yogi bear up the cagire
Life President⭐
I'm not a great believer in chopping and changing managers and I was willing to give Paul Sturrock another season, even though I accepted that his brand and style of football was not universally appreciated. In the end players and managers come and go, Southend United is, hopefully, eternal and I simply want what is best for the club.
I was slow in warming to Phil Brown but the positives started to build. He began to get results from Freddy at the start of the season, he appeared to bring on Leonard in leaps and bounds. He developed Prosser from a liability to someone who was the backbone of the side, bringing in Kiernan as an effective partner for him in our unbeaten run and also recreated Straker as a player. The football we were playing in 2013 was a pleasure to watch, even in defeat I enjoyed our first trip to Chesterfield and I was then wowed by our sprited come back at Portsmouth. I was hooked.........I was on tangoed!
Come February and the tide completely turned. Was it injuries? was it the heavy pitches? was our winning style of play sussed out by the other sides? Or was it more a failure to adapt and adjust to all these circumstances? Some will say that the embargo has buggered us again this season, yet problems and results started to rear their ugly head at the start of February, when we were reportedly out of the embargo.
For me, our problems started in central defence with the loss of Kiernan, which was covered briefly and reasonably effectively by the partnership of Prosser and Thompson. Prosser left the scene on the 28th of January, yet we had to wait four games (two defeats) before we realised how much we were missing Luke and how shakey the defence had become without two reliable central defenders. Bolger arrived, all to briefly, to partner Thompson at York before both disappeared with injuries, which left us in the farcical situation at Northampton, where the central defence was a mix and match, whilst another three points went out of the window. Egan was the sole arrival to plug two huge holes in central defence and two more matches drifted by before Sokolik was brought in. FINALLY, in mid-March, with Egan and Sokolik we start to hear reports that our defence was looking solid! Yes, we have had bad luck with injuries but for me, the failure to bring in effective cover urgently enough has cost us dear.
Unfortunately, our problems were not only restricted to defence, we appeared to have one or two problems scoring and this situation wasn't helped by the withdrawal of Woodrow, our only player with any pace. Some would say he wasn't that effective, yet a couple of months after returning to Fulham, he's playing (well) in the Premiership. This loss was soon forgotten with the announcement that the embargo was no more and January had been a time for strengthening the side; on the 6th of February PB proudly announced,
"In January we were able to bring in Bedsente Gomis, Luke O'Neill and Lee Barnard to the football club,
who I'm sure will play a big part in helping us achieve what we want this season - and that's promotion."
If there ever words that come back and bite you in the bum! Luke shone brightly for a few minutes, Gomis hasn't yet exactly proved an important addition and it soon became apparent that Lee wasn't going to hit the ground running and certainly wasnt going to provide the pace missed by Woodrow's absence. Since then there have been contradictory statements coming from PB. One day he announces that we need to strengthen the squad and that anything up to four players could arrive, then the next day, he states his belief that the present squad can turn things around!
The thing is, at the start of the season, if we had sauntered along in mid table most of us, including myself,, would have accepted that this season was one for settling in and rebuilding, before launching a promotion bid for 2014/5. Perhaps in some ways, unfortunately for PB, we got well established in a promotion position and thus the present fall from grace has been so dramatic, alarming and catastrophic, has it exposed weaknesses in PB's decision making and management skills? In the end, if we don't make the play-offs, will Phil Brown's reputation be irretrievably flawed? Will there be a shadow hanging over him, as the guy who blew it and lost the plot? What if we get in a similar position next year, will there not be the slightest fear that he could blow it again?
I was slow in warming to Phil Brown but the positives started to build. He began to get results from Freddy at the start of the season, he appeared to bring on Leonard in leaps and bounds. He developed Prosser from a liability to someone who was the backbone of the side, bringing in Kiernan as an effective partner for him in our unbeaten run and also recreated Straker as a player. The football we were playing in 2013 was a pleasure to watch, even in defeat I enjoyed our first trip to Chesterfield and I was then wowed by our sprited come back at Portsmouth. I was hooked.........I was on tangoed!
Come February and the tide completely turned. Was it injuries? was it the heavy pitches? was our winning style of play sussed out by the other sides? Or was it more a failure to adapt and adjust to all these circumstances? Some will say that the embargo has buggered us again this season, yet problems and results started to rear their ugly head at the start of February, when we were reportedly out of the embargo.
For me, our problems started in central defence with the loss of Kiernan, which was covered briefly and reasonably effectively by the partnership of Prosser and Thompson. Prosser left the scene on the 28th of January, yet we had to wait four games (two defeats) before we realised how much we were missing Luke and how shakey the defence had become without two reliable central defenders. Bolger arrived, all to briefly, to partner Thompson at York before both disappeared with injuries, which left us in the farcical situation at Northampton, where the central defence was a mix and match, whilst another three points went out of the window. Egan was the sole arrival to plug two huge holes in central defence and two more matches drifted by before Sokolik was brought in. FINALLY, in mid-March, with Egan and Sokolik we start to hear reports that our defence was looking solid! Yes, we have had bad luck with injuries but for me, the failure to bring in effective cover urgently enough has cost us dear.
Unfortunately, our problems were not only restricted to defence, we appeared to have one or two problems scoring and this situation wasn't helped by the withdrawal of Woodrow, our only player with any pace. Some would say he wasn't that effective, yet a couple of months after returning to Fulham, he's playing (well) in the Premiership. This loss was soon forgotten with the announcement that the embargo was no more and January had been a time for strengthening the side; on the 6th of February PB proudly announced,
"In January we were able to bring in Bedsente Gomis, Luke O'Neill and Lee Barnard to the football club,
who I'm sure will play a big part in helping us achieve what we want this season - and that's promotion."
If there ever words that come back and bite you in the bum! Luke shone brightly for a few minutes, Gomis hasn't yet exactly proved an important addition and it soon became apparent that Lee wasn't going to hit the ground running and certainly wasnt going to provide the pace missed by Woodrow's absence. Since then there have been contradictory statements coming from PB. One day he announces that we need to strengthen the squad and that anything up to four players could arrive, then the next day, he states his belief that the present squad can turn things around!
The thing is, at the start of the season, if we had sauntered along in mid table most of us, including myself,, would have accepted that this season was one for settling in and rebuilding, before launching a promotion bid for 2014/5. Perhaps in some ways, unfortunately for PB, we got well established in a promotion position and thus the present fall from grace has been so dramatic, alarming and catastrophic, has it exposed weaknesses in PB's decision making and management skills? In the end, if we don't make the play-offs, will Phil Brown's reputation be irretrievably flawed? Will there be a shadow hanging over him, as the guy who blew it and lost the plot? What if we get in a similar position next year, will there not be the slightest fear that he could blow it again?