Post-Match Thread and Ratings Luton 2-0 Southend United

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

It is incredible that Worrall is not starting a game. He looked on fire last time he came on as sub, and Hurst and Weston are out of form.

 

[Amwell Blue Jnr]

What I learnt today,

We were beaten by a better team on the day, after a very poor first half from blues.
Abusing our own players achieves nothing.
Sadly, a number of the fans that attended today are racist *****

Hope for a better game and experience next week.

 

[shrimpled]

Worst performance under Brown? The first half was absolutely dire. What really annoys me is that Luton really weren't that good, I got the feeling they were in 2nd gear all afternoon and thats all it needed. I can't remember Tyler in the Luton goal making a save..

DB - 5
White - 5
Thompson - 5.5
Bolger - 2
BW - 5.5
Hurst - 4
Clifford - 5.5
Deegan - 6
Weston - 4
Coulthirst - 3
Atkinson - 4

Leonard - 5.5
Corr - 5
Payne - 6

 

[Hawkwell Blue]

Comments here, chaps.

Why the need for the "nil"? Don't remember you doing it with other score lines.

 

[Rayleighboy]

2nd this. Very good support for the team when they came back out at 2-0 down, but 'our support is English' from the multitude and '**** off back to Asian' from a lone voice doesn't make me proud to be in that number.
Bolger obviously had a mare but the guy shouting 'Bolger you ****' over and over is not going to help his game improve.

Was there with my 12 year old son today and was embarrassed by the chanting by what sounded by a large number our so called fans! I wonder how many of our "non English" supporters enjoyed that???

 

[Norwichshrimper]

How long until brown drops hurst? He was awful yet again! Worrall must be thinking what have I done coming here?

the problem is that brown doesn't know his best starting 11

Hurst wasn't particularly good today. But I thought he was one of our best players (or perhaps least bad would be a better phrase). I was in the main stand with the home fans today so possibly got a different view than you guys crammed in the corner, but I thought he was one of only two of the starting line up who were vaguely OK (with John White).
Bentley wasn't near his best, Binnom-Williams couldn't win a header if it was a prize in a one ticket raffle, Thompson seems incapapable of heading the ball forwards it always goes straight up in the air..Bolger I will spare today as though he was dreadful I am assuming he was concussed. I don't get the targeting of Weston normally, I think there's a decent player in there, but today he was absolutely 100% woeful.

However I'm not blaming the players for the defeat, the blame lies completely with the management. Why in god's name do we keep setting up like that with no frigging strikers...unless we sneak an early goal it's just not going to work...and if we concede early like we did today and last week it just allows the opposition to close out the game. Yes, the players didn't perform well today, but look how much more of a threat we looked second half when we actually had a striker on the pitch...that system and those tactics do not work with the players we have. If Corr cannot play every game we need to get a striker in on loan...otherwise I think I am out

 

[Rayleigh boy]

interesting to note much talk recently about CONCUSSION in football .....

Bolger got a big whack before his mistake ..... looks like Brown screwed that one up - should have taken him off

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Everything in that first half was so wrong. Tactics, formation, line-up, the list goes on.

Anyone else think the Dave Penney incident was absolutely hilarious?

 

[wiggy]

Personally I think calling this thread the post match one would have bern sufficient. A very poor first half performance and whilst only marginally better in the second I certainly think Payne showed enough skill and commitment to be one of the first names on the tesm sheet for me. I am disappointed but not yet disspondent altho looking forward to getting back to Southend tonight and then Roots Hall next Saturday.

What worries me is that Phil Brown prefers Atkinson to Payne and can't wait to drop the latter. I'm sure he's only been playing him to stop the backlash, came out with he's been looking tired or something. Wish Bolton or someone would snap him up as he is blind to a good skillful player and blind to the fact we've got no proper strikers Look at Afc Wimbledon, theyve got two of them, both chipped in today. Also worrying is that after a lucky run he is absolutely clueless on how to stop a bad one!

 

[smudgster]

I think as far as opponants are concerned we are very, very predictable. Virtually the same formation with no recognised strikers.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Everything in that first half was so wrong. Tactics, formation, line-up, the list goes on.

Anyone else think the Dave Penney incident was absolutely hilarious?

What a farce. It was our throw, the Luton player wouldn't let the ball go, Penney tried to get it off him, bit of handbags and he sent Penney off. The ref was a tool

 

[davewebbsbrain]

interesting to note much talk recently about CONCUSSION in football .....

Bolger got a big whack before his mistake ..... looks like Brown screwed that one up - should have taken him off

Are you really going to blame that mistake on concussion? Bolger makes mistakes every time he plays and luckily until today, it hasn't cost us. He is a sloppy, lazy player that has a very short attention span

 

[rlb999]

Are you really going to blame that mistake on concussion? Bolger makes mistakes every time he plays and luckily until today, it hasn't cost us. He is a sloppy, lazy player that has a very short attention span

Yes, hasn't had the best start in Southend colours and goes to show why we do NOT need to pay fees for players in this day and age. However he was wearing the shirt today and clearly having an absolute mare, and people should get behind him no matter how dire he was. A pitty some fans can only tear into a player when he makes a mistake.

 

[southendkid]

What worries me is that Phil Brown prefers Atkinson to Payne and can't wait to drop the latter. I'm sure he's only been playing him to stop the backlash, came out with he's been looking tired or something. Wish Bolton or someone would snap him up as he is blind to a good skillful player and blind to the fact we've got no proper strikers Look at Afc Wimbledon, theyve got two of them, both chipped in today. Also worrying is that after a lucky run he is absolutely clueless on how to stop a bad one!

Brown has left Payne out for one game, a few people last week were saying he looked like he needed a rest, considering Payne has had a run of starts in the side I don't see how one game out is proof Brown prefers Atkinson.

 

[Rayleighboy]

According to Phil Brown "I made a mistake in not playing Jack Payne to be honest" - You don't say Phil, you don't say!!!

 

[shrimperjon]

Very poor day all round, took my son on supporters coach which was probably the one positive thing from the day, very well run as always.

• PB, again got team selection wrong. Why start with Coulthirst up front against two big physical CB. Mcnulty had Shaquille in his pocket. Really time to play a 4-4-2 and get Barnard and Corr upfront, just try something different. The ball never stuck once with the guys up top first half resulting in Shaquille giving the ball away and in the end a goal conceded. Weston was dreadful again yet he stays on and Atkinson who I thought at least battled hard first half got taken off. Payne came on as did Corr and we looked more threatening but without really threatening the goal. 11 shots 1 on target, says it all. We will not get out of the division unless we address our inability to convertt chances. Luton 10 shots, 2 on target, 2 goals enough said.
• Bolger took a bang to the head, a nasty gash and clearly it affected his game. To that point he had done well. The goal came from Bentley needlessly passing to Bolger on the edge of the box and yes it was a poor attempted pass from Bolger but Bentley should have sent it up field. Now turns out Bolger had concussion, so to all those foul mouthed idiots who proceeded to abuse him as he walked past us, maybe you should question the management or medical staff.
• PB, said that the players didn't seem to understand what to expect today from Luton, well that's your job, getting fed up of excuse after excuse. You signed these players, it's your team so sort it out. Clearly you chose the wrong team and wrong tactics. Coulthirst and Weston in particular do not deserve a place in this team. Give Barnard a chance, give Worrell a chance and in Payne don't bench the one player who offers a spark to this team. Get Leonard and Timlin back in as soon as possible. That's two defeats against teams around us and two poor performances.
• PB, at the end of the match, at least have the decency to acknowledge the support you got from the fans, which considering the dross served up was great today, sign the contract and sort out this mess or go.
• i decided to sit to the left of the goal today, not far from the boxes. The behaviour of those in box 1 in particular was a disgrace from the start, during and at the end of the game. Abuse from their mouths and gesturing the whole game, yet it was our fans who get picked out. Spoke to someone on the coach who's son is disabled and has a wheel chair. They were positioned to the left of the tunnel below the hardcore section of Luton fans, many objects including lighters were sent raining down at one point to which the steward said he couldn't do anything. Luton Town, sort this out. It's a **** area, with **** fans in a **** ground, but no excuse for some of the behaviour.
• to our own fans, Luton is an ethnic area no doubt, but some of the songs were a disgrace. The support by in large was excellent, but if someone can explain how shouting abuse at our players can help in anyway.
• lastly we are fifth and five points off the top. Let's not be fooled, our league position does not reflect how poor we have been this season. Something is not quite right, PB said that the spirit of last year is missing. That to me is a huge concern and I'm not convinced the players are playing for him at the moment.

Long way to go yes, but today was a huge disappointment and needs to be sorted and quickly

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

A bad day for Brown. Dropping Payne was a bad call, Atkinson couldnt score in a brothel.
Worryingly we seem to have no leadership at the back without Prosser there.
We must get another striker in January if not before. Weston and Shaq are not going to fire us to promotion. Watching the goals on sky sports now the likes of Paul Hayes, Akinfenwa, Tubbs, Kwesi Appiah, Ruben Reid all banging goals in. Why are Browns striker signings so poor?
I think someone else said earlier, we have perhaps had a few lucky results and realistically we are not playing that well. Promotion teams have a certain swagger, I dont think we have had that under Brown save the last few games of last season when Sokolik and Egan gave us a real classy look.

 

[Welly7]

What concerned me most today was that Luton out worked us. They hunted in two's & three's whereas we didn't. Also we were too slow in possession in terms of getting forwards - I don't mean hitting it long, too often we cut back inside for the sideways or backwards pass.
Payne showed up a few today too. He was the only one who seemed brave enough in the second half to try and make things happen. Not necessarily saying others hid, but they certainly lacking the will to try and get forwards and create something.
Two very, very disappointing performances now. Need a reaction big time next week!

 

[Welly7]

Are you really going to blame that mistake on concussion?

Whether that was the reason or not, Brown has to use it for the good of the player. He had a stinker.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Anyone know why Prosser wasn't there?