Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1 vs 3 Morecombe

[Mick]

To be honest I commented on the referee to two of my season-card holder mates yesterday at the game and I thought he had a shocker. As an ex-referee and assistant referee I recognise more than most that it's a tough job and it takes a very poor display for me to go out of my way to criticise for that very reason. Couldn't help myself yesterday though, he got very little right all afternoon. Nothing wrong with the assistants, they were fine.

Wow, you'd have really enjoyed last week's ref then; now that was a shocker.

 

[Bolton Shrimper]

I'm afraid it's a case of "once a bogey team,always a bogey team." Thought we were going to take control once Hurst scored and we should have done as we were the better team up to then. But, no, the hoodoo continues and what do we get 1 x bad marking, 1 x amatuerish mistake and 1 x to much time and space/ not closing down, followed by hoofball when they went down to 10. Back to the drawing board and a a big number of rollockings. Need to repair this damage quickly or we will start to lose touch with the top 3.

 

[Maroon Blue]

Very disappointing, what happened to our pressing, high tempo in their faces of other games this season. We were tentative, slow with the pass, constantly gave the ball away, overhit passes, no cohesion and back to the ragged Roots Hall displays of last season. Was it too many changes, certainly Atkinson was unlucky to lose his place. Morecambe appeared to want it more and showed us how to defend and this from a lower half team who will probably finish about sixteenth.

Bentley 6 Early season invincibility aura gone and now seems a bit unsure of defence in front of him
White 6 Ok fairly solid amongst others not so, got forward and generally cleared his lines
Phillips 5 Allowed young Sampson to get to him, worrying how was outmuscled
Prosser 4 Full of mistakes and bad decisions, very hesitant
Coker 6 ditto White played as left winger last 20 mins, good shift and tried to rally us
Hurst 6.5 One of our better players but still felt could have done more
Leonard 7 MOTM Gave his all, shielded the defence as best he could and good distribution
Timlin 5 Off the pace and seemed out of position to his normal good reading of games
Straker 4 Had a stinker, constantly gave the ball away and moves broke down when he was on the ball
Eastwood 5.5 Seemed to realise not going to happen for him and then ended up shooting wildly from all positions
Woodrow 6 Looked quick and tricky when turning, one great header, unlucky not too score

Corr 5.5 Tried to make an impression, just did not fall for him
Atkinson 6.5 Showed what we was missing, ran with the ball and probed for openings
Payne 6 ditto Atkinson but had less time

Just want to forget this now and move on to the next one which does seem trickier on paper in Scunthorpe. Lets hope that Morecambe are just a bogey team and we can reproduce displays from earlier on in the season. However PB now has a job to decide on the 11 to play, all of a sudden our settled team has been thrown in the air and now become difficult to select.