Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-3 Southampton

[Cricko]

Post your match reports and ratings here please.

Graphics by Ayrshire Blue

 

[cfozzie]

My MOTM for tonight's game has to be Fiend don't know if anyone else agrees thought he did quite well and to top it off he scored an awesome freekick.

 

[Bielzibubz]

Mildy - One blinding double save and an absolutely diabolical decision given against him for their first when he clearly had both hands on the ball.

Francis - Poor. Gave the ball away far to much for my liking tonight, as did everyone.

Barret - Did his job well, as usual

Friend - In my opinion and on tonight's evidence he deserves to start as opposed to Herd. Sweet left foot but I'd like to see him over lap more often.

Sankofa - Poor, nuff said.

Macca - Ran his socks off until his substitution due to a knock but some of his little flicks over the oppositions heads was very Mayer'esq.

Laurent - Frustrating as always. Brilliant touches one minute, wayward simple passing the next.

Moussa - MOM without a doubt. Possibly our only creative outlet tonight with the ball on the deck. Really impressed me.

Barney - Ran for everything that came within his vicinity. His work rate is phenomenal

Freedman - Ummm, did he play?

I've missed some I know but can't be arsed with the rest and subs.


Ref: Woeful, as was the west stand lino.

TBV - Excellent, can't fault them. Well done chaps.

Tilly's post match interview. Same old, same old

 

[Lord Football]

Hmm, what a grim evening. Individually, given the conditions, none of them stood out as being particularly poor. As a team unit, it was awful. Defence went wandering, keeper spilling things, no cutting edge up front and totally bossed out of midfield for most of the game. Saints were no great shakes either, but did what they needed to do by stopping us playing and giving us no space at all. The really annoying thing was that technically we played some good stuff, but the basics, the simple stuff, we just couldn't do it.

Ratings

Mildenhall 6 - Spilled the original chance that lead to the first goal. Regardless of what happened next, keepers are paid to hold them.

Sankofa 7 - Apart from when the entire defensive unit went on walkabouts for the third goal, he did alright after an alarmingly poor start.

Francis 6 - Hmmm. Distribution today was awful. Can do so much better.

Barrett 7 - Pick of the defence tonight.

Friend 7 - Good free kick. Got forward and then... well... ran out of ideas.

Grant 6 - Spent too much time in the first half sliding around. Gave very basic passes away.

McCormack 8 - MOTM. The only player who really seemed to get grips with the conditions and the situations we found ourselves in. Much better than in previous games.

Laurent 7 -Dangerous in the first half, his star faded in the second half once Saints had sussed out he was our danger man.

Moussa 8 - Best player in the second half, at least was prepared to run at players and take the odd offensive risk.

Freedman 7 - Felt a bit sorry for him really. Put a load of workrate in, but nothing worked for him.

Barnard 6 -Scuffed a simple looking chance early on. But marked out of the game.

subs.

Sawyer 7 - Injected a bit of lie, but no one, nowhere seemed to want the ball.

O'Donovan 7 - Tried to find space and make runs. I think it was he who put a late chance wide.

Christophe 6 - Too late to make an impace.

Management team. What do they do? Limited resources, limited squad. Really disappointed to hear a few "Tilson Out" comments from the East Greens towards the end. I think they picked the right team and gave Sawyer enough time to make an impact. But today highlighted just how difficult it is competing in this league with such a limited pool of talent. What changes can they make for next week. Well, none really. And that's the problem.

 

[BlueBeard]

Good griel Lord Football I do so wish I had been at the same match as you with those generous markings Sankofa 7 please if you hads given him a 4 I would call you generous and Freeman 7 now im usually 1 of his biggest fans but he offered so little tonight. Thought Moussa was MOTM and even he would only get a 7. Lets start being a bit more realistic with these scores as if we ever play well again the scores given will be meaninless. We were poor in all areas of the pitch too many players playing out of position and no depth to the squad. It was always going to come back to haunt us. We need proper cover at centre back and we desperatly need a winger or I fear for the future.

 

[steve54]

Freedman - Ummm, did he play?

sorry fella but what game were you watching he was one of the few who made the effort and tried to get the team moving

 

[Swiss Tony]

Freedman - Ummm, did he play?

sorry fella but what game were you watching he was one of the few who made the effort and tried to get the team moving

I'll ask you the same question,Freedman was awful,and offered nothing.

 

[Andyhsufc]

We did alright in the first half, second half was very disappointing. Ratings -

Mildenhall - 6 - Made a very good save in the build up to the first goal. From East Greens, looked like he had two hands on the ball though not sure he was "in control" of it tbh. No chance with other goals
Francis - 5.5 - Poor
Barrett - 5 - Very poor against Lambert
Sankofa - 5 - Poor
Friend - 6 - Looked alright. Scored a good goal and linked up with Moose at times
Laurent - 5.5 - Did a couple of good things but made some elementary mistakes at times with short passes
Macca - 6 - Industrious as ever but not much reward. Needs to stop playing that same left-to-right ball which does nothing most of the time.
Grant - 5 - Gave the ball away time and time again
Moose - 7 - Best Southend player by some margin. Ran at their defence and put in some good crosses.
Barnard - 6 - Worked hard but not much reward again.
Freedman - 6 - Again, worked hard and made a few openings but does give the ball away too much at times

Sawyer - 6.5 - Added a bit of energy and drive when he came on
O'Donovan - / - Don't think he had a touch tbh
Christophe - / - Ditto Roy

 

[fixitkid]

Sounded to me like we had the better of the play tonight just not able to hit the back of the net and had a few lapses in concentration punished. At the end of the day though the end score is what counts. End of last season we found what we needed on the loan market and quick trouble making striker in Theo, complementing Barney, and a big reliable CB breaking down the attack in Devite. I am not convinced, shall we say, that M'voto and O'donovan are the same quality.

I think we can and will get the results we deserve going forward, lets hope it's sooner rather than later.

 

[Medway Blue]

Ugh, I don't know what match some people were watching tonight. If we really do play badly, I can admit it - I was one of the most critical fans after the Brentford match, and the MK Dons was even worse. But tonight, we deserved the win.

First half, I think we shaded it. We looked up for it, inventive and incisive in attack and moved the ball about quickly. Once again, Lady Luck ***** on us though. The first goal was diabolical. Miuldy had BOTH hands on it and has it kicked out of them. By the letter of football law, THAT IS A FOUL. How the both the referee and the linesman, who was parallel to the incident, both agreed that the goal should stand, I don't know. Friend's goal was superb. Southampton's second? An opportunistic shot fro the edge of the area that was going wide takes a bigger deflection than Peter Clarke's shot at Borient a few years back and completely wrong-foots Mildenhall. AAAAAH! Two of the most fortuitous goals you'll see this season. Their third was their only real goal and was, I admit, poor defending.

Second half, we bossed it. I think the opposite to what Lord Football thinks.....I think our midfield bossed it and continued to pass the ball around at pace, but they piled all their men behind the ball as soon as the whistle went for the start of the second half. They were very negative, and any side are difficult to break down when they play like that.

Overall, very disappointing, very frustrating. I feel cheated and feel that we were the better team tonight.


Mildenhall - 7 - Made some good stops tonight, especially the double one in the first half. Not at all to blame for any of the goals, one-on-ones are hard to win and he was off his line quickly to be fair, but Lallana is a good finisher.

Francis - 6.5 - Not bad, got caught cold with his defensive positioning sometimes and didn't get forward as much as usual, but made some good interceptions and tackles and seemed solid.

Sankofa - 6 - Not as impressive as he's been in the last few games. Didn't win enough in the air and seemed a bit clumsy in the tackle.

Barrett - 6.5 - Again, didn't win much in the air but was solid and we even saw one of his length-of-the-field-dribbles!

Friend - 8 - My joint MOM today,defended well, positioning much better, got forward to support the attacks well and scored a brilliant free kick.

Laurent - 6.5 - First half showing was an 8. Got forward well, looked brilliantly clumsy and ran at them, which scared them. Second half went a bit quiet and started to give the ball away.

Grant - 6 - Solid. Sat in front of the defence well and did his job without looking spectacular.

McCormack - 7.5 - Much better from Macca today, ran his socks off, hit some good long range passes, although his short range ones were still a bit wayward. Had a positive impact.

Moussa - 8 - Joint MOM. Good performance. Really starting to remind me of Gower. Excellent close control, cuts inside well, runs down the line with flair and generally looked to create a lot. Got a good pass on him too, found feet more often than not.

Freedman - 6.5 - Good in the first half. Never looks like scoring now as he's dropped deeper because his legs are going, but filled the link man role well, knocked the ball about well. Wasn't the same player in the second half though, got tired and started to get knocked off the ball too easily.

Barnard - 6 - Marked out of the game tonight, they knew he was a danger. Should have done better with his first-half chance. Ran his heart out but had little effect.

Subs:

Sawyer - 7 - Made a difference again. His running with the ball from one side of the pitch to the other is a trait of his, and other teams never know what to do about it. He has a vision which no-one else in the team can even think about matching - his threaded pass through to Sankofa demonstrated that. I still say we look more creative with him in the side.

O'Donovan - 6 - Still doesn't look like scoring. He doesn't bring much to the team IMO.

Jeff - 6 - Didn't really have long enough to make an impact.

 

[Skyblue]

Thought the first half was as good and entertaining as the second was poor. Couldn't see their first very well but the reaction of our whole side towards the ref and linesman was impresive and certainly got the juices flowing afterwards as there were skin and hair flying all over the place. When we equalized we were in heaven, On top of the game and there was only going to be one winner, that was until their second which knocked the stuffing out of us. The third killed us off, and the worrying thing for Tilly must be just how easily Southampton closed the game down in the second half and were content for us to run down blind alleys until we eventually ran out of any ideas. If anything come out of this game, I hope our lot lat least learned a thing or two about holding onto a 2 goal lead, even though it wasn't very pretty to watch.

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

Mildenhall 7 - Our best player tonight. In those conditions a keeper is entitled to spill one. In general, his handling was good and made one brilliant double save (SZFC Flapper esq...lol)

Sankofa 6 - A very average performance. Offers nothing going forward.

Francis 6 - I really like him at CB but the distribution let him down tonight.

Barrett 7 - Typical Barrett. Whether he plays good or bad you can tell he cares, which is enough for me.

Friend 6 - Woeful first half. Nothing worked. Scored a cracking free-kick and all of the sudden the fans love him. Bit better 2nd half when ventured forward.

Grant 6 - Not his best game although loved those conditions.

McCormack 7 - Much better tonight. Worked hard tried to push us forward.

Laurent 6.5 -Goes from sublime to the ridiculous. Our very own Paulo Wanchope. At least he gives us some width and wants to make things happen.

Moussa 7 - Great touch and adapts well to left mid, but seems wasted out there. The side lacks balance when he keeps coming inside.

Freedman 6 - Worked hard but for such a good player his first touch sometimes drives me crackers.

Barnard 6 - Marked very closely but always works his socks off.

subs.

Sawyer 7 - Started running at them which we desperately needed.

O'Donovan 6 - Sits on the last defender. Is constantly making runs. But we just don't play that way. It is him that's got to change or us ?

Christophe 6 - Too late.

 

[OldBlueLady]

OMG :O Lord Football! You were watching the same Macca as me and one that very few others seem to recognise. As it goes I had Friend MotM, thought he hardly put a foot wrong and I thought people were really very harsh on Franny Laurent - the conditions didn't suit him, and even less soafter he'd headbutted the wall of the north bank with a thud you could hear from our stand.

Incidentally, who was the deflection off for the 2nd?

Mildy - 7, did ok, conditions were crap, couple of fantastic saves, very poor decision on 1st goal cost us our concentration really
Sankofa - 7, got forward but he can't cross, I know Franno was needed in the middle but at 3-1 down I'd rather have seen a switch there
Franno - 7, coped well with Lambert I thought, got skinned a few times when drawn out to their left wing though
Barrett - 7.5, good performance from the Skip, some decisive heading and forward play
Friend - 8, brilliant free kick for our goal, and presented a constant threat down the left
Laurent - 7, excellent in first half hour, then got chopped a few times and head butted wall as mentioned, conditions didn't suit him at all
Macca - 7.5, learn to "zip it" mate, please, we all know they were cheating bar stewards, and the ref was obviously Mr Magoo's young relative - and get the ankle sorted...there's a good lad
Grant - 7.5, with Macca a dual force in the middle, breaking stuff up to, in theory, allow the two wider players the chance to create. Trouble was Soton were at us quick as anything whenever we tried...that was the difference between the sides
Moussa - 7, fail to see how people reckon he was MotM, was pretty much a non entity in the 1st
Barney - 7, was getting nowhere today despite his best efforts, the giants of the defence saw to that
Dougie - 7, he tried, bless him, and there was some decent stuff. Bit too much accentuated diving for my liking

Subs:
Sawyer for Dougie - 7, was on for about 5 mins before a touch, and then it was a header. Blinding run with the ball, trouble was it was across the pitch - Lee, if you're going to even attempt to be Southend's saviour, please learn to go forward
O'Donovan for Laurent - no mark, not really enough opportunity
Jeff for Macca - ditto

Officials - 2, were crap....as usual. Wish I could remember which game I remember Hegley from, wish he'd swallow his bloody whistle!

TBV - Excellent work again on the drums guys, crowd much smaller than I'd thought, and slow to join in but you kept it going.

 

[haveaguiness]

What game were people watching tonight. How can players be getting 7's and 8's. We lost 3 - 1 and never looked like scoring from open play. The only player in our team tonight that looked like creating anything, yet again, was Moussa. Laurent had an off 2nd half and should have gone off earlier, i dont think he passed it to a blue shirt in the 2nd half.

And why is everyone saying the 2nd goal was a fluke. Francis passed the ball straight to their player on the edge of the area allowing him the time to have a shot. If a proper clearance would have been made they would never have scored, same with the 3rd goal.

The only time we ever looked like getting in behind was when sawyer came on. 3 or 4 times he made runs from midfield beyond our strikers to push us forward.

Macca yet again can pass sideways, backwards and to the other team, same for Grant (who today was poor, no two ways about it) and where exactly was this running his socks off? he hardly moved out of the centre circle, either of them did. This was typified when Barrett went for a run forward, we got in a great position, but there was no support from midfield because both of them were standing on the half way line.

And why when you are 3 - 1 down at home do you take your striker off and bring a midfielder on? Baffling

All in all, a shocking performance, we would have conceded far more if it weren't for Mildy, that save he made from llalana in the first half, well the double save was sensational, i was directly behind it and i honestly dont know how he saved it.

We need Mvoto back, and quick and Sawyer has to start next game.

All in all a shocking display

 

[OldBlueLady]

Beg to differ, Macca made three pitch perfect spot on cross pitch passes to set up the recipients - twice to Laurent and once to Moussa. We did have by far the better of Southampton in the middle for the majority of the match but it cost a huge amoutn of effort on the part of the two CMs - Macca was knackered before he did his ankle, and Grant was puffing a bit too. Nothing Sawyer did tonight convinces me he starts above any of the others....unless you're talking about dropping Laurent?

 

[Andy_S]

It's going to be a long hard season because we're becoming painful to watch. Going forward we lack drive and determination. Not to mention the fact that the defence, mainly the centre, is ridiculously easy to play through. When we're not getting any movement from throw ins then we know things have become bad. Time after time Friend or Sankofa just stood there waiting for someone to make a little move and nobody bothered. It's schoolboy stuff at times from us.

We're 3-1 down at home and with 25 minutes left we take off a striker and bring on a midfielder, leaving Barney isolated up front. Tilly, you tactical genius you, that fooled them. Did anyone else notice as well that O'Donovan, who came on in the 77th minute, did not actually get a touch of the ball until his chance a minute into stoppage time? He was on the pitch for THIRTEEN minutes without touching the ball. Incredible and I've never seen anything like it. If that doesn't sum us up at the moment then I don't know what does.

Southampton weren't exactly a class above and yet they cut through us without having to work at it because we're that static.



Ratings:

Mildenhall 7: Ignoring the first goal, because I doubt anyone, not least the officials knew what happened, he didn't put a foot wrong. Claimed things, made a few decent stops and distributed quite well. He needs to be making saves playing behind that nonsense in front of him though.

Sankofa 5: I keep telling myself he must have something about him due to the fact he's played a fair few times at the top level, but some games I wonder if we've got his twin brother.

Francis 4: Pitiful. Pretty much at fault for each of the three goals. Wouldn't it be nice, just a little bit nice, if we actually had more than one contracted centre half?

Barrett 5: I'm sorry, but yet again people will ignore the kamikaze way in which he breaks up any kind of shape our defence has. Why in the hell does he throw himself to ground so easily? The moment in which their player got booked for diving summed it up - after lunging in with no need, he got up and lunged in again. Stay on your bloody feet. Won naff all in the air against Lambert as well. There were a couple of decent moments from him, but he's paid to be solid and he's anything but so often these days.

Friend 6.5: His best performance by a mile, but he's still suspect at the back for me. He lacks pace and gets caught square too often and the way he rugby tackled Antonio at the end was a carbon copy of the penalty against Oldham.

Laurent 5: Typical Laurent and why he'll no doubt be let go in the summer. He had a five or ten minute spell early on in the game where he gave Harding a hard time, but after that he completely disappeared and might as well have sat in the front row of the West.

Grant 5.5: The odd decent pass mixed in with some extremely disappointing stuff. He kept going, but it was poor compared to some of his performances this season.

McCormack 6.5: Better than in previous games because he actually found a blue shirt with a few passes. Unfortunately there were too many Maher-esque sideway passes and movement and no drive whatsoever going forward.

Moussa 7: Much, much better than he has been in recent weeks. The only shining light really in a dreary, idea starved performance. He was the only midfielder who actually looked to run towards goal, other than Laurent in his five minute display, until Sawyer came on.

Barnard 6: Had bugger all service and was reduced to running around like a headless chicken. Missed a decent chance from three yards late on though.

Freedman 5.5: In the first half, especially the first half an hour, he did some decent stuff and won the free kick in which we scored from with some clever and quality play. Completely disappeared off the radar after that though. Perhaps he wandered off into the same place Laurent did for a chat?

Subs:

Sawyer 6: I don't think even he knew where he was supposed to be playing for the first ten minutes he was on. At least he tried to drive the team forward. Had a couple of iffy moments, but considering the lack of minutes he's had it's a bit much to expect him to change games like this.

O'Donovan /: As I said above, didn't touch the ball for the first thirteen minutes he was on. A record? Nearly scored at the end thanks to his strikers instinct, but scuffed the shot.

Christophe /: Only touched the ball three or four times. Still more than O'Donovan though I suppose.

 

[Tin Bath]

Not a great night, when I saw the ball holding up on the waterlogged pitch I feared the game was going to be decided from mistakes. From my view in East Greens it looked like Mildy only had one hand on the ball, someone later said it was shown on Sky Sports News at half time and he took both hands OFF the ball. Second was a poor deflection but that all resulted from a shocking clearence by Francis and the third...well was just route one. Least we scored the best goal of the night but really created little in the second half, they shut up shop and who can blame them

Ratings

Mildenhall 6 - First goal set us back and I think replays might show he didnt have 2 hands on the ball

Sankofa 5 - Does some good defending but then its taken all away by some rank bad decision making.

Francis 6 - Not his best, I dont think CB is his position.

Barrett 7 - Typical Barrett display but even he seemed subdued in the second half in terms of encouraging the team.

Friend 7 - Great goal, pick of the back line.

Grant 6 - Was breaking up play rather than dominating, not special by his standards, seen him play better.

McCormack 6 - Like Grant was only breaking up play, made one or two nice long range passes but the short stuff does tend to go awry too often.

Laurent 6.5 - Should of gone at Harding a bit more after he got booked in the first half, touch went in the second half and with saints 5 across the middle it was a case of no space to operate

Moussa 8 - If I had to give MOTM it would be Moussa, kept going till the end and generally passed the ball well, not a pitch though to be dribbling on though.

Freedman 6 - Legs went a bit in the second half, won a few free kicks but thats about it.

Barnard 6 - Tried hard, very commited but service was limited, should have done better with first half chance.

subs.

Sawyer 6 - Made some usefull runs but afraid to use his leg peg in the box.

O'Donovan 5 - Change was made too late....did he touch the ball??

Christophe 5 - Too late to make an impact and not sure if he touched the ball either

"Tilson Out" comments from the East Greens was I think from an old boy that was out past his bed time however I didnt see an awful lot of decision making from our management to change the game. For me Soton had 2 big defenders and with 5 across the middle maybe we should be playing the ball over the top and get those big lumps turned towards there own goal, in the second half it was so wet towards the South Stand I am sure the ball would of held up on the pitch

I sense confidence has been knocked a touch, we do need big Jean-Yves back as our patchworked defence is not looking solid at the moment

 

[Medway Blue]

I only counted the 2 cross-field passes from Macca, but his short-range passing still left a lot to be desired.

Sawyer DID convince me that he needs to start! He is a cut above - the only midfield player who even comes CLOSE to possessing his vision, close control and passing ability is Moussa and even then, Mousse is some way off. What was wrong with the cross-field run? There was nowhere forward to run because Soton had SO MANY people behind the ball - by running across the pitch, at least he attempted to create something and open up a hole. Can't see any of our other CMs doing that. His threaded pass through to Sankofa demonstrated his class. We're more likely to get in behind the opposition with him on the pitch, because he will spot runs and make the passes 200% better than Macca, Grant or Jeff will.

 

[Colchester Shrimper]

Memo to Tilly

When we have a corner, don't just pack the 6 yard box, but have a couple of players on the edge of the penalty area. At least two of our corners were cleared to the edge of the box where one of their players cleared without challenge.

For my money Moussa MOM overshaddowed by the constant feeding of the ball to Laurent 1st half, but dominated the 2nd half, if only we had a second goalscorer....

 

[OldBlueLady]

Memo to Tilly

When we have a corner, don't just pack the 6 yard box, but have a couple of players on the edge of the penalty area. At least two of our corners were cleared to the edge of the box where one of their players cleared without challenge.

That's because our whole defence is in the box and our midfielders - particularly our CMs - are usually playing the part of "last man" to deal with the break. Admittedly Sanks is usually back too, but tonight, too often it was Grant and Macca back.