Uncle Leo
This cook is an anti-semite
steveo1 has produced the first report and ratings of the New Year, barely an hour and half after the final whistle. Enjoy!
The Christmas period has been a funny old time for the Blues. An abysmal home display against the League leaders was followed by two good away draws at Norwich and Coventry, so what could we expect at home to one of the Championship's form teams? Well, a first half performance to match anything we have seen at the Hall this season is what we got and was throughly deserved.
The Baggies included some experienced former Premiership men in Greening and Phillips and the lively in-form Jason Koumas, but none of these offered much of a threat as Southend played themselves in with a disciplined start to the game. Barrett and Clarke continued as the central defensive partnership and looked fairly comfortable, whilst Eastwood was back up front with Lee Bradbury.
The Blues pre match warm up had taken on a different look, with players taking turns to hit shots at reserve keeper Joe Welch, and in the 11th minute, maybe some of this new style preparation began to show as Jamal Campbell Ryce drifted into the middle of the pitch, skipped past two challenges, and to the surprise and astonishment of most fans, and fired the ball into the left corner of the net.
Southend continued to dominate the game as the Baggies struggled to create any worthwhile attempts at goal. Just before the half hour mark, the Blues broke down the left. Gower hit a great cross into Lee Bradbury who played a perfect cushioned header right into the path of Campbell-Ryce and once again the Jamaican international smashed the ball past a helpless Russel Hoult from more than 20 yards out.
2 up in 30 minutes and the visitors looked in disarray but the Blues were not content to sit back and 2 minutes before the half time whistle a Gower cross was nodded in at the far post by another unlikely scorer – Lewis Hunt. Three nil up and the crowd were understandably delighted as referee Mr Kettle, who had so far had a fairly decent game, bought proceedings to a halt.
The visitors made a triple substitution, John Hartson on for Kevin Phillips and the crowd settled down expecting a West Brom barrage. Koumas continued to look lively but any attempt he made to get a good shooting position was often blocked by fine defensive work and they couldn’t seem to find a way past the excellent Barrett and the ever improving Clarke. Clarke has had his critics this season but his positioning and anticipation have improved dramatically and every time the Baggies sensed a glimmer of a chance, Clarke seemed to be standing in their way.
West Brom continued to probe as Southend were reduced to looking for the odd breakaway and following a 63rd minute corner, the overweight Hartson managed to bundle the ball in from close range for his fifth goal of the season, and hopefully for visiting fans, set up a grandstand finish.
The home team were unhappy with the goal and captain Kevin Maher managed to talk himself into another pointless yellow card as he argued with Mr Kettle all the way back to the centre circle. The visitors attmepted to drag themselves back into the game but the Southend defence stood firm and reduced them to a few long range efforts that never really troubled the solid Flahavan.
At the other end Maher slotted a ball through to Eastwood who hit a great cross into the six yard box which was met with a full on header by Adam Barrett and looked certain to wrap up the points but Russell Hoult had other ideas and pulled off a magnificent save at his far post.
By now the Shrimpers looked happy to settle for the 3-1 scoreline and the match deteriorated into a niggly affair which wasn’t helped by referee Mr Kettle who started brandishing yellow cards all over the place. Tilson changed Bradbury, Gower and Eastwood for Harrold, Hooper and Francis as Southend played out the match and took a massive three points.
At the start of the Christmas period, Tillson had set 7 points as a target from the 4 games and has ended up with 5 which probably isn’t too bad as two of the opponents are in the top six and if you look at today’s result as the third game unbeaten, maybe escape from relegation is still possible.
Flahavan -7 Solid as usual
Hunt -7 Looked comfortable – and scored
Clarke -8 Commanded the box
Barrett -7 Rose to the physical threat of hartson
Hammell -6 Defensivley sound – didn’t get forward too much
J C R -9 Best display in a Southend shirt. Contributed some telling crosses and the much talked about end product included two goals
Kevin Maher -7 Distribution not always brilliant but always got a fot in. The downside was another pointless booking
Alan McCormack –7 Played a more defensive role than usual but as above, always got a foot in
Mark Gower -7 Quiet game, but 2 good crosses whioch resulted in goals
Freddy Eastwood –6 Doesn’t look match fit yet but fought hard for the cause
Lee Bradbury -6 Always up for the fight. Unfortuantely his lack of pace never makes him a goal threat.
Subs
Francis, Hooper, Harrold: -5 Not enough time to make an impact but all did a job
The Christmas period has been a funny old time for the Blues. An abysmal home display against the League leaders was followed by two good away draws at Norwich and Coventry, so what could we expect at home to one of the Championship's form teams? Well, a first half performance to match anything we have seen at the Hall this season is what we got and was throughly deserved.
The Baggies included some experienced former Premiership men in Greening and Phillips and the lively in-form Jason Koumas, but none of these offered much of a threat as Southend played themselves in with a disciplined start to the game. Barrett and Clarke continued as the central defensive partnership and looked fairly comfortable, whilst Eastwood was back up front with Lee Bradbury.
The Blues pre match warm up had taken on a different look, with players taking turns to hit shots at reserve keeper Joe Welch, and in the 11th minute, maybe some of this new style preparation began to show as Jamal Campbell Ryce drifted into the middle of the pitch, skipped past two challenges, and to the surprise and astonishment of most fans, and fired the ball into the left corner of the net.
Southend continued to dominate the game as the Baggies struggled to create any worthwhile attempts at goal. Just before the half hour mark, the Blues broke down the left. Gower hit a great cross into Lee Bradbury who played a perfect cushioned header right into the path of Campbell-Ryce and once again the Jamaican international smashed the ball past a helpless Russel Hoult from more than 20 yards out.
2 up in 30 minutes and the visitors looked in disarray but the Blues were not content to sit back and 2 minutes before the half time whistle a Gower cross was nodded in at the far post by another unlikely scorer – Lewis Hunt. Three nil up and the crowd were understandably delighted as referee Mr Kettle, who had so far had a fairly decent game, bought proceedings to a halt.
The visitors made a triple substitution, John Hartson on for Kevin Phillips and the crowd settled down expecting a West Brom barrage. Koumas continued to look lively but any attempt he made to get a good shooting position was often blocked by fine defensive work and they couldn’t seem to find a way past the excellent Barrett and the ever improving Clarke. Clarke has had his critics this season but his positioning and anticipation have improved dramatically and every time the Baggies sensed a glimmer of a chance, Clarke seemed to be standing in their way.
West Brom continued to probe as Southend were reduced to looking for the odd breakaway and following a 63rd minute corner, the overweight Hartson managed to bundle the ball in from close range for his fifth goal of the season, and hopefully for visiting fans, set up a grandstand finish.
The home team were unhappy with the goal and captain Kevin Maher managed to talk himself into another pointless yellow card as he argued with Mr Kettle all the way back to the centre circle. The visitors attmepted to drag themselves back into the game but the Southend defence stood firm and reduced them to a few long range efforts that never really troubled the solid Flahavan.
At the other end Maher slotted a ball through to Eastwood who hit a great cross into the six yard box which was met with a full on header by Adam Barrett and looked certain to wrap up the points but Russell Hoult had other ideas and pulled off a magnificent save at his far post.
By now the Shrimpers looked happy to settle for the 3-1 scoreline and the match deteriorated into a niggly affair which wasn’t helped by referee Mr Kettle who started brandishing yellow cards all over the place. Tilson changed Bradbury, Gower and Eastwood for Harrold, Hooper and Francis as Southend played out the match and took a massive three points.
At the start of the Christmas period, Tillson had set 7 points as a target from the 4 games and has ended up with 5 which probably isn’t too bad as two of the opponents are in the top six and if you look at today’s result as the third game unbeaten, maybe escape from relegation is still possible.
Flahavan -7 Solid as usual
Hunt -7 Looked comfortable – and scored
Clarke -8 Commanded the box
Barrett -7 Rose to the physical threat of hartson
Hammell -6 Defensivley sound – didn’t get forward too much
J C R -9 Best display in a Southend shirt. Contributed some telling crosses and the much talked about end product included two goals
Kevin Maher -7 Distribution not always brilliant but always got a fot in. The downside was another pointless booking
Alan McCormack –7 Played a more defensive role than usual but as above, always got a foot in
Mark Gower -7 Quiet game, but 2 good crosses whioch resulted in goals
Freddy Eastwood –6 Doesn’t look match fit yet but fought hard for the cause
Lee Bradbury -6 Always up for the fight. Unfortuantely his lack of pace never makes him a goal threat.
Subs
Francis, Hooper, Harrold: -5 Not enough time to make an impact but all did a job
