Hong Kong Blue
Guest
Carrow Road on Boxing Day will always be a bit special for me: it was there back in 1995 that I saw my first ever away win. Gary Jones crouching down at the far post to head in the orange ball at a snow covered Carrow Road. It was only my 27th away game.
Sadly Blues' away form since we thrashed some non-league team back in March has been nearly as bad, but I travelled in hope. Norwich at home had been a real cracker. The Blues had been completely outclassed at times, but Norwich were one of the few teams to allow Freddy any space and a spirited second half comeback had seen Southend grab an improbable point.
I wasn't overly encouraged therefore when I noticed Harrold lining up front with Bradbury. I heard at half-time that he was suffering with a "throat infection" - wonder if he'll recover in time for a goodbye appearance against West Brom? Things nearly got more depressing in the opening minutes, Efe Sodje slicing a clearance which fortuitously hit Flahavan and bounced wide of the in-rushing Norwich forwards. Early on the defence seemed to again be missing the experience and organisational abilities of former Canary, Spencer Prior. Sodje wasn't looking his normal self and Peter Clarke was struggling to get to grips (literally) with Dion Donkey Dublin, conceding a series of free-kicks. Fortunately our full-backs were having better games, and Lewis Hunt did exceptionally well to defend a 2 on 1 situation. Donkey Dublin also blasted well over the bar when well placed, but once we'd weathered these early attacks we took control of the game.
For the rest of the half JCR was the most influential player. For the first time in his Southend career he looked to offer something going forward. First he jinked his way into a crossing position and picked out Matt Harrold at the near post, whose shot was charged down; then he teed up Gower who had drifted into a wonderful position but the header went just wide; finally he looked set to open his Southend account when the ball was cut back to him just inside the area but he air-kicked instead. JCR clearly has a lot of talent, but this was the first sign in 22 starts for the club that he might be able to adapt to our style of football, although I will need to see a lot more appearances like this first half in order to be convinced.
The half-time whistle came as a disappointment, as Blues had bossed most of the half. Norwich had, like at Roots Hall, betrayed their recent premier$hite status by allowing us a little more time and space than most teams in the division. This was the type of space that Freddy would have thrived on. Having had to feed on scraps all season, finally we played a team who would have allowed him to go one on one with their defenders and he's sitting it out.
If JCR dominated the first half, the second half was dominated by A. Hall. The defining moment came on 55 minutes when Sodje recklessly lunged in and got there second. Make no mistake it was a late and dangerous tackle. But 5 minutes earlier a Norwich centre-half had dangerously gone right through the back of Harrold, yet the referee had deemed it not even worthy of a booking. 5 minutes after Efe's red card a Norwich player lunged in late and with studs showing and was shown a yellow card. Where is the consistency? Three similar tackles, three different outcomes.
From here on his decisions became more and more bizarre. On one occasion JCR might have tripped the Norwich man who then grabbed hold of the ball with his arm, only for the ref to still wave play on! I've no idea what Dion Donkey Dublin's yellow card was for, I assume it was some off the ball incident, but surely anything that happens off the ball has to be a straight red?
Shortly after the red card the ineffective Riera was subbed for the returning Adam Barrett. I don't think I'd even realised Riera had been playing, he'd been that quiet. The result of this was that Blues surrendered any intention of competing in midfield and Maher dropped back to sit right in front of the defence.
Despite the numerical advantage Norwich didn't particularly threaten and in the final moments Southend looked the more likely team to threaten, sadly the best chance fell to Kevin Maher on the edge of the area whose shot of course lacked any venom and was easily saved.
Ratings
Flahavan 6 - not much to do. Is he the worse kicker in the division?
Hunt 7 - defensively an upgrade on Francis and apart from one rash lunge, a generally solid performance
Hammell 8 - an impressive performance
Clarke 6 - shaky start and struggled against Donkey Dublin's physical approach but improved as game went on
Sodje 6 - it was a bad tackle, but was harsh to be red
Maher 7 - steady game in midfield
JCR 8 - first half hinted he might actually offer something offensively, although faded second half. hopefully that won't be his equivalent of Gordon Connelly's 45 minutes against Brighton.
Riera 5 - to be fair he lacks match practice, but we knew that when we signed him, so why did we sign him?
Harrold 6 - not as lively as his cameo v Brum, seems to look better as a sub than starting
Bradbury 5 - good touch but he lacks the legs to do anything with it.
The ref: 3 - Christmas is about being generous, and this mark probably is
Sadly Blues' away form since we thrashed some non-league team back in March has been nearly as bad, but I travelled in hope. Norwich at home had been a real cracker. The Blues had been completely outclassed at times, but Norwich were one of the few teams to allow Freddy any space and a spirited second half comeback had seen Southend grab an improbable point.
I wasn't overly encouraged therefore when I noticed Harrold lining up front with Bradbury. I heard at half-time that he was suffering with a "throat infection" - wonder if he'll recover in time for a goodbye appearance against West Brom? Things nearly got more depressing in the opening minutes, Efe Sodje slicing a clearance which fortuitously hit Flahavan and bounced wide of the in-rushing Norwich forwards. Early on the defence seemed to again be missing the experience and organisational abilities of former Canary, Spencer Prior. Sodje wasn't looking his normal self and Peter Clarke was struggling to get to grips (literally) with Dion Donkey Dublin, conceding a series of free-kicks. Fortunately our full-backs were having better games, and Lewis Hunt did exceptionally well to defend a 2 on 1 situation. Donkey Dublin also blasted well over the bar when well placed, but once we'd weathered these early attacks we took control of the game.
For the rest of the half JCR was the most influential player. For the first time in his Southend career he looked to offer something going forward. First he jinked his way into a crossing position and picked out Matt Harrold at the near post, whose shot was charged down; then he teed up Gower who had drifted into a wonderful position but the header went just wide; finally he looked set to open his Southend account when the ball was cut back to him just inside the area but he air-kicked instead. JCR clearly has a lot of talent, but this was the first sign in 22 starts for the club that he might be able to adapt to our style of football, although I will need to see a lot more appearances like this first half in order to be convinced.
The half-time whistle came as a disappointment, as Blues had bossed most of the half. Norwich had, like at Roots Hall, betrayed their recent premier$hite status by allowing us a little more time and space than most teams in the division. This was the type of space that Freddy would have thrived on. Having had to feed on scraps all season, finally we played a team who would have allowed him to go one on one with their defenders and he's sitting it out.
If JCR dominated the first half, the second half was dominated by A. Hall. The defining moment came on 55 minutes when Sodje recklessly lunged in and got there second. Make no mistake it was a late and dangerous tackle. But 5 minutes earlier a Norwich centre-half had dangerously gone right through the back of Harrold, yet the referee had deemed it not even worthy of a booking. 5 minutes after Efe's red card a Norwich player lunged in late and with studs showing and was shown a yellow card. Where is the consistency? Three similar tackles, three different outcomes.
From here on his decisions became more and more bizarre. On one occasion JCR might have tripped the Norwich man who then grabbed hold of the ball with his arm, only for the ref to still wave play on! I've no idea what Dion Donkey Dublin's yellow card was for, I assume it was some off the ball incident, but surely anything that happens off the ball has to be a straight red?
Shortly after the red card the ineffective Riera was subbed for the returning Adam Barrett. I don't think I'd even realised Riera had been playing, he'd been that quiet. The result of this was that Blues surrendered any intention of competing in midfield and Maher dropped back to sit right in front of the defence.
Despite the numerical advantage Norwich didn't particularly threaten and in the final moments Southend looked the more likely team to threaten, sadly the best chance fell to Kevin Maher on the edge of the area whose shot of course lacked any venom and was easily saved.
Ratings
Flahavan 6 - not much to do. Is he the worse kicker in the division?
Hunt 7 - defensively an upgrade on Francis and apart from one rash lunge, a generally solid performance
Hammell 8 - an impressive performance
Clarke 6 - shaky start and struggled against Donkey Dublin's physical approach but improved as game went on
Sodje 6 - it was a bad tackle, but was harsh to be red
Maher 7 - steady game in midfield
JCR 8 - first half hinted he might actually offer something offensively, although faded second half. hopefully that won't be his equivalent of Gordon Connelly's 45 minutes against Brighton.
Riera 5 - to be fair he lacks match practice, but we knew that when we signed him, so why did we sign him?
Harrold 6 - not as lively as his cameo v Brum, seems to look better as a sub than starting
Bradbury 5 - good touch but he lacks the legs to do anything with it.
The ref: 3 - Christmas is about being generous, and this mark probably is
