Post-Match Thread and Ratings FA Cup Yeovil Town 1 - 0 Southend United

[rlb999]

The magic of the FA Cup means that a team who work hard, stick together, and follow their game plan - can beat a team of better players from a higher division who turn up, give a half-hearted performance and generally don't get out of second gear. Unfortunately, today this was us. It's still disappointing to travel 3 hours each way to hear the bloke behind me lay into Timlin immediately on his first touch and not stop for 90 mins - or for our fans to boo the team off at half time and full time.

Oxley - 7 - an example of why I'm reluctant to call out some of the other players as not being good enough. This guy looked to be hopeless but is actually a perfectly competent keeper at this level.
Demetriou - 7 - couldn't fault his effort and was certainly one of our better players today. I'm not sure he's as valuable to the team as some think though.
White - 7 - started slowly but grew as the game went on and by the end was probably our best player.
Ferdinand - 7 - very little to worry him today and he jogged through the game looking like he was in second gear. the annoying thing is he looks like there might be a third gear if he could be bothered engaging it.
Timlin - 5 - needs releasing from his shackles at left back - he's not doing well in the role and we arguably need him further forwards.
Wright - 5 - see Oxley - really looks to me like we've signed a dud here but I hope to be proved wrong.
Leonard - 6 - don't agree with others that he was our best player. if he's genuinely destined to play at a higher level, we should see more of it.
Wordsworth - 5 - committed but off form. if he could find form I suspect he'd be our key player.
Kightly - 6 - clearly a cut above and the only player who plays the ball and moves rather than playing the ball and standing still. a shame Brown maroons him out on the left wing - get him on the right where he's more comfortable or even in the middle where he could run the game.
Cox - 7 - ran the length of the field on a couple of occasions to cover. intelligent movement as ever that wasn't picked out by our pedestrian midfield.
Fortune - 5 - out fought by their giant defenders today.

Ranger - 7 - fared far better against their tall back line. a shame we could only launch balls at him rather than actually play the ball.
McLaughlin - 5 - seen this bloke play often enough now to be quite happy if we sold him to a league 2 club in January.
McGlashan - 5 - his pace scares people to death. when we're playing badly as we were today I don't understand why he isn't thrown on sooner as he at least causes the opposition a different problem. I'd play him up front off ranger. but what do I know.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

Our better players like Kightly and the like are back but we have powder puff stick force PB can't seem to motive them.Ron isn't like most chairmen and will give him time but our much will he give him.I for one want PB to suceed can't understand why we have so many players not performing.

professional footballers shouldn't need motivating!!

I don't need my manager coming up to me every 15 minutes to tell me I'm doing a great job to be motivated - managers can be blamed for poor decisions etc, but motivation is purely down to you, and you only!!

 

[Shrimper]

You can see in the build up to the first goal that Timlin is woefully out of position and diving in where he shouldn't be.

 

[rayleigh dan]

Our so called 'big players' really need to pull their collective fingers out. We've got four with Premier league experience (Ferdinand, Kightly, Cox and Ranger), all were poor today, and none have really impressed all season.

I'm sure they're the four biggest earners too, no more time for excuses. If we're going to have a chance of keeping Lenny in Jan we need the aforementioned to start performing quick smart.

 

[Stuart W]

The magic of the FA Cup means that a team who work hard, stick together, and follow their game plan - can beat a team of better players from a higher division who turn up, give a half-hearted performance and generally don't get out of second gear. Unfortunately, today this was us. It's still disappointing to travel 3 hours each way to hear the bloke behind me lay into Timlin immediately on his first touch and not stop for 90 mins - or for our fans to boo the team off at half time and full time.

Oxley - 7 - an example of why I'm reluctant to call out some of the other players as not being good enough. This guy looked to be hopeless but is actually a perfectly competent keeper at this level.
Demetriou - 7 - couldn't fault his effort and was certainly one of our better players today. I'm not sure he's as valuable to the team as some think though.
White - 7 - started slowly but grew as the game went on and by the end was probably our best player.
Ferdinand - 7 - very little to worry him today and he jogged through the game looking like he was in second gear. the annoying thing is he looks like there might be a third gear if he could be bothered engaging it.
Timlin - 5 - needs releasing from his shackles at left back - he's not doing well in the role and we arguably need him further forwards.
Wright - 5 - see Oxley - really looks to me like we've signed a dud here but I hope to be proved wrong.
Leonard - 6 - don't agree with others that he was our best player. if he's genuinely destined to play at a higher level, we should see more of it.
Wordsworth - 5 - committed but off form. if he could find form I suspect he'd be our key player.
Kightly - 6 - clearly a cut above and the only player who plays the ball and moves rather than playing the ball and standing still. a shame Brown maroons him out on the left wing - get him on the right where he's more comfortable or even in the middle where he could run the game.
Cox - 7 - ran the length of the field on a couple of occasions to cover. intelligent movement as ever that wasn't picked out by our pedestrian midfield.
Fortune - 5 - out fought by their giant defenders today.

Ranger - 7 - fared far better against their tall back line. a shame we could only launch balls at him rather than actually play the ball.
McLaughlin - 5 - seen this bloke play often enough now to be quite happy if we sold him to a league 2 club in January.
McGlashan - 5 - his pace scares people to death. when we're playing badly as we were today I don't understand why he isn't thrown on sooner as he at least causes the opposition a different problem. I'd play him up front off ranger. but what do I know.

Look like Echo type ratings to me. Based on the garbage I saw today, then I reckon if I ran around for 90 minutes today, you would have to give me at least a "4", and I am 62.

A "6" for Kightly? Would have got a "2" from me and that is being generous.

 

[Stuart W]

By the way, did anyone else notice what looked like a new suit that PB was wearing. Not bought for an interview was it?

 

[Medway Blue]

Why are so many people only now noticing that Cox is playing too deep? I’ve been saying consistently since the Blackburn game and I said it a couple of times last season. The bloke is a striker who has scored 29 goals in a season at this level in the past, yet he seems to want to drop deep all the time and when the ball eventually gets played forward he is 10 yards or more behind it.

So why is it happening?
1. Is the orange knob telling him to do it? If so, farcical.
2. Is he getting frustrated with lack of service and lack of vision/skill/movement in midfield and going in search of the ball out of that frustration? If so, that should tell you all you need to know about the tactics and the mentality drilled into the players on the training pitch.

Either way, Brown should be sorting it out and he’s not.

Something stinks. Something has stunk for me for ages and ages and last season’s turn around was, IMO, in spite of some of the issues bubbling under the surface. We have some bad eggs/attitudes in the camp I think, potentially a bit of a divide between the “lower leaguers” and the Billy Big Bollocks, and I think we have a manager who can’t man manage and who doesn’t seem to know what to do with what he’s got. Things need freshening up.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Personal positive was I got to tick a ground off. Only player to come away with any credibility from that was Cox, ran his socks off and covered every inch

 

[southendwill]

Turner 10 showed great leadership qualities

 

[Colchester John]

For once I hope we get smashed then.

Call yourself a fan? The Club could do without fans like you - just saying.

 

[shrimperjon]

We are so Jekyll and Hyde. Last week this same 11, without being at its best beat a Walsall side unbeaten at home and who had beaten Doncaster the week before away 3-0, yet the same 11 can not appear to motivate themselves, or in PB words have the wrong attitude against a bang average L2 side. I hear people say but we are only two points off the play offs so not all is wrong, but sorry, today there was much wrong including PB after match interview, where again he lays the blame on the players. It's your squad Phil, players u brought in. It's your job to ensure that they are prepared tactically, mentally and physically and just every now and then win a ****ing cup match. Already the FA Cup is over for us and the dream of old Trafford, anfield, emirates etc has gone for another season and with it a huge financial opportunity. Thanks Phil

 

[AndyT]

really? Are these people professional journalists and football watchers. It was pretty obvious. The only reason we "went up" was mainly out of boredom, but because the ref seemed to indicate a goal initially.

Foul mainly by Cox, but possibly others, on the keeper. Looked like a rugby line out.

That what they said, mate.

Mind you, they might not have been watching, as they were either slagging Ranger off or updating the latest goal from Gainsborough Trinity!

 

[AndyT]

professional footballers shouldn't need motivating!!

I don't need my manager coming up to me every 15 minutes to tell me I'm doing a great job to be motivated - managers can be blamed for poor decisions etc, but motivation is purely down to you, and you only!!

This. Totally agree.

It's the same team from the last two weeks and I doubt PB told them to play any differently, so a bit of it must be in the mind.

That said, maybe the mind just switches off a bit and loses focus, when the manager appears not wholly committed to the cause.

I'm a PB supporter, most of the time, but when managers start drifting from the plan and having their head turned, it's easy to see why players take their foot off the gas, as well.

That said, you shouldn't be losing and failing to score against Yeovil Town, when you are in the top half of League One.

 

[* ORM *]

Personal positive was I got to tick a ground off. Only player to come away with any credibility from that was Cox, ran his socks off and covered every inch

Some miss those shorts of the early 80s

 

[smudgster]

At the start of the season on paper we had one of the best squads in the league, now its not worth the paper it was written on.

I am not a Brown out but it is his job to choose the tactics and motivate the players, he clearly admits that he failed on one of those tasks at yeovil.

Something needs to change at the club whether it's the manager or the squad I don't care but at the moment it clearly is not a recipe for success.

 

[hamiltonblue]

Out of both cups and only a point better off than this time last season, not good enough.

 

[Hawkwell Blue]

For once I hope we get smashed then.

Ridiculous comment assuming you're annoyed we went out of one cup competition yesterday.

 

[Hawkwell Blue]

Missing out on the play offs by 1 point after f***ing up the end of the season

Or by Bristol Rovers conceding five minutes from the end of the season. You may have noticed that football is not an exact science and loss of form, a good run and luck has a large part to play. It was a only a great run that got us in the play offs, admittedly we should have won at Morecambe, in 2015. When logic gets into football it's time to walk away.

 

[OlvisIII]

Went to the game yesterday and have to agree with the comments regarding the poorness of the performance. I commented after five minutes that we were in danger of being dragged into a scrap and down to their level which happened; as soon as that happened it becomes a leveller. It was a nil nil game to be honest, but a very soft penalty gave Yeovil a win.

Apathy and lethargy were evident in so many in blue today and resulted in a truly dreadful 90 minutes. It was very clear after 5 minutes that there was little change going to be given from their number 17 in the air. He swallowed up everything. Why did we continue trying all game? We even tried throwing on Ranger who got the same treatment? This is a lack of football intelligence and the bench and players need to take responsibility. All the chances created came from intricate passing releasing players into the channels in the box. Why? Because we do have better footballers that are more skilful. Sadly it only happened on a few occasions.

It is one game and there needs to be a reflection of realism about our club. We are competing well again and I'm sure will continue to. Needs a decent performance Tuesday to get over Yeovil; but also use the memory to avoid complacency again.

Just a quick word about Yeovil. Having remembered a bouncing stadium in the mid 00's in their promotion years, I found the whole atmosphere quite sad. Half the ground empty - disappointing.

 

[southendkid]

professional footballers shouldn't need motivating!!

I don't need my manager coming up to me every 15 minutes to tell me I'm doing a great job to be motivated - managers can be blamed for poor decisions etc, but motivation is purely down to you, and you only!!

I think you're confusing motivation with 'bothering to try'. I don't know what your job is but football isn't like most jobs, a better comparison that most could relate to would probably be playing darts, snooker or some other competitive game. I'm pretty bad at darts but sometimes if I get a couple of darts in or near triple 20 I'll start playing well because subconsciously I start believing that I'm actually alright, so I stop overthinking everything and just throw naturally. Meanwhile if the darts are going wayward I start overthinking what I'm doing and inevitably that leads to more poor throws. I'm still trying to win when I'm playing badly, but my motivation has been affected by the bad throws which affects how I play.

It's rare to find a team that won't intentionally be trying to win matches but there are a lot of motivational factors that can influence how someone plays. A player being in a good run of form will try shots that he wouldn't usually dream of because he believes it will comes off, whilst a player out of form will look to lay the ball off because a voice in his head will tell him he's going to balloon it over the bar if he has a go. Look at Mark Oxley, he was absolutely useless at the start of last season, he kept overthinking simple saves and as a result kept dropping the ball, this year he looks confident and assured, and so he's making reaction saves he wouldn't have got anywhere near last season.

It's subconscious factors that can make players play more negatively or positively than they usually would and it is absolutely part of the manager's job to encourage the positive thoughts and dispell the negative ones. I think it's why we tend to go on long runs of good form followed by runs of bad form, I don't think Brown knows how to get players to snap out of a negative mentality but does know how to give players encouragement when they're playing well.