Post-Match Thread and Ratings Maidenhead United 1-2 Southend United

[HertfordshireBlue]

Intensity and directness was so much better tonight, normally we would sideways football at every opportunity but it was a breath of fresh air to watch us play forward and take on players 1v1. I thought Bridge looked similar to what we saw at the beginning of the season. Noor controlled the midfield much better, Kensdale and Crowther seem a proper pairing together and I’m so glad Waldron got a goal - he’s definitely adapting to this league but took his goal well and showed what we could possibly expect in the future.

A very important three points, none of us knew how tonight would go given our last performances but still carried impressive numbers midweek, I loved Maher’s passion at the end and hopefully this team can build some confidence back and get us where we deserve to be when playing at our best.

 

[LBBlue]

Jack Bridge was excellent tonight - has anyone noticed that we get much better results when Nathan Ralph doesn’t play. Jack had a lot more room tonight without Ralph clogging up that left flank.

Glenn Pennyfather was getting extremely agitated and frustrated at the number of times we played short square passes instead of knocking longer passes for Waldron and Cardwell to run on to. One of those misplaced passes led to the move for their goal.

It was great to see Waldron run through and actually “strike” a shot in to the goal instead of trying to pass it in.

A big relief winning. The bottom of the table starts with 10th placed Daggers who are only 4 points ahead of 4th from bottom Dorking having played 2 games more. I can see it going to the last day of the season for a lot of clubs.

 

[1966 and all that]

Commentators were a right couple of planks.

Barry Maher as mentioned.
Phil Brown is a radio pundit.
Marcus Dackers and Henry Sandat are both on loan from Hull.

Very harsh. I thought they did OK - and were better than a lot. They were also more than fair to Southend in commentary.

 

[BlueBore]

Very harsh. I thought they did OK - and were better than a lot. They were also more than fair to Southend in commentary.

I thought they were pleasantly incompetent. They got a lot of things wrong, but also tried to be balanced and objective and were therefore quite likeable.

 

[Maldon Shrimper]

I thought they were pleasantly incompetent. They got a lot of things wrong, but also tried to be balanced and objective and were therefore quite likeable.

Absolutely right ,far better than some we have had over this season

 

[Joolz]

Deserved win but football being a game of fine margins we could have thrown it away - in the same manner we could have won our previous 3 games.

So I’m not getting too excited, but equally I wasn’t that despondent in the first place.

 

[shrimperjon]

On way home very happy and relieved with a deserved win. Started very brightly and on the front foot and took a deserved lead from the impressive Crowther. We continued to press forward and created a few half chances. Then after around 20 mins we went back in our shell and let Maidenhead back in with a sloppy goal.

Second half we were much better and seemed to control the game with Maidenhead looking to hit us more on the break. Then Waldron showed us what he is all about. His first clear run on goal and finished very impressively to put us in the lead. There after we created further chances as did Maidenhead but Colin in goal made some impressive saves

So back to winning ways and quite how we didn’t beat the hopeless Oxford City Saturday is beyond belief after another spanking tonight. But the three points key at the moment. 5 of our next 6 are at home so a good chance to get ourselves away form the bottom.

Colin- 7 some good saves
JD- 6 struggled at times but stuck to his task
Kensdale- 6.5 a bit shaky but pretty solid
Crowther- 8 MOM a real find this lad and at last hit the net
Miley - 7 played out of position but did well
and composed
Bridge- 7 best game for a while and was more direct which is so much more like him
Husin- 6.5 better second half and tried to drive the team forward
Wes- 6 worked hard and played his part
Morton- 7 pick of the midfield, has a really good range of passing and comfortable on the ball
Cardwell- 6.5 worked hard and could have had a goal
Waldron- 7 good movement and getting stronger and took his goal very well. Signs of what he can do

Dackers- 6.5 won a few headers especially defensively and worked hard
Sandat- 6.5 worked hard and showed some nice touches

Don’t know how many Southend fans there tonight. Would say 500-600. Very funny to see Maidenhead run when Southend fans broke through at half time. But another very good turnout

So two tough home games coming up but can go in to Saturday with confidence now

 

[cerbera45]

Still only out of the bottom 4 on goal difference, need to push on now and move us away.

It's so congested down there

 

[bazzashrimper]

Hats off to Demi. Has kept himself fit and played really well tonight. Probably better than Gus has been but without the goal threat.

Great strike by Waldron. After an early misplaced pass by him led to a good chance for them, on top of his last poor start, I was starting to doubt him. But great run and shot.

Bridge was excellent, but was afforded space he never seems to get. It was lucky as Wes had a night to forget. As we seek to improve our quality in the final third, it’s pretty obvious a good place to start. It’s not like he helps too much going the other way.

 

[LBBlue]

Hats off to Demi. Has kept himself fit and played really well tonight. Probably better than Gus has been but without the goal threat.

Great strike by Waldron. After an early misplaced pass by him led to a good chance for them, on top of his last poor start, I was starting to doubt him. But great run and shot.

Bridge was excellent, but was afforded space he never seems to get. It was lucky as Wes had a night to forget. As we seek to improve our quality in the final third, it’s pretty obvious a good place to start. It’s not like he helps too much going the other way.

I think Bridge had more space tonight because Ralph wasn’t playing. Cav didn’t look to overlap him.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

What tonight demonstrated to me watching the match on stream was that at this level, as some have pointed out, is our match plan has been countered by those teams that have the players to counter it.

Against the likes on Maidenhead, when we are on it, they do not have the players to counter us. But although we dominate games possession wise we still do not test the keeper enough and the ball still gets passed wide without looking at other options.

That is fine against the lower level teams, IF we are on our game as we were tonight. But and for me it's a big but, when we are up against promotion pushing teams with better squads and sharper coaches we are found wanting.

We can play all the pretty stuff we want, but if we don't shoot more often, we are going to lose in top of the table matches to those teams that either will shoot, or have seemingly more accomplished strikers in their squads to finish what they create.

This season, so far we have only won 3 out of 11 matches played so far against the top seven. If we are seriously looking to get promoted next season, that simply has to improve. It would also help if it started improving and we become more lethal in the last fourteen games of this season to make sure we are in this league to be talking about promotion back to the EFL next season too.

The signs of what we need to be doing were there tonight.

Jack seemed to be a lot more direct at running at his fullback and putting balls across the six yard box. If he keeps doing that and the strikers get used to him doing that, then they can be more confident in making the runs to get on the end of them and not have to pull back, because Jack has decided to beat the fullback another 2 or three times before delivering.

Morton looked good in the first twenty minutes, spraying the ball around. He didn't get as much space in the second half, but what was encouraging was he did the dirty stuff too, getting his foot in and moving the ball on quickly maintaining possession.

Noor seemed freer without Cav along side him and made more forward runs and even had a shot in the first half! Cards was all energy and did well in a support role, but for me needs to be more goal hungry and looking for opportunities to score. Waldron took his goal really well and it was very pleasing to see, especially so early in his career as a Shrimper. We need to be looking to play him in more and he needs to work on his first touch and upper body strength as the ball still bounces off him and he is currently eased off the ball too easily by opposing defenders.

At the back we need to look at setting up for set pieces, not giving silly free kicks away in dangerous places, but we seem to have cut out the scary passes hopefully. It will be good to see Ralph back in the back four on Saturday.

So, whilst we are still a work in progress, there were definitely some improvements over the past three matches, which there needed to be. Hopefully we ca concentrate on being more solid at the back and cut the sloppy goals out at the back and be more offence minded with an eye on an end product for the rest of the season.


Controversially for most, I'd go with the same midfield as tonight and leave Cav on the bench on Saturday. Aldershot have a weak centre midfield and looking at their fans comments O'Keefe and Widdrington Jnr are not pulling up many trees, so we need to grab the midfield by the scuff of the neck possession wise and drive forward as we did in the first 20 tonight but for longer on Saturday. Hopefully Gus will be back too and can keep up with the theme of more crosses into the box and more long throws too.

Anyway a much needed result tonight and pleasing signs for the future and long may it continue.

UTB!

 

[bazzashrimper]

I think Bridge had more space tonight because Ralph wasn’t playing. Cav didn’t look to overlap him.

Maybe. I thought it was because Maidenhead didn’t double up on him like every other team does

 

[Exiled Shrimper]

This evening was all about the result, rather than the performance. We needed to score a couple of goals, and we needed a win to ease some of the anxiety, especially taking into account other results.

Very pleasing to score from a corner, and Crowther finally getting his reward for the way he attacks set-pieces. He’s had chances to score since he came into the team, and hopefully he’ll kick-on from there.

I thought in the first 20-25 minutes we were excellent. The goal came about after Bridge had cut back onto his right foot to deliver a cross for Cardwell that was turned away by the goalkeeper, and for 10 or 15 minutes after scoring we oozed confidence, Husin especially. He turned his marker in midfield, pinged a sublime pass out to Demetriou on the right and later had a shot from the edge of the box well saved.

But we also mixed up our approach play. Cardwell and Waldron seemed to link up quite well, and there’s the foundations for a good partnership there. They seemed to take it in turns to drop deep or to hang on the shoulder of the last defender, and Waldron fired off-target after good work from Fonguck, who largely disappointed.

The impetus seemed to drain away when Collin required treatment. Maidenhead regrouped and I felt we started to go too direct too often in an attempt to stretch the game. The hosts levelled from a free-kick, could’ve gone ahead from another just before the break and there were a couple of worrying moments at the back. Given the height and aerial ability we have in the side, it’ll be a concern that the last two goals we’ve conceded have been from set-pieces.

The beginning of the second half saw much of the same, with Morton and Husin largely by-passed in midfield. However, that reaped dividends just before the hour when Crowther won the ball in the penalty area and sent the ball down the right-hand side for Waldron whilst the hosts were still appealing for a penalty. Exactly the opportunity Waldron would've been hoping for, and he took it superbly. He’s a proven goalscorer at lower levels, so if we can feed him those sorts of chances, I expect he’ll take them.

That largely settled us down. We concentrated on getting the ball out to Bridge on the left, and he tormented Maidenhead, sending a couple of teasing crosses into the box as well as hitting the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area.

Collin had one save to make, and there was a header wide from a set-piece for the home side, but I didn’t really feel like Maidenhead were going to get back on level terms again.

Miley did fairly well as a left-sided centre-half; there was one slip in the first half which Crowther covered for, but he also returned the favour with a well-executed tackle after Crowther had misplaced a pass later on.

Morton was more advanced than I expected; we didn’t really have a holding midfielder and that tactical tweak helped to move us up the pitch. I’m still not convinced we’ll create enough if he plays alongside Miley, but they may develop an understanding. At this stage I’d be loathed to play them together with Husin in front as I think that negates the regal way Husin can drive through midfield from a deeper position.

A word for Demetriou, who started well and got some quick crosses into the area in the first half, but was more leggy in the second, and for Collin, who produced a fine save in the second half in an otherwise fairly quiet evening.

So, a result to celebrate, some positive foundations to build on and hopefully the start of a lengthy unbeaten run!

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

They should have had a penalty i thought, at 1-1, then we went straight up their end and Waldron scored. Funny old game.
Some good summary of the game from everyone in this thread.
Still a work in progress, but a win was so important. M25 said junct 25-27 was shut and my ****nav said pull off, but no cones and i sailed through, getting home 25mins earlier.
A good result all round. Felt like a typical NL ground. The odd stand dotted around the place, half a dozen stewards and three constabularies.

 

[solihullshrimper]

Cracking chips and curry sauce, almost as spicy as Demi’s crosses in the first half. GSM

 

[Blue Yonder]

Bridge, Noor and Crowther played well. Wes and Morton gave the ball away too much. Cards a bit sharper each game. A bit weak defending crosses. Ollie is not quite dominant enough in the air. Waldron tentative and nervy first half but better in the second and a great finish. Miley walloped for pace once but otherwise competent enough. Demi okay. Colin required to make a couple of smart saves. A win is good. A convincing win when it comes will be very welcome.

 

[wiggy]

Collin 6 ….needs to speed up and go on a kicking course
Demi 7 ….reliable as ever, slips back in seamlessly
Crowther 8….got his goal and already a favourite
Miley 7…..covers well in this position
Kensdale 7 becoming more reliable and classy every game
Wes 7…. best control in the club but OBL could shoot harder
Husin 7 classy on the ball and a better game tonight, should use his ability on a more regular basis
Morton 6….sprayed it around well but didn’t get too involved
Bridge 8 ….mom……that’s more like it, beat the bloke and quickly do something positive, maybe defender was poor but looked like he had been told to be more direct
Cards 6…..set the goal up but still off the pace and hardly won a header
Waldren 7….took the goal really well, hope fitness is making him sharper

 

[Ramsdenblue]

They should have had a penalty i thought, at 1-1, then we went straight up their end and Waldron scored. Funny old game.
Some good summary of the game from everyone in this thread.
Still a work in progress, but a win was so important. M25 said junct 25-27 was shut and my ****nav said pull off, but no cones and i sailed through, getting home 25mins earlier.
A good result all round. Felt like a typical NL ground. The odd stand dotted around the place, half a dozen stewards and three constabularies.

Yes, had the same, no cones, so stayed on the M25.
If I remember this happened last year at maidenhead away bloody m25 and cones.

Yes but the footy tonight seemed different, seemed better, slightly more direct at goal as opposed to wing crabing.
Waldens goal was good, steaming into their area, straight at goal.
That is what we need more of.
A little bit more freedom to let loose.

 

[Evening Echo]

A DELIGHTED Kevin Maher felt his Southend United side fully deserved their 2-1 win at Maidenhead.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[flangejackrabbit]

Another two goals for Charlie Ruff at Chelmsford tonight, think that's twelve from midfield for him now. Would be interested to hear if anyone has seen him to see if he'd be a good fit.

Been pointing him out since 2020 as a prospect we should be keeping an eye on with a view to the future and I would say now is the time.