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Blue tinted optimist⭐
I learnt at a very early age that Southend always blow it in front of a big crowd. I had persuaded myself that today would be an exception. Sadly, over 7000 witnessed that fact that it wasn’t.
Today, the atmosphere seemed subdued. I said to my mate before kick off that the players needed to provide the spark but they couldn’t do that for 80 minutes. It was as if Roots hall was a barbecue waiting to ignite, but the coals were damp and the matches wouldn’t light.
Mansfield on the other hand worked as hard as many of the teams that come down here. Oxford (first half), Grimsby and Chester all worked their socks off to some effect – i.e. they simply stopped us playing for long periods of the game. Mansfield achieved that superbly with their midfield, led by the phenomenal Adam Murray, closing us down at every opportunity and making sure the supply line to the deadly duo of Gray and Eastwood was well and truly shut off.
They had their own spark in the form of lively Derek Asamoah, who could have had 3 or 4 himself, forcing Bart into 2 fine saves and shooting over the bar late on.
But lets be honest – Blues home performances of late have generally achieved the right results but with the exception of the Swansea game and the second half v Oxford we have by and large struggled to break sides down. But that we have done – albeit eventually – and it has been cited that this was the basic difference between this team and those of recent seasons. We are capable of grinding out a result and with us occupying a lofty position in the league we of course become targets for the other teams.
The game today was largely dull – at least the first 78 minutes were at any rate. They had more possession and the better chances, we huffed and puffed and failed to find a blue shirt on too many occasions. But then Tes was replaced by Dudfield, and Gray moved to wide right. Within a minute Bentley had forced Murray to be subbed after a sliding challenge that resulted in a 23 man melee and a booking for the former Daggers player, and a minute later Asamoah had again proved to be a thorn in Southend’s side as he set up Warne for what proved to be the winner.
I am not sure whether it was the introduction of Dudfield, the withdrawal of Murray or the fact that Mansfield were ahead (or maybe a bit of all three), but all of a sudden Southend started to play. Barrett skimmed the post with a fine header. A great cross eluded Gray and Bentley by millimetres. As Blues pushed forward Asamoah spurned a further chance to punish Blues defence and then came the biggest talking point. An almighty scramble resulted in Dudfield lashing the ball home from close range, but the linesman had flagged for offside and the goal was disallowed. Cue mass disapporoval, cries of “cheat, cheat, cheat” and some idiot from the East stand who tried to assault the linesman and who will now no doubt receive a life ban and probably cost the club a fine.
So, while still 4th we are now firmly back in the chasing pack and there is a 7 point gap between us and 3rd. Ironically, 7 points the other way would see us in 15th place. Nothing less than 6 points from the next 2 games will be acceptable if we are to maintain a promotion challenge.
Ratings:
Griemink – 8 – MOM. Kept us in the match with 2 fine saves and was commanding.
Hunt – 6 – Struggled against Asamoah (but then, who didn’t) and was guilty of some wayward passing.
Wilson – 6 – Sometimes looked very good, and sometimes extremely poor. His short passing was just not up to mstandard today but won some great challenges in the air and on the deck
Barrett – 7 – Strong and made some great challenges. Unlucky not to score.
Edwards – 7 – One slip near end of first half but rescued situation with great challenge.
Pettefer – 6 – took up some good positions but for some reason there seems to be an aversion to passing the ball to him.
Maher – 7.5 – Tried to close everyone down and made some fine passes. However was muscled out of it sometimes by Murray, especially in first half
Bentley – 6 – Quiet game for him. Should have done better on a couple of occasions in front of goal.
Bramble – 5. Almost as poor as he was away at Orient. For some reson he seems very low on confidence.
Gray – 6.5 – Usual 110% workrate but with no reward
Eastwood – 5 – Too casual, too greedy, looked knackered. Didn’t look like scoring. Time for a trip to the bench.
Sub –
Dudfield – 7. Did well when he came on and gave us fresh legs.
Ref – Mr Robinson – 6. Apart from the fact that I couldn’t hear his whistle a lot of the time, he generally had a good game. I suspect the decision to disallow the last minute goal was probably correct, much as though it pains me to say it.
A final word – we missed Gower bigtime. Without him we have little width and no creativity. His injury problems are very concerning and would appear to be something that is always going to affect him because it is down to the way he runs. This is an area Tilly needs to strengthen if we are to be a force in this division.
Today, the atmosphere seemed subdued. I said to my mate before kick off that the players needed to provide the spark but they couldn’t do that for 80 minutes. It was as if Roots hall was a barbecue waiting to ignite, but the coals were damp and the matches wouldn’t light.
Mansfield on the other hand worked as hard as many of the teams that come down here. Oxford (first half), Grimsby and Chester all worked their socks off to some effect – i.e. they simply stopped us playing for long periods of the game. Mansfield achieved that superbly with their midfield, led by the phenomenal Adam Murray, closing us down at every opportunity and making sure the supply line to the deadly duo of Gray and Eastwood was well and truly shut off.
They had their own spark in the form of lively Derek Asamoah, who could have had 3 or 4 himself, forcing Bart into 2 fine saves and shooting over the bar late on.
But lets be honest – Blues home performances of late have generally achieved the right results but with the exception of the Swansea game and the second half v Oxford we have by and large struggled to break sides down. But that we have done – albeit eventually – and it has been cited that this was the basic difference between this team and those of recent seasons. We are capable of grinding out a result and with us occupying a lofty position in the league we of course become targets for the other teams.
The game today was largely dull – at least the first 78 minutes were at any rate. They had more possession and the better chances, we huffed and puffed and failed to find a blue shirt on too many occasions. But then Tes was replaced by Dudfield, and Gray moved to wide right. Within a minute Bentley had forced Murray to be subbed after a sliding challenge that resulted in a 23 man melee and a booking for the former Daggers player, and a minute later Asamoah had again proved to be a thorn in Southend’s side as he set up Warne for what proved to be the winner.
I am not sure whether it was the introduction of Dudfield, the withdrawal of Murray or the fact that Mansfield were ahead (or maybe a bit of all three), but all of a sudden Southend started to play. Barrett skimmed the post with a fine header. A great cross eluded Gray and Bentley by millimetres. As Blues pushed forward Asamoah spurned a further chance to punish Blues defence and then came the biggest talking point. An almighty scramble resulted in Dudfield lashing the ball home from close range, but the linesman had flagged for offside and the goal was disallowed. Cue mass disapporoval, cries of “cheat, cheat, cheat” and some idiot from the East stand who tried to assault the linesman and who will now no doubt receive a life ban and probably cost the club a fine.
So, while still 4th we are now firmly back in the chasing pack and there is a 7 point gap between us and 3rd. Ironically, 7 points the other way would see us in 15th place. Nothing less than 6 points from the next 2 games will be acceptable if we are to maintain a promotion challenge.
Ratings:
Griemink – 8 – MOM. Kept us in the match with 2 fine saves and was commanding.
Hunt – 6 – Struggled against Asamoah (but then, who didn’t) and was guilty of some wayward passing.
Wilson – 6 – Sometimes looked very good, and sometimes extremely poor. His short passing was just not up to mstandard today but won some great challenges in the air and on the deck
Barrett – 7 – Strong and made some great challenges. Unlucky not to score.
Edwards – 7 – One slip near end of first half but rescued situation with great challenge.
Pettefer – 6 – took up some good positions but for some reason there seems to be an aversion to passing the ball to him.
Maher – 7.5 – Tried to close everyone down and made some fine passes. However was muscled out of it sometimes by Murray, especially in first half
Bentley – 6 – Quiet game for him. Should have done better on a couple of occasions in front of goal.
Bramble – 5. Almost as poor as he was away at Orient. For some reson he seems very low on confidence.
Gray – 6.5 – Usual 110% workrate but with no reward
Eastwood – 5 – Too casual, too greedy, looked knackered. Didn’t look like scoring. Time for a trip to the bench.
Sub –
Dudfield – 7. Did well when he came on and gave us fresh legs.
Ref – Mr Robinson – 6. Apart from the fact that I couldn’t hear his whistle a lot of the time, he generally had a good game. I suspect the decision to disallow the last minute goal was probably correct, much as though it pains me to say it.
A final word – we missed Gower bigtime. Without him we have little width and no creativity. His injury problems are very concerning and would appear to be something that is always going to affect him because it is down to the way he runs. This is an area Tilly needs to strengthen if we are to be a force in this division.
