Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-3 Walsall FC

[rayleigh dan]

Oxley 4 - Horrible. I thought the first goal took a bobble, but looking at it again I'm not so sure. The second looked saveable too. He's my player of the season so far, let's hope it's a one off.

Demetriou 6 - Looked threatening at times going forward and fairly solid defensively too.
Turner 7 - Best of the defense for me. Dominant in the air, when he did get caught by a ball over the top he recovered well.
Ferdinand 6 - Did OK, no horrible errors, but took a chance with a sideways/backwards pass too much for my liking.
Coker 5 - Had an off day defensively, tried his best late on to get forward.

McLaughlin 5 - A little better than against Portsmouth. Still way below his best.
Timlin 5 - Disappointing. Way short of the bombastic displays he's produced previously under Powell. :sad:
Yearwood 7 - Deserves credit, one who kept fighting, showed his naivety with that run in his own half late on.
Harrison 6 - A bit 'meh'. A few nice touches and good crosses, however he looks a striker playing out of position. Let's give him another try up front.

Cox 7 - Can't fault him really. One who kept the press up and was a bit unlucky with a couple of half chances.
Ladapo 3 - Sorry but is he really a pro footballer? Absolutely terrible, his touch is worse than mine, he win's zero in the air, and worst of all, he can't be arsed to chase after a 50/50 ball. Sorry, but he set the tone which others seemed to follow today.:sad: Please let's see Fortune back or give Harrison a chance up front.

Subs
Kightly 6 - Looked like he was perhaps trying too hard.
Fortune 5 - Didn't make much impact, but still a million miles better than Ladapo.
Wordsworth 5 - Don't think I've ever seen him run so much in a short period. Trying to prove to CP he can work hard I guess?! No where to be seen for Walsall's third though. :unsure:

 

[rayleigh dan]

Ladapo 1 - Pathetic. One of the poorest centre forward displays I've seen for years. If he gets a start infront of Fortune next game ill be seriously worried.

To be honest, I don't think I've seen such an inept performance from a striker since Sada 'pepe' N'diaye. The last player I remember actively hiding from the ball like Ladapo did today, was him.

 

[tallboyblue]

Yep, I'd forgotten about that Wordy tackle. In fairness, it was a good one.

He is playing for a contract from now on.!

 

[Strykr]

You cant win em all. Hopefully just a blip in what has been a weird week with the weather. As others have alluded too, Scp needs to take negatives into positives moving forward. Wasnt at the game but by all accounts the new forward sounds terrible. But lets not write anyone off in their first game.

 

[buffalowolf]

Ive read the match reports and am disgusted , it comes across quite clearly to me that the players been sitting back hoping all week that the match would be postponed ( very unprofessional as far as im concerned ) and werent prepared to play. What they have done is to their detriment by giving SCP an insight to how bad they can be,i dont think SCP will be happy.They also did a disservice to all the supporters who turned up not just to watch the game but also help clear the pitch off snow etc.Still a massive clearout needed at the end of the season i think .Last word on this, At least now all talk of a playoff surge should stop.:thumbdown:

 

[blues exile]

Reality bursts the bubble. This was the other side of the coin, the collective Mr Hyde to the Dr Jekyll of recent weeks. The question Powell needs to find the answer to, is why? How can the impressive, hit the ground running style of the last few games just evaporate in the cold Roots Hall air? Why didn't the heroic, unpaid efforts of supporters to clear the pitch inspire the players to respond to that effort with a performance to match? I think a few in depth one on one discussions between manager and players is needed to sort this out. A display akin to the dogdays of Brown's regime is a kick in the teeth to all supporters, especially those who cleared the pitch. I suppose the only saving grace is that now Powell can be under no illusions about the scale of the task ahead of him.

 

[AndyT]

Clarky made a good point pre-match that often when you spend all week thinking a game is going to be called off, you aren't always mentally prepared when it is suddenly on at the last minute.

I think the whole ambience around the place was one of that we all had to be there, rather than we had been looking forward to it. That goes for fans and players alike.

Couple that with the state of the pitch and that realistically there wasn't a huge amount riding on the game and you end up with what amounted to an almost pre-season friendly about it all.

 

[rigsby]

From where I sat I thought the first goal did take a kick to the left, hence Oxley dived under and passed it.

As for the free-kicks. Oztumers runs from almost 90 degrees to the side, so was definitely going over the wall. The problem was Oxley couldn't see as they put a man on the end of our wall and Timlin? came in next to him.

Lots of players do that but to me if your not right behind the oppo player in the wall then there's no point. You only block your own keepers view.

Apart from that he two good kicks and he created his own luck by shooting on target for the first, in a game that had all the warning of lets not go 0-1 down here. Real lazy work by us on our right and a nice pirouette by Demi for the 3rd.

Anyway from now on we will find out who will be here next season. So far since the start of the year the group mentality has been predictable of the modern player. Ease off when you know a manager is about to be sacked, then put a few shifts in for the new guy because then the fans won't blame us.

Lets hope with a week of proper training it improves the performance for next week. I won't be around for a while so enjoy.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Where we sat in the East Stand I was behind the Ostwhotsit free kick and said ''Look at that huge gap Oxley is leaving on his left side.'' ''That's where it's going.'' Doh. Goal. I hate when our goalies do that. You can't always rely on the wall, especially nowadays as free kick specialists put in hours of training to get the ball over the wall and on target. Just be in the middle of the goal, and no matter where it goes you have a chance to save it.

 

[rigsby]

Where we sat in the East Stand I was behind the Ostwhotsit free kick and said ''Look at that huge gap Oxley is leaving on his left side.'' ''That's where it's going.'' Doh. Goal. I hate when our goalies do that. You can't always rely on the wall, especially nowadays as free kick specialists put in hours of training to get the ball over the wall and on target. Just be in the middle of the goal, and no matter where it goes you have a chance to save it.

True. We were discussing the exact same thing beforehand in the pub. Bentley's award was mentioned and he used to leave himself with to much to cover if the ball went over the wall. Moving more central puts the kicker under more pressure

A keeper has to gamble a bit but Ox was trying to peer trough legs etc. How about one of your own players in the wall moves out at the last second, that would give the keeper a clear view. Even if someone tries to hit the gap the keeper can clearly see it rather than if the wall breaks etc.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Our wall was definitely pushed a bit by their player in it. I felt all game that we were not physical enough with their players - Woody's tackle apart. Tims did fly in with a few that were a bit suspect but fortunately nowhere near connecting.

 

[RobM]

Our wall was definitely pushed a bit by their player in it. I felt all game that we were not physical enough with their players - Woody's tackle apart. Tims did fly in with a few that were a bit suspect but fortunately nowhere near connecting.

The 'wall' was being pushed across more than once to make a gap. Hence the goal.
From where I was, Wordy's tackle looked a yellow card! I'm the only person to think so though.

 

[LBBlue]

We only conceded 6 fouls the whole game ( must be a record) - one of which lead to the second goal and one of which nearly led to an identical goal. They only conceded 8 - the game was so end of season with no one getting stuck in, no urgency. No wonder the ref looked good. Having said that we only conceded 8 fouls against both Wigan and Portsmouth.

I thought we edged an uninspiring first half and the first 5 minutes of the second half looked hopeful but once we conceded we were clueless as they were very good at getting everyone back behind the ball, winning it back and giving it to Oztumer who would run at our statues.

Last year Lenny sorted Oztumer with a crunching tackle in the first 5 minutes.

As other have said, Lapado, 25, looks way out of his depth the timing of his jumps is woeful and has little strength. He probably needs a few more games just to make sure we don't want him as I don't think Fortune will be retained for next season.

Depressingly (for football in general) the highly rated Harrison, who is 21 in July looked pretty much out of his depth in the man's game and should have put away that gilt edged chance. He seems a bit like our last Spurs loanee the then highly rated Shaq Coulthirst. Mind you their 20 year loanee, Ngoy, looked reasonable as did the Shrewsbury loanee Carlton Morris.

Football needs to bring back proper reserve football, get rid of 7 on the bench - back to 3 plus a keeper- and let the boys learn with the men in proper football.

 

[AndyT]

Football needs to bring back proper reserve football, get rid of 7 on the bench - back to 3 plus a keeper- and let the boys learn with the men in proper football.

That is absolutely spot on.

Felt that for a while and I remember Clarky alluding to it, as well.

The subs thing is nuts. Just a waste of time while six players jog on and off with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

 

[dannypav]

Clarky made a good point pre-match that often when you spend all week thinking a game is going to be called off, you aren't always mentally prepared when it is suddenly on at the last minute.

I think the whole ambience around the place was one of that we all had to be there, rather than we had been looking forward to it. That goes for fans and players alike.

Couple that with the state of the pitch and that realistically there wasn't a huge amount riding on the game and you end up with what amounted to an almost pre-season friendly about it all.

Can’t the same be said for Walsall though ?

 

[AndyT]

I thought about this but would say no, because they've played two matches in the previous seven days, so are more in match mode. Plus they travelled down Friday and so would be more together as a squad and more prepared for the match.

That said, they didn't play any better than us in the first half, but definitely appeared more switched on as the game progressed.

 

[BrettieAngell]

I thought about this but would say no, because they've played two matches in the previous seven days, so are more in match mode. Plus they travelled down Friday and so would be more together as a squad and more prepared for the match.

That said, they didn't play any better than us in the first half, but definitely appeared more switched on as the game progressed.

The first goal was massive, it was a nothing game upto that point really and it gave them a lift and we just didn't respond.

 

[onceknownasrab]

From where I sat I thought the first goal did take a kick to the left, hence Oxley dived under and passed it.

As for the free-kicks. Oztumers runs from almost 90 degrees to the side, so was definitely going over the wall. The problem was Oxley couldn't see as they put a man on the end of our wall and Timlin? came in next to him.

Lots of players do that but to me if your not right behind the oppo player in the wall then there's no point. You only block your own keepers view.

Apart from that he two good kicks and he created his own luck by shooting on target for the first, in a game that had all the warning of lets not go 0-1 down here. Real lazy work by us on our right and a nice pirouette by Demi for the 3rd.

Anyway from now on we will find out who will be here next season. So far since the start of the year the group mentality has been predictable of the modern player. Ease off when you know a manager is about to be sacked, then put a few shifts in for the new guy because then the fans won't blame us.

Lets hope with a week of proper training it improves the performance for next week. I won't be around for a while so enjoy.

Hopefully this game was a one off but the point I highlighted has the potential to ring true. You are well aware that I was no fan of PB but he ended up going because some players basically downed tools and that is wrong. If they can do it once they can do it again. There are several players I felt were guilty and they should have been moved on too. Sadly, at the point of the season when CP took over, he had little time or opportunity to do a good clear out and some of the suspects are still playing. I missed yesterdays game and so can't opine too much. Let's hope it was a blip and not Leopards refinding their spots.

 

[RobM]

The subs thing is nuts. Just a waste of time while six players jog on and off with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

..often with 2 minutes to go and it's the bloke furthest away from the bench!

 

[kevst183]

Who were they then?

Result today aside, a big positive was that SUEPA arranged it's first 'mini event' this afternoon by re-uniting two players who put on a Shrimpers shirt back in the 1960's - today was the first tme they'd met in 51 years. There was a brief on the pitch photo and tanoy announcement about 10 mins or so before kick-off.

A couple of pics have just been posted up on the SUEPA Twitter and Facebook pages.

SUEPA is not just about celebrating the past but equally as important we want to create new memories. In a small way today I count that as job done.

Much much more will come from SUEPA in the months and years ahead so please support us, follow us on Twitter/Facebook, and if you have any links to ex players who you think might like to join (its free!) then do let us know - you can message me, message us on Facebook/Twitter, or email us at suepassoc@gmail.com

There will continue to be daily SUEPA Twitter/Facebook page news

We do hope to stage quite a big SUEPA event at the match v MK Dons in April - news on that will be announced nearer the time.

SUEPA match report over.

UTB