse against teams who are equally bad.

 

[GBJ]

This was a game we should have won, Wycombe were not good, but as we know only too well, we tend to play worse against teams who are equally bad.

One of the reasons, why we should not neglect the idea of relegation. We've got to play teams below us, some have games in hand.

 

[IloveShrimp]

I was just about to start this thread myself, so here's what I wrote. If anyone can show the desire to read it:


As the mods appear to have gone awol, very much like our midfield and defence did at times today, someone might as well start this thread up. ;)


A sloppy game riddled with mistakes and comedy moments between two sides who will struggle to string two results together between now and the end of the season. Both teams produced some epic moments of inadequacy, summed up by Laurent finding the upper tier of the South Stand with the whole goal to aim at, with nobody in it, from 4 yards and Matt Harrold reminding Roots Hall of what he's capable of by missing the target with a free header from the same distance.

I'll just come out and say it, that Tilson messed up BIG TIME today. Playing a kid who didn't know any of the players names, hadn't trained with the team and clearly isn't a target man, up front on his own at home to a team one off the bottom and ten points below us, was quite simply criminal. It made the midfield far too cramped and we didn't play any free flowing football until the last 20 minutes when Spencer and Freedman were up front together, allowing Moussa to have more space in the middle. Paterson struggled badly at times on his own, won very little in the air and didn't seem to come to life until the second half. He made several clever runs and despite pointing continuously where he wanted the ball played, his new team mates ignored him. There were some very promising signs in there as well though, but there's no way we should be playing him up front on his own. He's too young and too lightweight at the moment. It's just a massive shame that he snatched at his glaring chance, as that would've given him lots of confidence right from the start. From what I understand the club have extremely high hopes for him, but we need to use him properly if those hopes are going to come to life in my opinion. The other new boy, Spencer, looked bright, nippy and energetic when he came on. Unfortunately, as they did with Paterson, the team ignored his intelligent runs. He does have a bizarre running motion though doesn't he!?

The defence seemed to part like the red sea time and time again, and I don't like to sound like a broken record, but step forward Mr Barrett. The midfield continually failed to track runners and it caused us problems. Grant did a valiant job on his own, but he couldn't handle them all.

Mildy made some extremely iffy punches, but the one handed save in the last minute was truly world class. What a save. Where was Joyce today I wonder?

Lastly, credit to a referee for a change. I thought Mr Whitestone produced the best performance we've had at the Hall for a fair while.

Ratings:

Mildenhall 7: A couple of bizarre moments mixed in with one breath taking save and a couple of very decent saves.

Sankofa 6.5: His general steady eddy display. Decent enough at the back but didn't add much going forward, with of course exception of a stunning cross for the goal.

Francis 7: Did quite well I thought and matched up to Harrold well. Was he marking him from the corner that allowed the ginger one to miss from five yards though?

Barrett 6: The usual keystone cops performance from the captain. Defensive shape? What's that?

Malone 6: Did well enough in the first half, but the usual errors crept in during the second half. As usual he produced some very poor set pieces.

Laurent 5.5: Couldn't seem to stay on his feet, missed a sitter that a one legged squirrel would've scored and produced an apathetic display. This is why you're in League One, Francis. Why oh why Brush made him do running drills just 10 minutes before kick off I had no idea. He looked shattered before we'd even kicked off.

Grant 6.5: Tidied up nicely and produced the usual fully committed display. He does have an extra bit of quality about him it seems.

McCormack 6.5: Loses a mark for a dreadful last 20 minutes display and being a petulant little kid that cost us the lead. Up until the 64th minute that was his best display of the season and he had to go and ruin it.

Moussa 6.5: The only player prepared to shoot in the first half it seemed, he drifted in and out of things at times, but still looked happier being more central. We've done the first step, now all we've gotta do is play him alongside just one other central midfielder to give him more room to operate.

Scannell 6.5: I fail to see why there's a whole thread devoted to slagging him off, but hey ho. Out of position he provided a useful outlet and caused Lewis Hunt a fair amount of problems. Unlucky with a good effort in the first half and unlucky to be subbed instead of Laurent.

Paterson 6: Understandably struggled at times. He certainly needs to bulk out a bit. He showed some nice touches though and hopefully Tilson will realise that he made a horrible error and start someone alongside him next Saturday against Swindon. For Millwall though, I imagine he'll be on his todd again.

Subs:

Freedman 5.5: Struggled to influence the game.

Spencer 6: Energetic and looks a bit of a livewire. Unlucky with the two chances to shoot that came his way. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.

Walker 5.5: Looks completely devoid of confidence, probably not helped that he was getting bollockings from the management within seconds of coming on. I did think he was going to curl that effort into the top corner though, but unfortunately Hunt got a touch on it.

Never have I agreed with an opinion as much as this on SZ

 

[ms brush]

Not going to bother with ratings today, think its already been said!

I'm looking for positives here (and there are a few) - so dont shoot me!

We picked up a point, and we didnt lose!

We got away with what looked like a definate penalty.

Paterson looks useful, and given that the ink on his contract hasnt even dried yet, thought the lad did well. Just a shame he got left up there on his own for most of the game!

Francis did a good job at CB, almost definately there because of Harrold's height - would have prefered him on the wing but I can see the logic.

Mildy had a poor game by his standards, but then pulled off some world class saves at the end that kept us in the game. He was seriously hindered by our wayward defence, and very lucky that Wycombe are as good as we are at hitting the back of the net!!

Macca - what can I say. Looked good until just after he scored - then it all went to pot. Picked up another yellow, then back to the form we have seen for most of this season...

Malone is starting to impress me overall - he is building an understanding with Scannell and Moose, which will work given time with any luck. Made some mistakes today, but tbh he's no worse than the rest of them!

Sankofa - MOM today. Great cross for the goal and looked solid.

The couple of comments from behind me (East Blacks). One lovely one made me smile when Wycombe missed on of their many chances caused by our comedy defending someone shouted "You're as good as we are..." ok, you had to be there!

On the downside - why oh why did we sell Lewis Hunt??

 

[BrettieAngell]

On the downside - why oh why did we sell Lewis Hunt??

At one point in the first half, he was in front of the W block in the West and there was a chant of "**** simon francis, you're just a **** simon francis" he turned round and was laughing and got a good clap of everyone in that part of the West!

 

[Andyhsufc]

Haven't posted any ratings till now because wanted to get a bit of perspective. However, I can now confidently say that is the worst Southend performance I have seen under Tilson. Even when we had less talented players at the start of his reign, they made up for their lack of ability with a willingness to fight for every ball. Tactics were wrong, the players were not up for it and we got outplayed by the worst side I have seen at Roots Hall for a long time. I didn't think I would ever say this but we have got to thank Matt Harrold for allowing us to come out of that game with a point (which we didn't deserve one bit!)

 

[Pubey]

Not a great deal to say, thought we were undone tactically, and having seen Scotty Spencer rip through Huddersfield's defence last week would have hoped he'd be given longer on his home debut, and preferably with Matty Patterson.

Macca and Ossy the only outfield players to emerge with any real credit, I stand by my belief that Franny Laurent plays best when Jeff is on the pitch as well. Patterson was given a completely unenviable task and I thought this was pretty rough on him as well for his home debut. Glad Anthony Grant went and changed those awful cat sick yellow boots before the match started, maybe a little less vanity and more attention to the job in hand. Moose, well, nothing more to be said than what I've said already on him; Scannell, just doesn't cut it.

This was a game we should have won, Wycombe were not good, but as we know only too well, we tend to play worse against teams who are equally bad.

spencer won't yet be match fit, and so I was glad he was used as a sub. Hopefully he'll get more minutes in future matches.

If laurent only plays well when his best mate Jeff is on the pitch then I don't want either of them at the club. It's that kind of cliquey behaviour that is so damaging for team morale and performances. Plus the fact that Jeff is proper ****

 

[chapperzUK]

spencer won't yet be match fit, and so I was glad he was used as a sub. Hopefully he'll get more minutes in future matches.

If laurent only plays well when his best mate Jeff is on the pitch then I don't want either of them at the club. It's that kind of cliquey behaviour that is so damaging for team morale and performances. Plus the fact that Jeff is proper ****

Domino effect. Laurent only played well when Christophe is playing. Christophe only plays well when we have a box-to-box midfielder along side him. Sawyer is perfect for this but he will never come back and we don't have the money to sign one.

 

[EastLondonShrimper]

The team were dire yesterday. What was most depressing is the way they were all shouting at eachother (along with Macca's video on Blues Player, speaking about the dressing room after the game.) That kind of attitude you expect at under-12's level, not from 'professional' footballers.

If the team had put the same effort into winning the game as they had blaming eachother for the utter **** we were subjected to yesterday, we might have got the 3 points, and even if we didn't, at least we could be happy in that the side had put in a good performance. It's something Tilly needs to sort out NOW.

Where's the inspiration?!

 

[EastStandBlue]

The team were dire yesterday. What was most depressing is the way they were all shouting at eachother (along with Macca's video on Blues Player, speaking about the dressing room after the game.) That kind of attitude you expect at under-12's level, not from 'professional' footballers.

If the team had put the same effort into winning the game as they had blaming eachother for the utter **** we were subjected to yesterday, we might have got the 3 points, and even if we didn't, at least we could be happy in that the side had put in a good performance. It's something Tilly needs to sort out NOW.

Where's the inspiration?!

Early on in the first half, Sankofa recieved the ball and nobody moved for him, so he played it back to Mildenhall. Cue a rollocking from Macca... If you want the ball, you move and give him a call, not to just stand still and wait for the pass.

It was indicative of the performance from a handful of players yesterday. Tilson would've undoubtedly had them in this morning for training and a few home truths. If they respond properly, it should be a good performance on Tuesday.

 

[GodblessArthurRowley]

Pitiful quite pitiful is all I can bring myself to say about yesterdays game of 'football?'

 

[Smiffy]

Not even worth a report.

Dire, clueless, no pride, no passion and we deserve more.

That shower shown yesterday is not acceptable.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Not even worth a report.

Dire, clueless, no pride, no passion and we deserve more.

That shower shown yesterday is not acceptable.

It wasn't pride and passion that was lacking, it was confidence.

And as fans, I don't believe we deserve more. The atmosphere in Roots Hall was like a morgue. There was a bit of drum banging, so maybe the North-West actually made some noise, but if they did it didn't carry.

The fans got the performance they deserved.

 

[ozzy-shrimper]

It wasn't pride and passion that was lacking, it was confidence.

And as fans, I don't believe we deserve more. The atmosphere in Roots Hall was like a morgue. There was a bit of drum banging, so maybe the North-West actually made some noise, but if they did it didn't carry.

The fans got the performance they deserved.

If the fans have nothing to cheer about, they won't will they. Dire performance, dire atmosphere.

There was an obvious lack of desire throughout the team, especially in defence.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

If the fans have nothing to cheer about, they won't will they. Dire performance, dire atmosphere.

There was an obvious lack of desire throughout the team, especially in defence.

There was an obvious lack of desire throughout the stands and this was copied by the players. Fans couldn't even be bothered to try and get the players going.

Worth remembering next time someone claims we have the best supporters.

 

[silentshrimper]

Question, why is Mildys top class save not part of the highlights on the blues player???

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Question, why is Mildys top class save not part of the highlights on the blues player???

Highlights tend to deal with the spectacular rather than the very good.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Highlights tend to deal with the spectacular rather than the very good.

That'll explain a lot of the content here then ;)

 

[Sherif H]

The fans got the performance they deserved.

I'm sorry, but nothing riles me more than this kind of statement which does seem to be used frequently accross the football world...football is a job to these guys; a job just like any other (except for the fact that they get paid handsomely for playing a game they love...most of us just 'get paid'). Whilst I appreciate this does not allow fans a God given right to abuse them until the cows come home; in simply doing their job, neither are they owed our unerring vociferous support, particularly when they produce that kind of drivel...only three players came out of yesterday with any credit, and that credit is just for doing their job....as above, what they are paid a lot of money to do.