Post-Match Thread and Ratings Torquay United 0-0 Southend United

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United ground out a hard fought 0-0 draw at high-flying Torquay United this afternoon.

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[fredheim_holm]

Playoffs it is. As long as Duncan Jupp resigns we'll be fine.

EDIT: That's re-signs, not resigns, just to clarify.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Playoffs it is. As long as Duncan Jupp resigns we'll be fine.

EDIT: That's re-signs, not resigns, just to clarify.

But surely he'll have to resign his current role to re-sign? Or are we resigned to the fact that he won't resign to re-sign.

My head hurts. :'(

 

[fredheim_holm]

I'm resigned to the fact that I'll never quite understand what you've just said.

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

Playoffs playoffs playoffs.

Soooo, it's important now to not lose, and to play well in the next few games. A nice little run would help the confidence in the playoffs.

 

[McNasty]

Playoffs playoffs playoffs.

Soooo, it's important now to not lose, and to play well in the next few games. A nice little run would help the confidence in the playoffs.

The players don't need confidence, they have you.

 

[Jam_Man]

Playoffs playoffs playoffs.

Soooo, it's important now to not lose, and to play well in the next few games. A nice little run would help the confidence in the playoffs.

Which is exactly what I said yesterday....

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

I'm not so sure the next 3 games will have much of an influence over the play offs should we be involved in them

In 2004/05 we had 1W 1D 4L heading into the plays offs, yet we DWW without conceeding a goal

In 2007/08 we had 9W 5D 1L before facing Doncaster, you don't need reminding what happened next :sad:

 

[OlvisIII]

I thought today was a very decent performance from the boys and we deserved more than a point for our second half performance.

The first 20 minutes Torquay had much of the ball but our back four were absolutely magnificent - particularly Phillips and Barker who put in the best 90 minutes I have seen from him all season. Therefore they created very little. We grew into the game and Hall hit the crossbar from a great free kick and Moshni had a header disallowed.

Towards the end of the first half Bilel went down dramatically after a cross. The Torquay player tried to pull him up and Bilel swept away the players legs. Some refs would have sent him off and I was grateful for the half time whistle because he was a racing car. Even then he was in the refs face arguing and I honestly thought he was going to be taken off which would have been a shame because he was a continual nuisance to the opposition. Whatever Luggy said to him worked because he showed great discipline despite being continually man handled by the opposition to produce another good second half.

The second half began with a short spell of pressure from Torquay before Southend took control and it was half an hour of pressure. Half chances were created with the ball not quite falling. Clohessy got forward nicely and Ferdinand began to get beyond Harris. Timlin missed a very good chance shooting wide when the goal was pretty much at his mercy. The keeper saved well from Moshin when clean through. One final chance went begging with Freddy millimetres away from connecting to a Ryan Hall cross. So unlucky not to take all three points.

Man of the match would be a battle between our centre backs who dominated the game despite not getting any assistance from the referee who continually put up with Rene Howe pushing and shoving them all throughout the game. Phillips himself had a stone wall penalty turned down when he was pushed by two hands when going up for a header five yards from the referee. For me Barker gets the nod because he has been struggling of late and lovely to see him back to his best.

I listened to radio Devon on the way home and was surprised to hear Ling criticise Southend for turning to get a point. I suggest he looks at the stats and chances in particular. The interviewer implied criticism towards our style of play - again I throw back Rene Howe to them! We came for three points and will be very disappointed not to get them. I for one hope Crawley now nick the final spot because nothing about Torquay would worry me if we had to play them in the playoffs.

An encouraging performance which is positive with the final push.

 

[Semi-Spanish Shrimper]

Lost my first report annoyingly, so here's a slightly shorter version:

We started and ended brightly, and dominated the majority of the game.

Bellford - 6 - A clean sheet yes, but he made some situations more difficult than they should have been. Should have claimed a couple of longballs from Torquay but left Clohessy (who had to give away a corner) and Phillips to do so which they were annoyed about. Kicking wasn't very good at times and a poor throw to Clohessy nearly cost us a goal.

Clohessy - 8 - Barely put a foot wrong as usual. Solid defensively and put some good crosses in.

Phillips - 9 - MOTM. Best performance from him all season.

Barker - 7.5 - Much better from him, dealt with their tricky number 9 well and got numerous decisions unfairly given against him. Passing wasn't great though.

Gilbert - 8 - He gets a lot of stick, but he was excellent today I thought. No he hasn't got the quality of Clohessy, but he barely gave it away and was solid defensively as well. Looked to pass instead of "hoof it" more.

Hall - 7 - Gave it away occasionally, but put some good crosses in as usual. Got in some good shooting positions, but frustratingly couldn't get a shot away due to a heavy touch or slipping over. Hit the bar, but shouldn't have come lcose to scoring as it was hit straight down the middle.

Grant - 8 - Fantastic first half, faded in the second.

Timlin - 7 - OK, worked very hard as usual but gave it away often. Squandered a good chance as well with a volley just inside the area which should have at least tseted the keeper. Still not the same player that first joined us on loan. He needs a rest before the play-offs.

Mohsni - 8 - Would have been a joint MOTM, were it not for the stupid incident before half-time which I was convinced was going ot be a red card. He got tackled and provoked by their player and appeared to pull his legs away (excuse the pun). I assume he passed a Paul Sturrock mental assessment at half-time as Hills warmed up but didn't come on. Credit to him though as he came out in the second half and won everyting in the air again. Was unlucky not to score as well.

Ferdinand - 7 - Encouragingly he tried hard and got involved. Showed some real touches of class, a clever flick which nearly came off the most notable example. Will develop into a quality player I'm sure.

Harris - 7 - Not a great game but played on his own in tough conditions and with the Gulls' fans absuing him (not sure what for?). Think a partnership of him and Freddy will work best.

All in all, I felt it was an encouraging performance, but a slightly disappointing considering we dominated the majority of the game. Excellent defensive performances on both sides (their number 6 was outstanding) resulted in a rare draw for us. I hope we get them in the play-offs, because they looked like us when we had that 17 match unbeaten run. Grinding out results without playing brilliantly.

 

[Pak Power]

Here (taken from a Torquay fans forum site is a photo of Bilel's rugby tackle that earned him a booking today. This coyuld have been a red on another day, and I fear that he may cost us in the play off's as some team is bound to target him, and his luck won't hold forever.


http://torquayfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4084&start=135

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Timlin is out of form, but there again there are not a lot of midfield options.
Not a lot has been made of the practically open goal he squandered as he drove wide from the first effort - and then emphatically hammered the rebound back into the net.
The only problem was the ball came back to him off the hoardings behind the goal.
However, the bearded one is symptomatic of a malaise in blue/wild cherry (or whatever it's meant to be) when it comes to planting the ball in the net on a regular basis.
We had easily the better second half, but no-one apart from the aforementioned got very close to converting - apart from Freddy at the end when he needed a size 17 to connect with a cross that just eluded him.
We are headed to the play-offs and no mistake. Thank the Norse gods it's not Cardiff...

 

[undercovershrimper]

Bloody hell they dont like us much do they!

 

[sufc_tom]

Listening to the radio it sounded like we got nothing from the ref. they're making it look like we got everything?

 

[Semi-Spanish Shrimper]

Listening to the radio it sounded like we got nothing from the ref. they're making it look like we got everything?

Rubbish. The only decision we were lucky with, was Mohsni not getting sent off.

 

[leeblue]

my thoughts from yesterday, first half we got the 4-5-1 horribly wrong I felt so sorry for harris, he done well to get the ball but was so isolated it was a joke, ferdinand was a complete passenger. We defended well and threatened little.
2nd half was a very different story someone had obviously kicked ferdinand up the backside as he supported harris very well and was very industrious. We started carrying a real goal threat with clohessey rampaging down the right, grant and timlin could boss the centre of the park due to kanes improvement, we could have won yesterday if we had just got that goal. Mohsni was very good at times yesterday bit silly at one point but it all ended well and he was composed in the 2nd half, he was just showing the ref a bit of blood when half time whistle went proving he took a whack earlier

 

[rooster]

"Bloody hell they dont like us much do they! "

What they were saying pretty much sums up what I feel about most teams we play at the Hall. I guess it's just one of those things - we all feel we get a rough deal from Refs etc but basically all teams are pretty much the same!

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Just possible that we could meet them one more time this season?

 

[Skyblue]

Really hope Creepy edge them out now for the auto spot and we get to play them again.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Rubbish. The only decision we were lucky with, was Mohsni not getting sent off.

You don't get sent off for tickling someone!