Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 2-2 Huddersfield Town

[GBJ]

Macca was far from "ordinary", he ran the midfield completely, and it was like the Macca of the old days out there, that many have been crying out to see.

I wouldn't say he ran the midfield, but he did a good job of breaking up the play.

I've said many times before, Macca needs to be playing alongside a creative midfielder of slightly decent standard to really shine, i.e "the macca of old" was playing alonside Maher and Bailey.

IMO though, when Sawyer is fit, we need to play him and Moussa through the middle, with maybe Macca going out onto one of the wings. Unfortunately he's just not as creative as Sawyer and Moussa.

 

[OldBlueLady]

No, I don't see that at all, we were up against a strong midfield there yesterday and ours completely ran the show for the first hour. Macca may have been playing for his place yesterday, but by God he did himself some favours. I'd question why Grant ran himself out so early though, and Tilly should have been ready for that - personally I'd have brought Revs on in place of Grant as we seemed to have plenty of play down the right. Liked the way Barney was linking so well with midfield too.

 

[sadsy]

The good thing is that all the midfielders are playing for their places with competition so hot. Granty is versatile so can either play the holding role or as yesterday on the right where his asset is helping out the full back. IMO Macca is a centre midfielder and is in direct competition with Sawyer. JFC/Grant the holding midfielders. Moussa certainly played well enough yesterday and is fine where he is for now. Against a potentially top side like Huddersfield the choice of midfield was fine yesterday. In other games Tilly may well want a more attacking outlet down the right although with Laurent now out for a while that option is somewhat scuppered.

I can't see Tilly changing the midfield at the moment especially with 3 away games on the spin.

 

[Feathers]

I wouldn't say he ran the midfield, but he did a good job of breaking up the play.

I've said many times before, Macca needs to be playing alongside a creative midfielder of slightly decent standard to really shine, i.e "the macca of old" was playing alonside Maher and Bailey.


I agree entirely. I thought our midfield played very well as a unit. Macca did his job and broke up play very well but it is ridiculous to suggest he ran the midfield.

Macca does not have the passing range to dominate a game but alongside a creative player is a valuable asset.

 

[Beefy]

The good thing about McCormack yesterday was that he wasn't trying to be Kevin Maher like it seemed to me he was trying to do last season. Everyone other than Macca himself seems to accept that he isn't the best passer of a ball and yet last season he kept trying to take the ball off of the back four and dictate the play from there. Yesterday he let Christophe and then Grant hold and that left him free to play fifteen yards further forward where he was able to get into the faces of the Huddersfield players, not give them any time on the ball and was able to assert himself as an attacking player, which is what he's good at.

 

[GBJ]

The good thing about McCormack yesterday was that he wasn't trying to be Kevin Maher like it seemed to me he was trying to do last season. Everyone other than Macca himself seems to accept that he isn't the best passer of a ball and yet last season he kept trying to take the ball off of the back four and dictate the play from there. Yesterday he let Christophe and then Grant hold and that left him free to play fifteen yards further forward where he was able to get into the faces of the Huddersfield players, not give them any time on the ball and was able to assert himself as an attacking player, which is what he's good at.

Exactly. Good post

 

[Andy_S]

Right for once I'm doing mine without reading everybody else's opinion first...

Whilst there are positives to take out of yesterday, my main gripe is with Tilson yet again not learning lessons from the past. He, for some reason, is still naive in my opinion. He's been in charge nearly 6 years, so it's hardly inexperience now. At 2-1, the players were shot to pieces. After running themselves into the ground for 70 minutes in that heat and playing out of their skin, they all looked shattered, some more so than others. We were crying out for fresh legs to run around and yet for some reason we didn't make any changes. Grant was absolutely dead on his feet and couldn't actually run and yet we as fans can see it, yet the management don't. I find it all very odd. 15 minutes of Revell and Betsy running their socks off could've sealed the game for us, yet like many games before we let a team steal points off us with a whimper. All very frustrating.

I was massively impressed with Heath. I was concerned about him before the game, but he became yet another centre back to really show Barrett up. He won everything (unfortunately bar one of the goals) in the air, he hoofed it out when it needed to be, and he generally looked assured all game. Solid would describe him well. On the other hand I wasn't too impressed with White at all, especially in the first half. A poor mans Che Wilson sprang to mind. Apart from having one shot over the bar in the second half, he rarely got forward and never looked to overlap Moussa. He was caught square a fair few times and a couple of times their players just ran straight past him. Most worryingly for me though, I lost count of the amount of times a player appeared on his blind side without him being aware they were there. There were a few occasions where he thought he was on his own and so took his time and didn't attack the ball, only for one of their players to attack it long before him. A lot of this probably comes from the fact he's a right back by trade though, which does bring up the question of why have we signed him....

On the plus point though, as one of Walker's harshist critics in the past, I thought he had his best game for the club yesterday. He showed great strength, good control on the ball, good ability and even found players around him with passes when running forward. Unfortunately he never looked like troubling Smithies but you can't have everything at once.

Mildenhall 6: Wasn't really required all that often, but made 1 or 2 decent saves.

Francis 7: Decent enough and not too many concentration lapses like last year.

Heath 7.5: Very impressed as I wrote above.

Barrett 6: Kamikaze, wayward and the weak link through the middle. Usual Barrett at centre half then. M'Voto and Heath please.

White 5.5: I wasn't too impressed. He didn't look like a left back to me. I'd rather have Herd there on that showing if we can't sign a proper left back.

Grant 7.5: He just gets better and better. Unfortunately his mammoth first half display knackered him out for the last half an hour, but if the manager had have realised that it wouldn't have been a problem.

Christophe 6: I thought he was pretty average to be fair. Occasionally he gets his foot in, as he did for Moussa's goal, but I really want to see more of him. Could find himself on the bench a fair bit this season.

McCormack 6.5: The first half he was dreadful. His ability to be unable to find a blue shirt with a pass is worrying and the stupid 2 acts he performed in that first half summed up why I don't want him in the team. First instead of playing a simple ball to Grant he thought he'd aggressively go in on the Huddersfield player, who backed out, meaning McCormack looked an eegit and nearly dropped us in it by booting the ball into our right back spot, way behind Francis. Then he goes an elbows Roberts in the stomach with a petty act, which I had a perfect view of. I've seen players sent off for less. In the second half he seemed to turn into some other character though and actually broke forward like he used to, without trying to pass the ball further than 5 yards, which he is much more effective at.

Moussa 7.5: He will be a star. On the ball he's better than any other player at this club and if he carries on in this form this season then surely we'll lose him next summer. And well done to him for ignoring Barnard's ridiculous rant direct at him.

Barnard 6.5: He looked sharp, although he still plays too deep when we need him in the box. A couple of times the ball flashed across the box and he was strolling along outside the 18 yard line. Ridiculous greed cost us a 3rd goal as well when he tried to emulate Freddy. He needs to stop moaning at team mates and concentrate on playing as well.

Laurent /: Wasn't really too involved until his injury.

Subs:

Walker 7: Better than I've seen him play as I said above.

Freedman /: An odd choice to bring on in those circumstances....

Betsy /: Touched the ball once I think.

 

[dichotomy]

Udders fan here for those that don't know me.

Thought you had the better of the game yesterday and probably should have won, but at the end of the day I was very disappointed that we didn't finish the job. I think I mentioned before the game that we could lose it in midfield and that is exactly what happened. You were first to the ball and played more constructively than we did. We played as though the midfield had never seen the forward line which I suppose is true in competitive games.

Of your players I was most impressed with Francis who kept Tilly's ex target and our POTS Roberts woefully quiet and made him look quite inept. That Colchester CB kept Theo very quiet so I suppose he deserves credit too.

I don't agree with you about the performances of Moussa or Barnard. It's not that they didn't play reasonably well, but they didn't have much influence on the game other than score. What more influence can a player have?...quite a lot sometimes! Barnard seems to be a bit of a petulant character and I imagine will get booked enough times in the season to get himself suspended. Plaudits to your central mids who have precipitated a lot of criticism on our own boards of our own CMs

I can't think of a single decent performance from our team other than Peltier (R back) and the 2 young striker subs who came on. They are the two who might take us places if anything ever does.

We don't disagree with the penalty or the sending off, but we collectively think that that the ref and the lino nearest to us were the worst duo we have seen for many a season.

Good luck for the season. No doubt the rivalry will still be strong when we meet again as we are both likely to be pushing playoffs/promotion.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Oh dichotomy you have made me so happy - Macca and Jeff, our two CMs, both of whom have been subject to some hefty criticism, one of them in particular :madman: - and yet the Huddersfield fans recognise their part better than our own supporters do!

Might pop over to your boards and take a gander, how did you honestly feel about Clarke and Theo back at Roots Hall? I thought Clarke played less of a captain's role than I've seen him play as a vice-captain to Barrett, and I thought Theo had a decidedly off game.

Your other centre back, Butler, the no 18 was a thug, no two ways about it and should have been off - wasn't it him that did that bad tackle that saw Laurent carried off on a stretcher?

 

[dichotomy]

Oh dichotomy you have made me so happy - Macca and Jeff, our two CMs, both of whom have been subject to some hefty criticism, one of them in particular :madman: - and yet the Huddersfield fans recognise their part better than our own supporters do!

Might pop over to your boards and take a gander, how did you honestly feel about Clarke and Theo back at Roots Hall? I thought Clarke played less of a captain's role than I've seen him play as a vice-captain to Barrett, and I thought Theo had a decidedly off game.

Your other centre back, Butler, the no 18 was a thug, no two ways about it and should have been off - wasn't it him that did that bad tackle that saw Laurent carried off on a stretcher?

Yes it was Butler who tackled Laurent and I guess it must depend upon which angle you look at it because it looked perfectly clean from behind the goal. Definitely ball first as you will no doubt see on the extended highlights when they come out. Butler rarely gets booked, so I certainly wouldn't describe him as a thug.

It's a bit too soon to comment on P Clarke's and Theo's performances compared to what you have seen, because we haven't established a baseline yet. I did not think Clarkey played particularly like a captain yesterday, but circumstances may have had something to do with that. We have noticed in the pre-season games that he has been very vociferous along the back four. It is something we appreciate and something we have been sorely missing for many a season. Theo is a bit of an enigma because we keep seeing flashes of great talent followed by poor first touches. He has to do well to keep in the team, so I imagine there is more pressure on him that there was when he was at RH on loan. We are happy with all our signings up front, but particularly the two lads who came on in the second half. All 4 of our strikers have a lot to learn yet, but their potential is very exciting for us.

 

[silentshrimper]

Udders fan here for those that don't know me.

Thought you had the better of the game yesterday and probably should have won, but at the end of the day I was very disappointed that we didn't finish the job. I think I mentioned before the game that we could lose it in midfield and that is exactly what happened. You were first to the ball and played more constructively than we did. We played as though the midfield had never seen the forward line which I suppose is true in competitive games.

Of your players I was most impressed with Francis who kept Tilly's ex target and our POTS Roberts woefully quiet and made him look quite inept. That Colchester CB kept Theo very quiet so I suppose he deserves credit too.

I don't agree with you about the performances of Moussa or Barnard. It's not that they didn't play reasonably well, but they didn't have much influence on the game other than score. What more influence can a player have?...quite a lot sometimes! Barnard seems to be a bit of a petulant character and I imagine will get booked enough times in the season to get himself suspended. Plaudits to your central mids who have precipitated a lot of criticism on our own boards of our own CMs

I can't think of a single decent performance from our team other than Peltier (R back) and the 2 young striker subs who came on. They are the two who might take us places if anything ever does.

We don't disagree with the penalty or the sending off, but we collectively think that that the ref and the lino nearest to us were the worst duo we have seen for many a season.

Good luck for the season. No doubt the rivalry will still be strong when we meet again as we are both likely to be pushing playoffs/promotion.

Nice to see a good report from a fan of the opposition. Agree with most things there. Roberts did actualy manage to get the crosses that got you the goals didn't he though? Although yes he did have an awful game otherwise. Anyone see him high five the ref when Hudders won a cheap free kick???

Opinion on Barnard has been very mixed from what I have seen on another forum I go on, and on here. I thought he had a decent game, but could do with getting forward more, not dropping back as deep as he does.

Peltier did look good for you, Moussa did ok down the left as well though, quite an even match up!

 

[Andy_S]

but could do with getting forward more, not dropping back as deep as he does.

Exactly! I'm glad I'm not the only person that picks up on this. ;)

 

[Feathers]

Dichotomy - its always interesting to read the oppositions view. There are a few posters on who think that certain players walk on water or that others can never do anything right. James Walker often falls into the latter camp and it is encouraging to see that he seems to have a won a few people round after yesterdays game.

I tend to agree with your comments about Lee Barnard but he does have a good goal scoring record (by our standards!) so keeps us happy most of the time.

You probably had a better view of the penalty than me so it is interesting to hear that you generally felt it was fair. At the time it looked about 50/50. For what its worth I do not feel the challenge on Laurent was worthy of a sending off - just a good old fashioned tackle. A bit surprised he has not booked though as challenges of this type tend to be these days.

My cousins are Ipswich season ticket holders and they are very dissapointed that they have sold Jordan Rhodes. He was highly rated there and had hoped he would be loaned out for a season rather than sold. You could have a very good player there.

 

[SS5]

I thought it was a very positive performance, with about 70 minutes of hard work going down the drain a bit, we looked tired but as usual tilly never makes a sub untill the 85th minute. I thought he could of brought on a few fresh legs earlier then he did to see out the game, however still very pleased with the overall performance. White looked a good league 1 standard full back, Heath tends to win all his header and i was really pleased with his performance. Moussa looked our most creative player and rightfully got MOM but still could of pulled off a few more killer balls
Did anyone else notice near enough everytime Franics got on the ball, he tended to hoof it league 2 style ?

 

[andyterrier]

Town fan here, Thanks to all the support for our ride into Southend. I'm just glad we made it in time for the game !!
I thought your fans were very poor to start singing "we're sh.. and we're beating you" etc cos after that, your team seemed to shrink and we got better albeit with our 2 subs on.
Yes it was a penalty, and Butler's tackle was hard...but perfect. Hope your lad is ok.
The ref was a 'homer'...even stopping play in 1st half when our midfielder was running thru. He seemd to give you a lot of the 50/50's.
I think u were lucky in the end to hang on, but you also could have won it late on...how clear was that chance ?
Good game, you should have more faith in your players. We can only get better with all these new ones we have. Good luck.

 

[Beefy]

I think u were lucky in the end to hang on, but you also could have won it late on...how clear was that chance ?

Clear enough that I still don't understand how one of them didn't score.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Clear enough that I still don't understand how one of them didn't score.

Beefy, it was one of those shake your head and wish Freddy was on the field moments!

 

[Beefy]

It shouldn't need Freddy Eastwood to convert what appeared to be an open goal from three yards.

 

[OldBlueLady]

It shouldn't need Freddy Eastwood to convert what appeared to be an open goal from three yards.

No Beefy, but he'd have made sure - remember that boot into the net from about this distance?!

 

[SS5]

Also, i know it was only 1 game, but i thought that Smithies in goal for hudders didnt looked too good, considering hes ment to be up there with the best in the league