Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 2-0 AFC Fylde

[Blues4LifeDan]

The change in the last 2 games is simple, we moved the ball forward instead of sideways and backwards.

Kev's style has always been safety / caution first so what's changed? New blood in the camp? 3 up front? Kev was as bored as us so changed tactics? Whatever it is it's much more exciting to watch than the dross we have been served up (Charlton cup match aside) for the last few months.

I am someone not convinced Kev is the right man to get us out of this awful league and this season is now a huge ask but oh how I would so love to be proved wrong

Those are all valid questions that you've asked and I think it's a combination.

I believe Kev didn't fully trust the strikers available to resume Cardwell's role, so we went for ball retention instead of playing off of a number nine and having runners. Even Pepple couldn't play that role, as he needed ball to feet. All of a sudden, Bonne gets properly fit/sharp and we can play a number nine with runners off of him.

The biggest factor for me, and it's gone slightly unnoticed in an attacking sense, is the addition of Golding. Kensdale was integral to our attacking play previously, because he brought it out of defense and got us up the pitch. That created space and allowed midfielders and wing backs to peel off and make runs. Crowther wasn't doing that as it isn't his game, but Golding does. The Kensdale replacement was a huge must, and Golding is stepping up to be just that.

I also think that if the new midfielder does sign, he could be the Wes replacement that we've so badly needed. That in turn could see the rise of Bridge's form too.

 

[rigsby]

I was very happy with the respect shown to Fylde fans, definitely the lowest away attendance we’ve had but fair play to every one of them. The fact we’re only 3 points off play offs is a real eye opener and actually if we pick up form at the right time and everyone starts believing we can really get ourselves in the hat.

It would have been much nicer if we had read their names out individually. Thousands of us cheering each name.

 

[Dutch Branch]

Attacking football and a hat full of missed opportunities plus a win . Big competition for places now which was very evident by Husin’s Performance. Couple of excellent saves from our keeper too, we could have been 1 down if it wasn’t for that superb Tip over the bar.

Moving in the right direction at last

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

youv are take no notice off others , they also entitled to their opinion whether its negative ,what they shouldnt be doing ischaving a dig at others because their opinion differs .

On the contrary,I'm aware my opinion on SZ is a minority one.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

It would have been much nicer if we had read their names out individually. Thousands of us cheering each name.

I saw the club gave them all a free hot drink and a pie which I thought was decent

 

[leeblue]

May be harsh but bridge wasn't much better imo. Yeah he ran across the pitch a few times but his crossing was still woeful when in great positions. LWB is a priority position to upgrade imo.
Interested to see if we are getting one in for our play off winning run.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

The change in the last 2 games is simple, we moved the ball forward instead of sideways and backwards.

Kev's style has always been safety / caution first so what's changed? New blood in the camp? 3 up front? Kev was as bored as us so changed tactics? Whatever it is it's much more exciting to watch than the dross we have been served up (Charlton cup match aside) for the last few months.

I am someone not convinced Kev is the right man to get us out of this awful league and this season is now a huge ask but oh how I would so love to be proved wrong

This has always been how Maher has wanted us to play. He hasn’t always had the players to make it work.

Since Kendall and Golding have come into the side we’ve won 4 out of 5. Kendall isn’t the greatest of players but he works hard and keeps defences honest like Callum Powell and the Harry Cardwell used to and presses from the front. Golding initiates attacks from the back like Kensdale used to. That was our identity: a team that presses from the front and plays out from the back.

As results pick up we play with more confidence and that’s when the football starts flowing. The first few wins tend to be more ground out. The champagne football comes after that.

 

[CaptainSmudger]

After a 4 hour journey (including a 90 minute crawl from Rettendon to Prittlewell), I knew it would be a good night when the stadium announcer pronounced KM's name correctly. I was not disappointed, I'll give them all 8/10. Highly enjoyable, love the standing ovation for their fans. That was class.

All 9 of them! Deserved the applause they got.

 

[Sherif H]

Win is a win, but a genuinely good team would have smelt blood and ripped Fylde apart - as soon as they were pressed at the back, they fell apart like a pack of cards.
As others have probably eluded to already, there is still a worrying lack of composure in dangerous attacking areas, and our finishing is wasteful at best.
The fact we are 3 points off the play-offs shows you just how terrible a league this is - we've been dreadful for most of the season...let's hope the incoming reinforcements will enable us to better compete with teams in and around the lower reaches of the play-offs.

 

[londonblue]

They get it from the rather smaller PA not the AP.

I believe someone on here used to do it. I think they basically get a fan to text in score updates, subs and bookings.


Instead of going down the line (where he had no support and so could be blocked out), he cut inside so was running towards areas with teammates which made him look more dangerous.

Indeed. My mistake.

 

[barton west]

It would have been much nicer if we had read their names out individually. Thousands of us cheering each name.

When England play Greece, as an example, at Wembley there may well be 10,000 Greeks in the stands, supporting their national team. Nearly all of them will not have travelled from Greece, more likely hopped on the tube from their homes in south or east London.
So how do we know that the nine or ten “hardy souls” sitting in the north stand had travelled down from the Lancashire coast? Much more likely that they are Fylde supporters in exile, like ORM in Hong Kong or me in Hereford.
I suspect that we were wining and dining them for little reason.

 

[Hooly]

A solid performance but again not the outstanding one than many are saying tonight and were also saying after Saturdays win.
The Motm was a close run thing between Morton or Taylor. Noors performance was nowhere near the level that his had in previous seasons. His still way off his best as Paul Clark aluded to more than once during his commentary.
We again were not clinical and again slowed down at 2-0.
I read an earlier comment about Haughton being in Noors pocket. It couldn't be further from the truth. Haughton was a class act still,
in a Fylde team that caused us more trouble than Dagenham.
Saturday will not be the stroll that many believe it will be.

UTB..

Glad someone else saw something similar to me as it seems many people on here think it was like watching the 1970's Brazil team.

I thought it was a decent 1st half but we squandered chances we have to put away to even vaguely challenge the better teams. The 2nd half was very frustrating though as Fylde were there for the taking they probably ended up with better chances than we did.

Certainly the formation change over the last couple of games is the way forward & also Bridge is getting more support from Walker & Ralph which is similar to the way Wes & Ralph helped him. But there is still virtually no end product. Innumerable times last night he got free, stopped, started, stopped again & then did little with it. Fylde surrounded him at times with 3 players, they can't have scouted him, & we had spare space all over but the ball was never played there.

I was personally disappointed to see Husin start over Coker & listening to Kev on the way home it sounded like it was resting Cokes rather than as the tactic around Haughton that many suggest. He was better than he has been, no doubt, but that's a pretty low bar. If it was a tactcal change to nullify a player from a team in 22nd place I'd suggest should we not be asking them to nullify Coker who's attacking approach I though we missed, especially 2nd half. Why are we worrying about a single player in the opposition? Thankfully I don't think from what Kev says we were but I think we should have started the same 11 & Cokes could have a rest Saturday.

The positives were undoubtedly Morton & the Morton/Miley axis really needs binning for good, the front 3 worked well together in the 1st half so the 343 must must must stay, the back 3 had a few moments but were sound most of the night & credit to Harness who pulled of a couple of really decent saves. Given the state of the game I'd have preferred to have given Waldron a runout when Walker went off as I felt we should have kept on their jugular whereas we sat back. I'm afraid that if he can't get on in a game like that Waldron probably doesn't have a future which seems sad as he seems to have been given few chances.

But it's another win which is great, however to compare that performance to the ones against Eastleigh & Charlton is way off IMHO. But I must be wrong as most on here seem to think we were blindingly good.

 

[RHB]

When England play Greece, as an example, at Wembley there may well be 10,000 Greeks in the stands, supporting their national team. Nearly all of them will not have travelled from Greece, more likely hopped on the tube from their homes in south or east London.
So how do we know that the nine or ten “hardy souls” sitting in the north stand had travelled down from the Lancashire coast? Much more likely that they are Fylde supporters in exile, like ORM in Hong Kong or me in Hereford.
I suspect that we were wining and dining them for little reason.

I suspect that 9 hot drinks and 9 pies doesn't equate to wining and dining, and really isn't going to break the bank. Regardless of where they may, or may not have come from, it was a nice gesture by the club.

 

[Voice of Reason]

I saw the club gave them all a free hot drink and a pie which I thought was decent

Except they probably all had the shxxs all the way home

 

[Maroon Blue]

A comfortable 2-0 Tuesday win in the end, our home league record on a Tuesday compared to Saturday is night and day, literally . Glad to keep the formation as per Dagenham, thought Goodliffe would come in for Bridge and Coker retain his place. However Husin & Bridge both had good games, indeed Husin snuffed out their dangerman Haughton and was obviously in hindsight the plan. I did not think Fylde were that bad they moved the ball quickly and Harness again had to be at his best on a couple of occasions. We blew them away first 20 minutes but old habits of not converting could have cost us as Fylde eased into the game. Goal on half time was perfectly timed and second half own goal took the stuffing out of them. By the last 10 minutes Fylde were really struggling and their passing from the back invariably found touch. Pleasing we kept going right to the end and we proved to be too much for the opposition. Their manager’s comments at the end that if they had taken their chances they would have got something from the game. Wow times 10 for us, Fylde could have got a real hiding if we had taken more of ours.

Harness 8
Taylor 8
Golding 7.5
Ralph 7.5
GSM 7
Morton 8
Husin 8
Bridge 7.5
Kendall 7
Bonne 6.5
Walker 8 MOTM

Hopper 6.5
KAF 6
Coker 6
Wind 5.5
Goodliffe 5.5

No real standouts last night and also nobody had a bad game. Are players now having to raise their game to get a place in the starting 11? certainly helps even if subconsciously aiding additional effort. I will give MOTM to Walker for a great first goal driving from his own half and a clinical finish. Epitomised what has been missing from our game previously and the timing when you just thought it may have not been our day. The game could have gone the other way if we had not settled the home nerves going into the second half. UTB

 

[Westcliff Shrimper]

A really weird atmosphere last night - crowd was well below the average for the season, but still really good. 5.6k on a wet and windy Tuesday night? Didn't get that in the Second/First Division back in the 90s so fair play to all Shrimpers.

I really do like the change in system/attitude. Bonne in the first half and Hopper in the second played like proper target men allowing the wide forwards to actually run past them with the defence taken care of by the #9.

Still can't get how we weren't 4 or 5 up after 20 minutes as we actually were doing the right things - running at pace at defenders and getting crosses in, especially hard and low in the six yard area. Both Bonne and Kendall will I'm sure be disappointed with the chances they missed but will learn from it I'm sure.

Credit to the Flyde supporters, and their players - even two nil down they didn't let their heads go down so could see them staying up if they start picking up points at home on a regular basis.

Onto the biggest banana skin game since our relegation on Saturday. Looking forward to it? Nope.

 

[bazzashrimper]

I suspect that 9 hot drinks and 9 pies doesn't equate to wining and dining, and really isn't going to break the bank. Regardless of where they may, or may not have come from, it was a nice gesture by the club.

Given the cost price of the pies is probably less than £1 each, the coffee is a spoon of Nescafé and just one pint of milk will cover 9 people. It’s some nice publicity and we probably get change from a tenner. Who knows - maybe they would have grabbed a mars bar while they were there. Great work from whoever’s idea it was. The only cost was someone to work in the catering - and we would have had to pay for that anyway.

 

[RHB]

Onto the biggest banana skin game since our relegation on Saturday. Looking forward to it? Nope.

Is that because you've got to sit in the East Stand? It can have that effect.

 

[* ORM *]

I suspect that 9 hot drinks and 9 pies doesn't equate to wining and dining, and really isn't going to break the bank. Regardless of where they may, or may not have come from, it was a nice gesture by the club.

Do I get a free pie and hot drink on my next trip back?

 

[Paddypel]

May be harsh but bridge wasn't much better imo. Yeah he ran across the pitch a few times but his crossing was still woeful when in great positions. LWB is a priority position to upgrade imo.
Interested to see if we are getting one in for our play off winning run.

I'd go as far as saying that should be priority #1. Bridge isn't a wing back by trade anyway and has been poor most of this season. A natural left footer who can beat and man and put a decent cross in is needed. Whether or not there are many available and willing to drop to NL level is another question. Ben Brookes at Chelmo would be my pick, always stood out when I've watched him at Hashtag & Wakering before that and on a nice assent up the pyramid.