Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-0 Torquay

[OldBlueLady]

Waiting to hear from those who've insisted Freddy is a "has-been" and is "past it"........until he came on, we didn't look like getting a goal. Suddenly, Fred comes on and we're instantly more forceful. Finish was vintage Fred, proper goal poacher's instinct, and that's something that's lacking amongst our other forwards.

Thought the tactics were wrong today, the nice, fluid play we employed on Monday had gone out of the window for a more "hoof it" approach, for someone to run onto. It didn't work today, Loza looked far inferior to Barney.

Dan - 6, had very, very little do. The kicking was a bit wayward at times today
Johnny W - 7, solid and made a nuisance of himself. God knows what the wrestling was about!
Sokolik - 8, MOTM, Egan was the better defender Monday, today it was Sokolik's turn. Did everything asked of him and more
Egan - 7, solid
Coker - 7, no opportunity for over lapping runs - who do we blame that on?
Hurst - 7, better performance from Kev today, some good runs and decent crossing
Tims - 6, quiet day at the office for Tims
Atkinson - 6, industrious but not at his most effective
Lenny - 7, seems to be the kicking target for every team we play at the moment. I guess he should take that as a compliment
Barney - 8, just misses out on MOTM to Sokolik. Worked bloody hard
Loza - 5, real after the Lord Mayor's performance. Welcome to the dirty side of L2 football

Subs:
Murphy for Timlin - 6, not enough opportunity to run at the defence, wanted to see the bursts of pace we'd expected
Fred for Barney - 7, never doubted him for a second. Held the ball up in the corner really well (even though there were some people not realising what was going on and calling for them to stop messing about and to cross it!)
Laird for Loza - 6, if he's playing for a contract, then he needs to do more

Officials - far too lenient, cards should have been out earlier and their GK booked for time wasting first half.

 

[Strykr]

3 points in the bag, lets hope this is the start of a revival.

 

[tia]

Nice too see freddy get the winner. We weren't great but ground out the win. All that matters really. Nice to move back into play offs. Onwards and upwards

 

[Eddy Melito]

think murphy looked like he needed a bit more time with the team. he struggled a little with the pace and competitiveness of the game, but i think he can learn whats expected of him a lot more this week. he looked like he was used to the technical but semi competitve nature of under 21 football. definitely showed some ability though.

 

[RHB]

Biggest gate in Div 2 today by nearly 1000, well done all.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Waiting to hear from those who've insisted Freddy is a "has-been" and is "past it"........until he came on, we didn't look like getting a goal. Suddenly, Fred comes on and we're instantly more forceful. Finish was vintage Fred, proper goal poacher's instinct, and that's something that's lacking amongst our other forwards.

Thought the tactics were wrong today, the nice, fluid play we employed on Monday had gone out of the window for a more "hoof it" approach, for someone to run onto. It didn't work today, Loza looked far inferior to Barney.

Dan - 6, had very, very little do. The kicking was a bit wayward at times today
Johnny W - 7, solid and made a nuisance of himself. God knows what the wrestling was about!
Sokolik - 8, MOTM, Egan was the better defender Monday, today it was Sokolik's turn. Did everything asked of him and more
Egan - 7, solid
Coker - 7, no opportunity for over lapping runs - who do we blame that on?
Hurst - 7, better performance from Kev today, some good runs and decent crossing
Tims - 6, quiet day at the office for Tims
Atkinson - 6, industrious but not at his most effective
Lenny - 7, seems to be the kicking target for every team we play at the moment. I guess he should take that as a compliment
Barney - 8, just misses out on MOTM to Sokolik. Worked bloody hard
Loza - 5, real after the Lord Mayor's performance. Welcome to the dirty side of L2 football

Subs:
Murphy for Timlin - 6, not enough opportunity to run at the defence, wanted to see the bursts of pace we'd expected
Fred for Barney - 7, never doubted him for a second. Held the ball up in the corner really well (even though there were some people not realising what was going on and calling for them to stop messing about and to cross it!)
Laird for Loza - 6, if he's playing for a contract, then he needs to do more

Officials -far too lenient, cards should have been out earlier and their GK booked for time wasting first half.

So, that makes you and Leonard who would disagree with manor15, that today's referee was one of the best we've seen at this level in a long time! From what I heard, the commentators would side with you OBL......certainly didn't sound better than the one I saw on Monday night.

 

[snapper1]

To be honest, not bothered at all by the perfomance-at this stage of the season it's results that count. Play rubbish and win the next six will do me :-)

 

[monkeeshrimp]

What was the attendance?

 

[Sammy Shrimper]

Biggest gate in Div 2 today by nearly 2000, well done

Bristol Rovers 5647 ?

 

[Sammy Shrimper]

What was the attendance?

Attendance was 6556

 

[RHB]

Biggest gate in Div 2 today by nearly 2000, well done

Bristol Rovers 5647 ?

Should have read 1000, haven't edited yet, will now.

 

[dannypav]

Although the performance wasn't great when compared to Monday , I really didn't think Torquay posed much threat at all and always thought it was just a matter of time before we scored.
Plus points ?
The two young CB's are real class.
Both win almost every header , both strong , quick and comfortable on the ball.
I am a real fan of Prosser ( and still hope he wins POTY ) , but these two guys are a step up.

I also thought that Leonard and Atkinson had good games today and Freddy added something when he came on ( besides the goal of course ).

Negatives ?
Not too much really.
As I said , the performance wasn't great , but we dominated for most of the match IMO and sometimes things don't always go as well as we would like.
My only disappointment was White kicking the ball at their No 11 just after the Torquay player had been booked.
What White did was deliberate and he was making no attempt to pass to a team mate.
He was trying to get the player sent off and think it was unnecessary - he's better than that.

 

[buffalowolf]

It was always going to be a hard day at the office,Torquay fighting for survival,they were always going to harass our midfield and not give them time on the ball.but credit to the team, they ground out the right result,onward and upward please.i be happy with 1-0 results, next week is another big game,need a result to consolidate our position a bit.

 

[Eddy Melito]

Although the performance wasn't great when compared to Monday , I really didn't think Torquay posed much threat at all and always thought it was just a matter of time before we scored.
Plus points ?
The two young CB's are real class.
Both win almost every header , both strong , quick and comfortable on the ball.
I am a real fan of Prosser ( and still hope he wins POTY ) , but these two guys are a step up.

I also thought that Leonard and Atkinson had good games today and Freddy added something when he came on ( besides the goal of course ).

Negatives ?
Not too much really.
As I said , the performance wasn't great , but we dominated for most of the match IMO and sometimes things don't always go as well as we would like.
My only disappointment was White kicking the ball at their No 11 just after the Torquay player had been booked.
What White did was deliberate and he was making no attempt to pass to a team mate.
He was trying to get the player sent off and think it was unnecessary - he's better than that.

to be fair, their no 11 should have known better having just been booked for doing exactly what he was doing then. it also seemed to stop their players encroaching on short/quick free kicks so much after that.

john was laughing as he came away from that incident, so i think it was more a subtle reminder that they were still stopping the free kicks being taken.

 

[SUBBlue]

Good job the officials didn't notice Murphy's handball in the box just before he passed across for Fred to score!!

The referee definitely saw the 'handball', I didn't see the goal as was busy staring at the ref put the whistle in his mouth as he watched the ball roll up Murphy's arm!
Was waiting for him to disallow it, but he seemed to think about it and then pointed to the half line as the players celebrated. The Torquay players went mental at him !!!

 

[OldBlueLady]

So, that makes you and Leonard who would disagree with manor15, that today's referee was one of the best we've seen at this level in a long time! From what I heard, the commentators would side with you OBL......certainly didn't sound better than the one I saw on Monday night.

He wasn't a bad​ ref, God knows we've seen far worse this season, I just thought he was too lenient.

 

[dannypav]

to be fair, their no 11 should have known better having just been booked for doing exactly what he was doing then. it also seemed to stop their players encroaching on short/quick free kicks so much after that.

john was laughing as he came away from that incident, so i think it was more a subtle reminder that they were still stopping the free kicks being taken.

Yeah I understand what you mean about the time wasting - their keeper did it from the first minute and like many teams looking for a draw , it is really frustrating.
Just thought that incident was a little different and if it had been the other way around and one of our players actually picked up a second yellow , the crowd would have gone mad !

 

[OldBlueLady]

Btw, I thought Murphy was a little reminiscent of a certain HRK......be interesting to see how he develops over the remaining weeks.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

The referee definitely saw the 'handball', I didn't see the goal as was busy staring at the ref put the whistle in his mouth as he watched the ball roll up Murphy's arm!
Was waiting for him to disallow it, but he seemed to think about it and then pointed to the half line as the players celebrated. The Torquay players went mental at him !!!

It was ball to hand, nothing Murphy could do about it hence why the ref didn't blow for handball

 

[mgh]

Well, there was some time wasting but 8 mins total added-on time is prob about right.
not a great game, far too much hoofing, and the system was unbalanced - i thought the pitch had developed a slope towards the East stand for the first 15 mins...seems to teeter between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3, once Murphy is ready hopefully we'll play a true 4-4-2.
Torquay put in a great shift, their no 4 was outstanding, but they were very limited as an attacking threat.
Bentley 6, nothing to do
White 6, good in the air but aimless passing
Egan 7 did little wrong
Sokolik 8, his positional play is brilliant, and is brave too
Coker 7, great going forward but also guilty of some punts at times
Leonard 8 MOM, he comes into games more and more as his natural strength beats tired oppo
Timlin 5, weak link in the midfield, couldn't buy a pass
Atkinson 7, great energy and quality but needs to avoid the odd rush of blood in silly challenges
Hurst 7, was better than for a long time
Barnard 8, his best game easily in this second spell
Loza 6, not his day but pace did worry them and put in a couple of great crosses