Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 2-2 Accrington Stanley

[leroyjean]

Has PS started both Hall and Martin in the same match yet? .. i'd suggest if he hasn't done it up to now he aint going to on Saturday (sadly)

I make it 3 games: Port Vale home and Northampton and Plymouth away.

 

[Southend Neil]

In the end a devastating finale to the game and a loss of two vital points, I still cant believe such a poor corner found its way into the net. Ultimately its about winning and who knows how costly those lost points will be at the end and we now have to effectively win an extra game to make up for it. However make no mistake, we deserved nothing more than a point and Stanley would have felt very aggrieved to lose. However even though it feels like a kick in the guts, in some ways that's why football is fantastic, you just never know what twists lie in store and no plastic armchair fan will know the fear of hanging onto a lead and even against 10 men I was nervous but if you do hold on then the feeling is greater because of days like today.

I said after the Crawley game that if we kept the same attacking line up then it would be an ugly spectacle and so it transpired in the 1st half, no shots on target and I think the 1st shot of any note came in the 35th minute. 1 1/2 games without a shot on target, some achievement but dont worry everyone the team spirit is good and we haven't got that evil mad Frenchman ripping the spirit out of the club and stopping all the other players from performing.

There was a lot of nonsense coming from players and fans about renewed team spirit, turning the corner etc when in fact all we had done was scrape a victory at Burton who are losing everything at the moment and cobble together a point against Crawley who aren't winning either and in which we never looked like scoring and now we struggled against a Stanley side who haven't won for ages as well. Team spirit is all fine and dandy but you do need good players as well, to pass the ball to each other and to carry some sort of goalscoring threat. Have we improved from the Crewe game three weeks ago for example? No.

The game started off with Ryan Hall amazingly being left out of the starting line up, anyone who has seen our home games this season will know that he is pretty much our only source of creativity and attacking threat and he cant get into our starting line up, quite incredible. As someone who remarked to me before the game ' it is very unfortunate to not have our best 2 players not playing.' Too right it is. We did at least try to pass the ball in the 1st half but didn't get anywhere mainly because of no threat up front and no pace out wide and the defenders just hoof it when they receive it as well. We were struggling to pick up Devitt and we paid for that as he scored and very nearly scored another whilst we offered precisely nothing.

2nd half much better as we finally brought on Hall and he immediately sent a shot fizzing wide, more than we had done for the whole game but we didn't look like scoring until a Hall free kick was half cleared and Prosser showed great skill and composure to fire the ball in the corner, a real break when we needed it. I still felt Stanley were always a threat and they very nearly went in front with an unmarked header after Belford flapped at a corner. However we went in front after Harris finally did make a positive contribution with a nice cross which the excellent Benyon controlled well and fired in with a great shot. I thought one turning point came when Martin had a good chance to make it 3-1 but blazed wide and then we did start to play some semblance of football, think it probably helped not having a targetman to bash the ball up to and Benyon really did make a difference. However you are never secure with a one goal lead and it was disaster at the end. One thing I don't agree with is those criticising tactics and the substitution for us conceding. Yes Kane committed the crime of conceding a free kick some 100 yards away from goal but it was just one of those freaky things that can happen, always better to be 2 goals up so it doesn't matter. However a paltry 2 goals on target in 2 home games really does tell its own story and 2 points from the 2 games was the very peak of what we deserved.

However it is still a point and somehow and I really dont know how, we are 3rd in the league and still in with a chance of automatic promotion. With the way we play and our lack of quality it would be amazing if we did it but to be honest in this league there is Swindon on their own and then you can put a blanket over the other 23, all pretty similar as demonstrated by our games against bottom of the table Daggers where you couldn't tell who was top or bottom. We are a boring and turgid team with very little spark, flair and creativity and not that solid at the back either and if you were a neutral and we were playing in your back garden then you wouldn't bother opening your curtains. But to us fans the main thing is that the results still matter and its all to play for so its still exciting in that way.

Belford 5 - Flapped at one corner and then disasterously kicked the corner at the end into his own net.

Clohessy 6 - Solid enough.

Gilbert 6 - One great cross and didn't do too much wrong.

Phillips 6 - Solid apart from one bad mistake but distribution awful.

Prosser 7 - One slight mistake for the goal but otherwise excellent and scored a great goal, did enough to keep Barker out.

Sawyer 6 - Ok, did try to make things happen but didn't produce.

Martin 6 - Same as Sawyer.

Timlin 5 - Poor

Grant 6 - Some good play but shooting woeful and not great positional play, didn't pick Devitt up.

Sampson 6 - Nice touches but no real goalscoring threat. Would like to see him start with Benyon though.

Harris 6 - Pretty poor again apart from a the odd nice touch here and there, no scoring threat either, no presence in the box but did produce nice cross for the 2nd goal. Still should be dropped, painful to watch him play. Needs to produce more rather than pointing and waving his arms around.

Hall 7 - Didn't always come off but much more of a threat and good set pieces. Has to start every game.

Benyon 8 MOM - Excellent contribution, great goal, nice touch, good footballing brain. Should start with Sampson for the next game.

 

[southend4ever]

The game started off with Ryan Hall amazingly being left out of the starting line up, anyone who has seen our home games this season will know that he is pretty much our only source of creativity and attacking threat and he cant get into our starting line up, quite incredible. As someone who remarked to me before the game ' it is very unfortunate to not have our best 2 players not playing.' Too right it is.

Where's Dave Whelan when you need him? He would put Sturrock straight alas Moses and Rodellega!

 

[Southend Neil]

Where's Dave Whelan when you need him? He would put Sturrock straight alas Moses and Rodellega!

Ha ha very true indeed.

 

[Bolton Shrimper]

Terrible tactics from Sturrock. Going 4-5-1 AFTER they go down to 10? Absolutely shocking decision.

Absolutely agree with this...........Sturrocks decisions puzzle me at times.

 

[bigmolt]

In the end a devastating finale to the game and a loss of two vital points, I still cant believe such a poor corner found its way into the net. Ultimately its about winning and who knows how costly those lost points will be at the end and we now have to effectively win an extra game to make up for it. However make no mistake, we deserved nothing more than a point and Stanley would have felt very aggrieved to lose. However even though it feels like a kick in the guts, in some ways that's why football is fantastic, you just never know what twists lie in store and no plastic armchair fan will know the fear of hanging onto a lead and even against 10 men I was nervous but if you do hold on then the feeling is greater because of days like today.


I said after the Crawley game that if we kept the same attacking line up then it would be an ugly spectacle and so it transpired in the 1st half, no shots on target and I think the 1st shot of any note came in the 35th minute. 1 1/2 games without a shot on target, some achievement but dont worry everyone the team spirit is good and we haven't got that evil mad Frenchman ripping the spirit out of the club and stopping all the other players from performing.

There was a lot of nonsense coming from players and fans about renewed team spirit, turning the corner etc when in fact all we had done was scrape a victory at Burton who are losing everything at the moment and cobble together a point against Crawley who aren't winning either and in which we never looked like scoring and now we struggled against a Stanley side who haven't won for ages as well. Team spirit is all fine and dandy but you do need good players as well, to pass the ball to each other and to carry some sort of goalscoring threat. Have we improved from the Crewe game three weeks ago for example? No.

The game started off with Ryan Hall amazingly being left out of the starting line up, anyone who has seen our home games this season will know that he is pretty much our only source of creativity and attacking threat and he cant get into our starting line up, quite incredible. As someone who remarked to me before the game ' it is very unfortunate to not have our best 2 players not playing.' Too right it is. We did at least try to pass the ball in the 1st half but didn't get anywhere mainly because of no threat up front and no pace out wide and the defenders just hoof it when they receive it as well. We were struggling to pick up Devitt and we paid for that as he scored and very nearly scored another whilst we offered precisely nothing.

2nd half much better as we finally brought on Hall and he immediately sent a shot fizzing wide, more than we had done for the whole game but we didn't look like scoring until a Hall free kick was half cleared and Prosser showed great skill and composure to fire the ball in the corner, a real break when we needed it. I still felt Stanley were always a threat and they very nearly went in front with an unmarked header after Belford flapped at a corner. However we went in front after Harris finally did make a positive contribution with a nice cross which the excellent Benyon controlled well and fired in with a great shot. I thought one turning point came when Martin had a good chance to make it 3-1 but blazed wide and then we did start to play some semblance of football, think it probably helped not having a targetman to bash the ball up to and Benyon really did make a difference. However you are never secure with a one goal lead and it was disaster at the end. One thing I don't agree with is those criticising tactics and the substitution for us conceding. Yes Kane committed the crime of conceding a free kick some 100 yards away from goal but it was just one of those freaky things that can happen, always better to be 2 goals up so it doesn't matter. However a paltry 2 goals on target in 2 home games really does tell its own story and 2 points from the 2 games was the very peak of what we deserved.

However it is still a point and somehow and I really dont know how, we are 3rd in the league and still in with a chance of automatic promotion. With the way we play and our lack of quality it would be amazing if we did it but to be honest in this league there is Swindon on their own and then you can put a blanket over the other 23, all pretty similar as demonstrated by our games against bottom of the table Daggers where you couldn't tell who was top or bottom. We are a boring and turgid team with very little spark, flair and creativity and not that solid at the back either and if you were a neutral and we were playing in your back garden then you wouldn't bother opening your curtains. But to us fans the main thing is that the results still matter and its all to play for so its still exciting in that way.

Wot he said. Very well put chap.