Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1, Torquay United 1

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United’s stuttering home form continued with a disappointing 1-1 draw against struggling Torquay United this afternoon.

More...

 

[Medway Blue]

Southend United 1-1 Torquay United

A much improved performance from midweek, good football to watch, bit of flair going forwards, chances created. For me, the changes worked wonders for our style of play and we really should have won that game. I know people will say all of that is useless without 3 points and you'd be right but those changes I think will start to click. Bentley, Mkandawire, Laird and Tomlin's returns I think will be the catalyst for an entertaining and decent end to the season, hopefully with a JPT win, and I'm not writing off the playoffs just yet. 6 points off with 24 to play for so it's not ALL lost yet in my eyes. If we don't beat Plymouth then that will probably be it.

Problems today for me involved taking the foot off the gas after the goal. And the wingers and central midfielders dropped too deep at times which prevented linkup with the forwards. Eastwood and Assombalonga played too far apart, they needed to play closer together and work off each other more.

Bentley 7 - communicated, commanded his area, came for catches and made them, good distribution and a few good stops. Little mistake at the end that could have cost us but better option than Smith.

Clohessy 6 - okay
Mohsni 7 - commanding, disciplined
Mkandawire 7- controlled, calming, not 100% fit.
Straker 6 - couple of good bombs forward and crosses .

Hurst 6 - not on top form, dead ball delivery not great today.
Lund 7.5 MOM - good tackles and interceptions, some neat through balls, good performance.
Laird 7 - huge difference having him back. Finally got some bite in there and less attacks coming through our middle. God tracking back, tackling and harrying.
Reeves 7 - played a little too deep but made things happen. Some great touches.

Eastwood 6.5 - good start to the game, great goal which rolled back the years but took his foot off the gas afterwards. Still has vision and a touch which is a cut above.
Assombalonga 5.5 - not doing it for me. Makes the runs but does nothing with it when he gets it. Either awful first touch and lose it, or run to the corner flag.... and lose it.

Subs:
Tomlin 6- not enough time for higher rating but showed glimpses of what we've missed. Great movement, class first touch, dangerous on the ball.


Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RobB11]

Thought it was awful, no creativity going forwards what so ever. Matched by an awful awful team who will be lucky to stay up. League season over!

 

[Neil 24]

Bentley 6
Clohessy 6
Moshni 7
Mkandewire 7
Hurst 6
Lund 6
Laird 7
Reeves 6
Fred 7
Assombolonga 6


Tomlin 5

 

[Neil 24]

Straker 6...... Forgot him

 

[amsemp]

Bentley 6
Clohessy 6
Mohsni 7
Mkandawire 7
Straker 5.5 (good going forward, scared the s**t out of me when he had to defend)
Hurst 6
Lund 6
Laird 7
Reeves 7
Fred 6
Assombalonga 5 (plenty of runs that went nowhere, never looked like scoring)

 

[Smiffy]

4th bottom Torquay had more shots on target and more corners than us.

Not acceptable.

 

[SUFC-Shrimper]

Straker-0, worst LB I've ever seen, absolute rubbish.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Straker 6...... Forgot him

He needs forgetting permanently...at fault for the goal, stood and watched, didn't close the man down giving him a free shot

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Poor stuff, as has been the case all season at home. Thought Freddys goal would open the floodgates but it never happened. Their keeper barely had to make a save all game, and they easily couldve snatched all 3 points. We did play some nice football at times but also tried to overplay it at times, and didnt get enough bodies in the box. Thought Mohsni and Tamika did pretty well as a combo, and Bentley (bar that mistake at the end) had a solid game and seemed to have a rapport with the back 4, unlike Smith.
Midfield still a problem for me, too lightweight and not enough quality. Tomlin coming back was a big plus though, wouldnt mind seeing him and Freddy given a run together, Britt was poor again today. How many times was he offside? I lost count.

 

[amsemp]

Poor stuff, as has been the case all season at home. Thought Freddys goal would open the floodgates but it never happened. Their keeper barely had to make a save all game, and they easily couldve snatched all 3 points. We did play some nice football at times but also tried to overplay it at times, and didnt get enough bodies in the box. Thought Mohsni and Tamika did pretty well as a combo, and Bentley (bar that mistake at the end) had a solid game and seemed to have a rapport with the back 4, unlike Smith.
Midfield still a problem for me, too lightweight and not enough quality. Tomlin coming back was a big plus though, wouldnt mind seeing him and Freddy given a run together, Britt was poor again today. How many times was he offside? I lost count.

roll on the return of timlin

 

[Welly7]

Terrible result whatever the performance. Our home form is inexcusably bad for a team that are still talking of play-offs! Thought Mkindawire was very good at CB, looked so comfortable there. Easily MOM for me.

 

[united we stand]

not brilliant but massively better than Tuesday and we were the better team and deserved the win IMO. Looking forward to have Mkandawire in midfield . People are being overly harsh on Straker IMO. Another game with massive changes at the back , that back 5 has never played together, and much better atmosphere as well


I made a point of watching Bentley in the second half from the North, He is constantly talking to the players and encouraging them,AND pushing them out. Distribution is excellent, he doesn't need to look up as he knows where everyone is. Looked a good save in the first half, but I am in the North so will bow down to those closer with a better view, Mistake at he end could have cost us, But overall I would be surprised if he does not start Saturday.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Much improved from Tuesday, and thought the makeshift defence did ok considering the very tricky Rene Howe was up against them. Was quite surprised to see Lund marking him for corners, but he seemed to keep him quiet so well done to him.

Bentley - 7, oh the relief of seeing a keeper actually coming for the ball and playing the quick ball out! Not sure who was at fault for the goal (Mohsni?) but Dan had a couple of decent enough saves and looked very confident
Clohessy - 6, criminally under used on the wing today
Mohsni - 6, kept it simple and did ok for most of the game, then started to get a bit slapdash as the game went on in the 2nd half
Mkandawire - 7, composed and controlled, not sure how much experience he has of playing in central defence, but considering he was alongside Mohsni and Straker, I thought he did well
Straker - 6, some good stuff, but balanced with some not very good stuff
Reeves - 6, looked good 1st half, still don't understand why he and Hurst seemed to be the wrong way round. Some good bursts forward but then seemed to make wrong choices
Lund - 7.5, just pipped for MOTM, had another good, solid game and showed tenacity and grit when needed
Laird - 8, MOTM, welcome back Marc!
Hurst - 7, much better, much stronger but without his link up play with Clohessy, we just didn't seem to have the creative spark
Eastwood - 7, Freddy of old scored the goal, good to see his strength up top. Unsurprisingly tired in the 2nd half
Assombalonga - 6, tried hard but got bullied far too easily

Sub:
Tomlin for Eastwood - 7, lovely to see Gav back looking pretty sharp

 

[blueveined]

Mkandawire - 7, composed and controlled, not sure how much experience he has of playing in central defence, but considering he was alongside Mohsni and Straker, I thought he did well

Pretty sure that was his position when he was at Orient but converted to a CM when he went to Millwall.

 

[Semi-Spanish Shrimper]

Bentley - 7
Clohessy - 7
Mohsni - 7
Tam - 8 MOTM
Straker - 6
Hurst - 6
Lund - 8
Laird - 7
Reeves - 7.5
Freddy - 7
Britt - 6

 

[shrimperjon]

Can't believe how low key Bentleys mistake is being discussed, be basically through the ball straight to an opposition player in a bright yellow shirt, which had happened to Smith he would have been crucified, bit double standards on here at time, also didnt think his kicking was very good today either. However, his handling was decent and he claimed a couple of crosses although did stay routed to his line a couple of times. Pleased he got his chance but certainly needs work.

 

[RobB11]

Not really, Bentley made one mistake. Smith has made errors of judgement every game all season.

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Not really, Bentley made one mistake. Smith has made errors of judgement every game all season.

So have all the players - just only certain ones get singled out

 

[Medway Blue]

Can't believe how low key Bentleys mistake is being discussed, be basically through the ball straight to an opposition player in a bright yellow shirt, which had happened to Smith he would have been crucified, bit double standards on here at time, also didnt think his kicking was very good today either. However, his handling was decent and he claimed a couple of crosses although did stay routed to his line a couple of times. Pleased he got his chance but certainly needs work.

Not too sure which goalkeeper you were watching! I watched him very closely.

• Can't recall a time when he stayed rooted to his line. Certainly not like Smith does.
• I counted 5 occasions when he came charging out screaming at the top of his lungs and CAUGHT a ball CLEANLY; no dropped crosses; no awful punch attempts.
• I also can't recall a single moment when a Torquay ball came over the top and Bentley didn't leave his line immediately in preparation to sweep it up if he needed to, even if Tam or Mohsni were chasing back to pick up the loose ball too. In those situations, Smith ALWAYS stays rooted to his line.
• His communication was top notch.
• His defenders looked more comfortable in front of him than they did in front of Smith.
• His defenders weren't afraid to pass the ball back to him when under pressure like they are with Smith, and out of 7 backpasses, I counted one poor kick from Bentley. That's a statistic that Smith can only ever dream of matching.
• Also loved the quick distribution out of hand to launch counter-attacks. Added a new and exciting dimension to our game.

Yes I saw the mistake at the end too. It could have ended in disaster. But we can put that down to inexperience - an excuse that Smith certainly can't use. And yes again, Smith would have been lambasted if he'd done that today - but only because it would have been the latest in a long line of regular costly ****-ups. I don't remember him being lambasted when he made his very first mistake of the season, only when it started to become a regular occurence. Bentley was simply a cut above Smith today.