Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 2-3 Exeter City

[CyrilSneer]

As most people have said, Prosser needed back urgently. Not just for his defensive qualities, but for his organisation. Thompson can be blamed but its Phillips and White who were most at fault today. All it took was a simple ball over the top and they were through on goal. Basic defending, one goes to the attacker the other stays. Both Phillips and Thompson simultaneously went to the ball leaving their forward players through on goal. When that does happen though the full backs have to watch the line, White was slow getting up on each occasion leaving their attacking players onside. The reason I'm blaming Phillips rather than Thompson is he is the senior defender with experience, he should know how to organise the defence.When Prosser has played with Thompson he has perfomed well .Phillips is not vocal enough and is own positioning is shocking. He scored two goals, but is overall perfomance today was woeful. White has looked a yard off the pace since he came back from injury, not the same player at all. Coker I thought was the pick of the back four again. Bentley made some good saves, but the panicky defending unsettled him and he made a few handling errors, luckily not costing a goal like last week.
The signing of Barnard has completely unsettled the side. He is not fit, yet has started the last 4 games (2 draws 2 defeats). We have changed a winning formula just to accommodate him. The side was more balanced and compact playing 451/433, and the players seemed happier and comfortable playing it. Everyone knew their role. Hurst and Leonard especially, two matchwinners on their day have seen their performances drop markedly. If we are to play 442 Laird has to start. He gives the defenders support and allows Timlin or Leonard to get forward. I hope Brown realises that he has made errors with his selection in the past 4 games and returns us quickly to our winning formula. Also, that Gomis does not look like a footballer, but the youth player looked promising

 

[spoons]

I am now thinking, can we get to 50 points and safety? All the teams above us are better than we are over this season.
Never been a Brown fan, and he will walk once we miss promotion giving Penney or Coughlan a shot at it.
ron Martin has more than supported Brown, so no excuses.:winking:

 

[prawntobewild]

Very disappointing - gave the ball away far too much , didn't put enough pressure on their rookie keeper, scored from 2 set pieces & nearly 3 , then hardly any crosses or shots after that, too many off days & errors.
Come on PB & DP get 'em going for Tuesday.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I am now thinking, can we get to 50 points and safety? All the teams above us are better than we are over this season.
Never been a Brown fan, and he will walk once we miss promotion giving Penney or Coughlan a shot at it.
ron Martin has more than supported Brown, so no excuses.:winking:

Neither has my missus

 

[Fairport]

What a disappointing performance today.All season we have looked a well organised team who gives 100 per cent but all of that seemed to go out of the window today. As usual, Bentley made some great saves but the central defensive pairing of Phillips and Thompson looked woeful although well done to Phillips for his goals. Hurst was lucky not to be taken off after another poor display lacking real effort. Barnard is not sharp enough, is he a Ron Martin signing? Hope he is not meddling in playing matters again and upsetting things. The substitutions were terrible, surely Laird and Payne deserved a chance. According to BBC Essex PB was in meeting with RM straight after the game, interesting!!

 

[wakes123]

It was obviously a poor performance from us, but I thought Exeter were a very good, neat passing side and dominated the second half. Better team won. We need to bounce back and turn this round sharpish.

 

[geoffmundo]

Bbc Essex mentioned that Brown was late to talk to the press because he was speaking with the Chairman. This was not followed up in the interview, but I wonder what the 'talk' was about. Maybe on the conditions behind Barnards loan? Who knows..?

 

[OldBlueLady]

Shocking performance from us today, individuals battled but collectively nothing worked. Yes, Corr may have won every header but they were all played backwards rather than flicking them on. Said all along Thompson and Phillips don't work together, Phillips is out of position to accommodate Thompson. Phillips has no directional sense on his clearances, they are all punted aimlessly away from him with no regard for whether anyone is in the vicinity to receive them. Thompson tries hard but just can't fit in where he is. I wonder if it's worth swapping him and John White over as John's done ok at CB and Thompson did ok at RB earlier this season?

Midfield has fallen apart. Hurst is not performing and with no Straker there is no width at all. Did our full backs make any surging runs today? No. And I put that down to no width in front of them. Why the persistence in subbing Timlin though? Both Hurst and Atkinson were poorer today. Tims still has that ability to run opposition defenders and keepers down like no-one else in our team. Lenny, as usual, emerged with some credit, he played about the only pin point cross field perfect ball today.

Corr and Barnard don't work either. There's absolutely no chemistry between them. I actually thought Barney did ok today, and at least he didn't miss an open goal! What a shocker that was!

Bentley - 6, I have him at fault for the first goal so can't mark higher
White - 5
Thompson - 5
Phillips - 5
Coker - 6, pick of the defence today
Hurst - 5
Atkinson - 5
Leonard - 7
Timlin - 6
Barnard - 6
Corr - 5

Subs:
Gomis for Barnard - 5, nearly came off for him, some good, some bad. Wrong substitution though
Eastwood for Timlin - 6, chased their player down really well!
Williams for Corr - 6, almost a dream start, this is what we need now, some fearless charging at defences, strength and a huge dash of luck wouldn't go amiss either!

Have to question the set up today. We need to re-discover that form that served us so well, and quickly!

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

According to BBC Essex PB was in meeting with RM straight after the game, interesting!!

Ron's probably got the bill in for all the sun bed tanning sessions last week?

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Shocking performance from us today, individuals battled but collectively nothing worked. Yes, Corr may have won every header but they were all played backwards rather than flicking them on. Said all along Thompson and Phillips don't work together, Phillips is out of position to accommodate Thompson. Phillips has no directional sense on his clearances, they are all punted aimlessly away from him with no regard for whether anyone is in the vicinity to receive them. Thompson tries hard but just can't fit in where he is. I wonder if it's worth swapping him and John White over as John's done ok at CB and Thompson did ok at RB earlier this season?

Midfield has fallen apart. Hurst is not performing and with no Straker there is no width at all. Did our full backs make any surging runs today? No. And I put that down to no width in front of them. Why the persistence in subbing Timlin though? Both Hurst and Atkinson were poorer today. Tims still has that ability to run opposition defenders and keepers down like no-one else in our team. Lenny, as usual, emerged with some credit, he played about the only pin point cross field perfect ball today.

Corr and Barnard don't work either. There's absolutely no chemistry between them. I actually thought Barney did ok today, and at least he didn't miss an open goal! What a shocker that was!

Bentley - 6, I have him at fault for the first goal so can't mark higher
White - 5
Thompson - 5
Phillips - 5
Coker - 6, pick of the defence today
Hurst - 5
Atkinson - 5
Leonard - 7
Timlin - 6
Barnard - 6
Corr - 5

Subs:
Gomis for Barnard - 5, nearly came off for him, some good, some bad. Wrong substitution though
Eastwood for Timlin - 6, chased their player down really well!
Williams for Corr - 6, almost a dream start, this is what we need now, some fearless charging at defences, strength and a huge dash of luck wouldn't go amiss either!

Have to question the set up today. We need to re-discover that form that served us so well, and quickly!

I thought the same except I don't think Dan was expecting the back pass. Phillips dallied on the ball, passed it back to Dan and he had someone closing him down instantly and didn't really have time to compose himself. Dan made up for it with some good saves. Defence was woeful all day and the sooner Prosser is back the better

 

[sufcwatcha1]

Neither has my missus

:stunned: ha ha well funny

 

[dannypav]

I honestly thought at half time it was a matter of how many we would win by.
How wrong was I.
Here is my take on our players today.
I thought Corr had a really good first half , holding the ball up well and laying it off and I assume he was subbed because of injury ?
Barnard needs to get his sharpness back quickly and if we are persisting with 4-4-2 at home ( although maybe it was still 4-3-3 with Barney playing wide ? ) then I think Freddy needs to start now.
I think I'm correct in saying that Hurst is our top scorer and top at assists , but he clearly needs a rest - the guy is running on empty.
Leonard , whilst not as dynamic as earlier in the season , remains a key player in our midfield.
Atkinson does a lot of the donkey work, but he too lacked some energy today IMO (although the pitch was clearly tough ).
Timlin , I just don;t see what he's bringing to the team right now and would have Laird back asap.

At the back I thought Coker played well enough , but the other three were awful , especially the two CB's.
Exeters midfield played some nice balls in to their front men , but in all honesty the strikers didn't need to do anything clever in terms of their runs etc.
Before anyone says "But Phillips scored 2 goals" , yes he did and I doubt he will score two easier all season as he was hardly challenged , but his defensive positioning was terrible , as was Thompsons ( and White ).

Dan Bentley has been IMO the stand out player this season , and once again today he made some excellent saves.
Leonard has also been superb , but I think Dan gives us the better option interms of potential transfer revenue.
My only slight criticism is that he likes to apportion blame to anyone else but himself.
That's fine in a sense , but the third goal really annoyed me as spent so long yelling at someones , when IMO he should have retrieved the ball from the goal and got on with the game ( the hairdrier treatment can wait for the dressing room ).

I hope this 'dip' in form is over soon otherwise we become the one the pack are chasing.
I would love Laird , Eastwood and Prosser ( injury permitting ) to all start on Tuesday , and even to give Payne a run out.

Brown has been quite rightly very loyal to the guys that have taken us on a long unbeaten run this season , but he must rest some now before it;s too late.

As a foot note , did anyone else see the fantastic 'handball' Williams did to put himself through on goal !!!

 

[OldBlueLady]

As a foot note , did anyone else see the fantastic 'handball' Williams did to put himself through on goal !!!

Lol, yes, couldn't believe the officials missed it!

Laird has to start Tuesday, I think Straker too, to be honest. He does, at least, run at the opposition, and I'd drop Hurst and Atkinson to the bench. We need to get back to at least a semblance of the passing game that served us well. And we have to look for a short term defensive loan if Prosser is not going to be back Tuesday.

As an aside, it was nice to see Pat Baldwin there with the Exeter guys even though he played no part.

 

[Blueblues]

Why all this doom & gloom ? Look for the positives - we are one day closer to getting a new manager.

 

[Pak Power]

Oh dear, poor poor display, but lets not panic just yet, still a long way to go, and a lot of points to be won (and lost)

On a difficult sticky pitch, where trying to have too many touches resulted in the ball getting stuck under several players feet, and inevitably losing the ball. Exeter to their credit played the conditions better, passing and moving, and keeping the ball, and stats will show that their corner count and shots tell the story that probably the best team won.


Bentley 8. Kept us in it at 2-1, just tends to lose out in claiming corners, and puches through crowds of players.


White 4. er no . Try never to let the wide player get the cross in. Not just stand between him and the goal, and say cross it then...because they did. Not even going to mention the offensive side to his game because he is in the team to defend. except he doesn't. It would have been 3.5 but he has just come back from injury.


Coker 5. another that was uncomfy on the ball today, and was given trouble down their right on more than one occassion . Didn't have the ability to get forward much (some of that may have been to do with Hurst)


Phillips 6.5 . Two goals and our biggest forward threat (says something) I actually think he played ok. No he isn't quick, and is slow when the ball is played over the top and he has to turn, but on a sticky pitch thought he did ok and won most of his defensive headers. Loses half a point for his distribution on the ground.


Thompson 5. The more inexperienced of the two central defensive pairing , and it showed today. Not comfortable at all with midfielders running at him.


Hurst 5. Put in a shift I thought, without being at his most creative, but I have been kind to him because sometimes he is sitting tight on the touchline waiting to bee seen, and doesn't even get spotted.


Atkinson 5.5 I felt he was another who when he tried to get the ball and play, got it stuck under his feet at times. It was not a game to get caught in posession. Lucky not to get booked from where I was from the other side of the pitch looked worse than Cliffords sending off.


Leonard.6 Not one of 'Lenny's' better games, but you could see any quality from our midfield would have come through him.

Timlin 4. (sorry Kay) anonymous for long spells. Flatters to deceive, chasing down the goalie a couple of times and keep getting caught off-side doesn't make you a contributing midfielder. Rightly subbed. (except by the wrong player)


Barnard 4.5 Bit similar to Timlin really, just argues more. Three promising positions Barney got into running at their back four, and chose the wrong option every time, twice giving the ball straight to their defenders. Premier league . Meh.

Corr 6.5 Won most headers missed an open goal, but more importantly was subbed at the wrong time (barring injury )
It was his substitution the gave the impetus to the Grecians, and they were winning headers easily at the back and starting their attacks from areas where BBBC was winning the ball up top.

Subs. Gomis 2. fish out of water. Is this guy a professional footballer. With running the risk of critisism of only that showing . The guy is Non league at best.

Eastwood 5. getting caught offside, while strying to chase the game doesn't show his obvious class to me.
Put himself about without ever looking like scoring.

Williams 5. looked lively but no more really , we were just hoping for anything. And if you can't look lively against a tiring defence on a heavy pitch, then when can you.


Brown 3. Wrong subs at the wrong times. (unless BBC was injured) Laird should be a nailed on starter, and you might begin to think that Straker is no worse than was on show today. Back to 4 5 1 (433) please. Leave Barnard on the bench please
Prosser please come back quickly. O'Neil is another that can hurry back, and you have to wonder if Craig Reid (given a run in the team) would have scored any less goals than our forwards.

 

[BaileytheQuitter]

Well well well. After being told for the entirety of this season 'oh what fantastic football we play these days', the last two games have been an unwelcome return to life as a Shrimper.

Today was woeful. Frankly, if it wasn't for Bentley we could have lost by 4-5. We were that bad.

Poor passing, hopeful punts to no one, Corr flicking on to no one.

Thompson and Phillips do not work together. Midfield didn't get a grip on the game and our forwards don't look like scoring. Even when they have an open goal.

Hartlepool has become a massive game for our playoff hopes.

 

[Shrimper]

Would expect Barnard to start doing the business now. 4 games is enough to learn.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Thing that got me was that Exeter looked so susceptible at the back, a rookie goalkeeper and a short defence. They looked wobbly and the ease with which Phillips scored two should have shown us the weakness and allowed us to exploit it.

 

[mgh]

Agree with the Hartlepool game being huge... Win and we are nailed on for play off, lose they are right behind us...

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Oh dear, poor poor display, but lets not panic just yet, still a long way to go, and a lot of points to be won (and lost)

On a difficult sticky pitch, where trying to have too many touches resulted in the ball getting stuck under several players feet, and inevitably losing the ball. Exeter to their credit played the conditions better, passing and moving, and keeping the ball, and stats will show that their corner count and shots tell the story that probably the best team won.


Bentley 8. Kept us in it at 2-1, just tends to lose out in claiming corners, and puches through crowds of players.


White 4. er no . Try never to let the wide player get the cross in. Not just stand between him and the goal, and say cross it then...because they did. Not even going to mention the offensive side to his game because he is in the team to defend. except he doesn't. It would have been 3.5 but he has just come back from injury.


Coker 5. another that was uncomfy on the ball today, and was given trouble down their right on more than one occassion . Didn't have the ability to get forward much (some of that may have been to do with Hurst)


Phillips 6.5 . Two goals and our biggest forward threat (says something) I actually think he played ok. No he isn't quick, and is slow when the ball is played over the top and he has to turn, but on a sticky pitch thought he did ok and won most of his defensive headers. Loses half a point for his distribution on the ground.


Thompson 5. The more inexperienced of the two central defensive pairing , and it showed today. Not comfortable at all with midfielders running at him.


Hurst 5. Put in a shift I thought, without being at his most creative, but I have been kind to him because sometimes he is sitting tight on the touchline waiting to bee seen, and doesn't even get spotted.


Atkinson 5.5 I felt he was another who when he tried to get the ball and play, got it stuck under his feet at times. It was not a game to get caught in posession. Lucky not to get booked from where I was from the other side of the pitch looked worse than Cliffords sending off.


Leonard.6 Not one of 'Lenny's' better games, but you could see any quality from our midfield would have come through him.

Timlin 4. (sorry Kay) anonymous for long spells. Flatters to deceive, chasing down the goalie a couple of times and keep getting caught off-side doesn't make you a contributing midfielder. Rightly subbed. (except by the wrong player)


Barnard 4.5 Bit similar to Timlin really, just argues more. Three promising positions Barney got into running at their back four, and chose the wrong option every time, twice giving the ball straight to their defenders. Premier league . Meh.

Corr 6.5 Won most headers missed an open goal, but more importantly was subbed at the wrong time (barring injury )
It was his substitution the gave the impetus to the Grecians, and they were winning headers easily at the back and starting their attacks from areas where BBBC was winning the ball up top.

Subs. Gomis 2. fish out of water. Is this guy a professional footballer. With running the risk of critisism of only that showing . The guy is Non league at best.

Eastwood 5. getting caught offside, while strying to chase the game doesn't show his obvious class to me.
Put himself about without ever looking like scoring.

Williams 5. looked lively but no more really , we were just hoping for anything. And if you can't look lively against a tiring defence on a heavy pitch, then when can you.


Brown 3. Wrong subs at the wrong times. (unless BBC was injured) Laird should be a nailed on starter, and you might begin to think that Straker is no worse than was on show today. Back to 4 5 1 (433) please. Leave Barnard on the bench please
Prosser please come back quickly. O'Neil is another that can hurry back, and you have to wonder if Craig Reid (given a run in the team) would have scored any less goals than our forwards.

Weird how differing opinions are on here. Thought Timlin did well today, chased and harried and made some fantastic runs into the channels, one really good run in the first half and was rewarded with a delectable pass to him