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Blue tinted optimist⭐🦐
The home match against Boston last season was the match when I made my “debut” as an official SZ reporter. We lost that game 2-0 and the atmosphere afterwards resembled that of a funeral.
Stark contrast tonight – the game had everything and for once the Blues did NOT let a large crowd – 5688 – down. The atmosphere afterwards was positively buzzing.
Now, first of all, fair play to the lads. A great battling performance and a deserved victory. In truth, Southend were out of the blocks quickly and absolutely tore Boston to shreds in the first half hour. At last we saw glimpses of Grays pace and his was a tremendously hard-working performance. One such glimpse took him to the by-line after 15 minutes and he hammered the ball across goal to an unmarked Gower, who fired home from 10 yards. Seven minutes later Bramble played a delightful ball through the defence to Gray who outpaced everyone and coolly slotted past the highly rated Nathan Abbey in the Boston goal.
At this stage it was a case of “How many?” as Boston just simply were not in the game at all. They were incredibly niggly, and IMHO Jason Lee was lucky to stay on the pitch after catching Prior with an elbow at least twice in the first half. Pitt threw himself to the ground at every opportunity trying to get free kicks and they weren’t very sportsmanlike either. Twice Blues put the ball out so their player could get treatment, and Boston failed both times to play the ball back to the keeper, preferring instead to knock the ball into touch for a throw in by our corner flag the first time, and didn’t give the ball back at all on the other occasion! Southend chased and harried their Lincolnshire opponents and the travelling contingent hardly raised a murmur. The Roots Hall Roar was definitely back with singing from all sides resounding around the ground.
Then came an incident that changed the game completely. In the last minute of the first half, Lewis Hunt failed to get a good head on a long ball forward and the ball skimmed off his head and perfectly into the path of a forward who got behind our defence. Flahavan came racing out, the forward tried to lob him, and Darryl clearly patted the ball down with his hands about 3 yards outside his area. It was a definite handball, no question, and truth be known I was a little disappointed with Flahavans show of petulance as he walked off the pitch. The Blues protests were not exactly fierce, and he knew he had handled it. Jupp then prepared to take the jersey. However, cue activity from the bench, and Bramble instead was called into goal to do the job. My belief is that Tilly/Brush were thinking that Darryl had hardly touched the ball, so sacrifice the forward, and keep the defence and midfield the same.
From the resulting free kick 20 yards out Boston failed to hit the target. The second half would be interesting.
In the half time interval Tes was out doing some work on crosses. It was obvious that he was not a keeper. I was fearful to be honest.
The second half started as if Boston had a 4 man advantage. Within 3 minutes they had pulled one back. I have no idea if a proper keeper could have saved it but it was irrelevant – we were simply hoofing the ball out of defence and waiting for it to come back again. Boston contrived to lose the game as much as we won it. Their tactics were inept and their shooting worse. They failed to test Tes at all really, and the defence and midfield sweated blood keeping them out.
After 20 minutes or so we decided that we actually did have 9 outfield players on the pitch and we started to play a bit of football, actually keeping it instead of hoofing it. The ref made some dodgy decisions, including giving Boston free kicks about 20 yards out in a central position for no real reason. Twice. Fortunately they failed to hit the target, which was criminal. They failed to have a shot at goal from distance, which to be honest I think Tes would have struggled to save. Then they played 3 up front and just hoofed it centrally to our defenders who headed it clear. They must have loved it out there, and if I was a Boston fan I would be absolutely livid.
Tes did make 2 saves late on, diving once right and once left to push the ball away for corners. The ball may or may not have been going in… who cares? He made the saves. Well done Tes.
Even their keeper came up for corners in the last couple of minutes but headed wide in what proved to be the last chance of the match.
Before the ratings, a couple of points.
1) It is criminal for Tilly/Brush not to have a reserve keeper on the bench. I hope that Morgan is signed on immediately, put on the bench for next week and a loan keeper brought in to play while Flavs is suspended. We got away with it tonight, and you can bet your life we won’t next time. This must not be allowed to happen again, and in the days of 5 subs, there is no excuse not to have keeper cover. It is a specialist job, and even an average keeper is better than an outfield player between the sticks.
2) Flahavan is a knob. He KNEW he was the only keeper, yet he handled the ball outside the area. It would have been better to have conceded a goal and stayed with 11 men. We would have won 4 or 5-1, such was our dominance. Instead he has let us down, and then petulantly thrown his wristbands onto the pitch as he was walking off, having severely abused the linesman for giving a perfectly correct decision.
Ratings –
Flahavan – 2. See above.
Jupp – 8 – defended manfully and made a couple of good overlapping runs.
Barrett – 8 – Made some crucial interceptions and was totally committed.
Prior – 8 – Won almost everything in the air, including Jason Lee’s elbow
Wilson – 7 – Committed, and made one fantastic tackle late on, but was too keen to hoof it away
Gower – 8 – well taken goal, and again seems back to near his best
Maher – 8 – Some good tackling, and usual commitment.
Hunt – 7 – Made some good passes inside the full back but was partly responsible for the incident where Flavs was dismissed.
Pettefer – 7 – Hard working but lacks that pace to be a wide player
Gray – 8 – Great effort, great pace, great goal and a thoroughly deserved standing ovation when subbed having run himself into the ground
Bramble – 9 – MOM – good outfield performance, and stepped into the breach when required. He is not a keeper, but stood up to everything thrown at him (admittedly not much) but nonetheless a hero’s performance.
Subs –
Corbett – 7 – On for Gray and provided fresh legs to close down defenders.
Stark contrast tonight – the game had everything and for once the Blues did NOT let a large crowd – 5688 – down. The atmosphere afterwards was positively buzzing.
Now, first of all, fair play to the lads. A great battling performance and a deserved victory. In truth, Southend were out of the blocks quickly and absolutely tore Boston to shreds in the first half hour. At last we saw glimpses of Grays pace and his was a tremendously hard-working performance. One such glimpse took him to the by-line after 15 minutes and he hammered the ball across goal to an unmarked Gower, who fired home from 10 yards. Seven minutes later Bramble played a delightful ball through the defence to Gray who outpaced everyone and coolly slotted past the highly rated Nathan Abbey in the Boston goal.
At this stage it was a case of “How many?” as Boston just simply were not in the game at all. They were incredibly niggly, and IMHO Jason Lee was lucky to stay on the pitch after catching Prior with an elbow at least twice in the first half. Pitt threw himself to the ground at every opportunity trying to get free kicks and they weren’t very sportsmanlike either. Twice Blues put the ball out so their player could get treatment, and Boston failed both times to play the ball back to the keeper, preferring instead to knock the ball into touch for a throw in by our corner flag the first time, and didn’t give the ball back at all on the other occasion! Southend chased and harried their Lincolnshire opponents and the travelling contingent hardly raised a murmur. The Roots Hall Roar was definitely back with singing from all sides resounding around the ground.
Then came an incident that changed the game completely. In the last minute of the first half, Lewis Hunt failed to get a good head on a long ball forward and the ball skimmed off his head and perfectly into the path of a forward who got behind our defence. Flahavan came racing out, the forward tried to lob him, and Darryl clearly patted the ball down with his hands about 3 yards outside his area. It was a definite handball, no question, and truth be known I was a little disappointed with Flahavans show of petulance as he walked off the pitch. The Blues protests were not exactly fierce, and he knew he had handled it. Jupp then prepared to take the jersey. However, cue activity from the bench, and Bramble instead was called into goal to do the job. My belief is that Tilly/Brush were thinking that Darryl had hardly touched the ball, so sacrifice the forward, and keep the defence and midfield the same.
From the resulting free kick 20 yards out Boston failed to hit the target. The second half would be interesting.
In the half time interval Tes was out doing some work on crosses. It was obvious that he was not a keeper. I was fearful to be honest.
The second half started as if Boston had a 4 man advantage. Within 3 minutes they had pulled one back. I have no idea if a proper keeper could have saved it but it was irrelevant – we were simply hoofing the ball out of defence and waiting for it to come back again. Boston contrived to lose the game as much as we won it. Their tactics were inept and their shooting worse. They failed to test Tes at all really, and the defence and midfield sweated blood keeping them out.
After 20 minutes or so we decided that we actually did have 9 outfield players on the pitch and we started to play a bit of football, actually keeping it instead of hoofing it. The ref made some dodgy decisions, including giving Boston free kicks about 20 yards out in a central position for no real reason. Twice. Fortunately they failed to hit the target, which was criminal. They failed to have a shot at goal from distance, which to be honest I think Tes would have struggled to save. Then they played 3 up front and just hoofed it centrally to our defenders who headed it clear. They must have loved it out there, and if I was a Boston fan I would be absolutely livid.
Tes did make 2 saves late on, diving once right and once left to push the ball away for corners. The ball may or may not have been going in… who cares? He made the saves. Well done Tes.
Even their keeper came up for corners in the last couple of minutes but headed wide in what proved to be the last chance of the match.
Before the ratings, a couple of points.
1) It is criminal for Tilly/Brush not to have a reserve keeper on the bench. I hope that Morgan is signed on immediately, put on the bench for next week and a loan keeper brought in to play while Flavs is suspended. We got away with it tonight, and you can bet your life we won’t next time. This must not be allowed to happen again, and in the days of 5 subs, there is no excuse not to have keeper cover. It is a specialist job, and even an average keeper is better than an outfield player between the sticks.
2) Flahavan is a knob. He KNEW he was the only keeper, yet he handled the ball outside the area. It would have been better to have conceded a goal and stayed with 11 men. We would have won 4 or 5-1, such was our dominance. Instead he has let us down, and then petulantly thrown his wristbands onto the pitch as he was walking off, having severely abused the linesman for giving a perfectly correct decision.
Ratings –
Flahavan – 2. See above.
Jupp – 8 – defended manfully and made a couple of good overlapping runs.
Barrett – 8 – Made some crucial interceptions and was totally committed.
Prior – 8 – Won almost everything in the air, including Jason Lee’s elbow
Wilson – 7 – Committed, and made one fantastic tackle late on, but was too keen to hoof it away
Gower – 8 – well taken goal, and again seems back to near his best
Maher – 8 – Some good tackling, and usual commitment.
Hunt – 7 – Made some good passes inside the full back but was partly responsible for the incident where Flavs was dismissed.
Pettefer – 7 – Hard working but lacks that pace to be a wide player
Gray – 8 – Great effort, great pace, great goal and a thoroughly deserved standing ovation when subbed having run himself into the ground
Bramble – 9 – MOM – good outfield performance, and stepped into the breach when required. He is not a keeper, but stood up to everything thrown at him (admittedly not much) but nonetheless a hero’s performance.
Subs –
Corbett – 7 – On for Gray and provided fresh legs to close down defenders.
