Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-1 Bury

OldBlueLady said:

Simply don't see him the same as you do Dave, time and time again, it's been his foot or his head that's got in the way of attempts or attacks by various opposition players. He's a calm head under pressure most of the time.

Click to expand...

shrimperjon said:

As has been the case of late we have failed to win a game that was there to win. Unlike other weeks though we created very little. PB tactics baffle me, 1-0 up doing ok, so he decides to take off barney who I thought played well and battled hard, went five in midfield and invited the pressure that inevitably lead to the goal. The mindset in the second half was clearly one to hold on to what we had, with very little thought of pushing forward and try to kill the game off. The players look low on confidence and void of ideas in the final third. Deegan has had his time and needs to go, get Timlin and Lenny back together in the Middle, Lenny is wasted at right back. Worrell mom by a country mile and should have got a nailed on penalty. Atkinson also played well. The defence looked solid and restricted their attack to few chances although Bentley made a good stop from the one chance in the first half they created. Really don't like Williams, gets forward ok but his final ball is dreadful and his positional play defensively is awful. Corr and Barney both battled hard with very little to feed off, Corr took his goal well. Disappointed to see Barney come off. Timlin worked hard but some his passing was way off today.

In the end 1 point is poor return after leading again at HT, yet our tactics have invited the opposition onto us and cost us all three points. I do think we have the players at the club, but they are not being allowed to express themselves with what appears to be defensive and negative tactics. 1 point from the playoffs isn't a disaster, but feel we could and should be doing so much better.

Click to expand...

OldBlueLady said:

I cannot believe two people are having a go at John White here! He was one of our better players today, and didn't do a great deal wrong as far as I can see!

It was good to see a change to 4-4-2, which I'd said I felt we ought to try during the week, trouble is, if you're going to play 4-4-2, then let's at least get the ball to Barney's feet and stop humping long balls half heartedly forward. Barney was the better of the two strikers, Corr looked lazy to me whereas at least Barney was giving it plenty. Midfield was strange, with two fairly defensive ones centrally, the two wide players didn't get enough service going forward and we kept trying to play it through the middle. It wasn't till the 2nd half when Lenny and Worrall started pushing forward that we really looked threatening. Deegan had little influence on the game, Timlin, on the other hand, was the puppet master and it's good to see him back.

I just didn't understand the set up, Lenny and Timlin is our best central midfield combination, we had two fit central defenders so why on earth did we have Lenny at RB and John White in the middle of defence? And then, why on earth Weston when we made our first substitution? Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Bentley - 6, didn't have to do much but did make one important save and one important challenge
Leonard - 7, getting back to normal, but not in his best position
White - 7, slotted in comfortably in the middle of defence, got his head on lots
Prosser - 7, solid, typical Luke performance
Williams - 6, looked more comfortable once Weston came on strangely!
Worrall - 7, improved over the game, challenged and battled well, and desperately unlucky not to win a penalty
Timlin - 8, MOTM, one of the best and most consistent passers of the ball we have
Deegan - 6, going off the boil, can't see a place for him in the team
Atkinson - 6, not a winger and certainly not a left winger
Barnard - 7, never stopped battling, unlucky to be subbed
Corr - 6, looked better once Barney went off

Subs:
Weston for Barnard - 4, words fail me
Payne for Atkinson - 6, not on long enough to have an effect

Officials:
Just shocking.

TBV:
A word of praise for them today, the kept going and Scott tried desperately to get more involved. Well done lads.

Click to expand...

Big Bad Barry Corr said:

Brown's squad are quality (for this level) and something is obviously seriously amiss. Ron has a big decision to make, sooner rather than later, but this whole scenario is looking like PB's time on the Essex Riviera may well be drawing to a close.

Click to expand...

yogi bear up the cagire said:

Is it as CP would say, a 'shrimpers moan' day or am I detecting a sea-change in attitude to PB, following today's performance?

Click to expand...

Fairport said:

At least three reasons why Brown does not seem to be the man to take us forwards.

1. Too negative, takes off Barnard who was working hard as a striker and brings on Weston who immediately dropped into a midfield role making it 4 5 1 and inviting Bury to push forward even more in their search for an equaliser.

2. His permanent signings are pretty dreadful. He signs three centre backs who are so poor that he ends up with a right back playing at centre half!

3. Poor team selection. We are crying out for goals so he starts the game with Timlin, Atkinson, Deegan and Worrell as the midfield four who each score about one goal in about twenty-five games.

Clueless !!!

Click to expand...

DTS said:

He never over laps, he offers little going forward and I think he waste possession a fair but. I don't think he is the most pressing problem we have but I think he is someone we need to replace to become a top side.

Click to expand...

rayleigh dan said:

Did you miss the woeful attempt at a header back to Bentley in the first half that left their player clean through?! Never felt the need to post before but that's laughable.

Click to expand...

ms brush said:

For me, several things need sorting. Tactics and formation. We need to play 442 and we need to be on the attack. That is what we are good at, and that is how we can start winning games again.

it all seemed to start so well...

Glad we finally had BBBC and Barney up front together, it looked more balanced from the outset and both of them were causing trouble and creating space for people to sneak through.

i can completely see why White was played in the middle alongside Prosser, I personally don't think that the Thomson /Prosser pairing works, and I think that Thomson is still making too many schoolboy errors. Not that he can't do a decent job, I just think he needs an old hand like a Barratt or Cresswell alongside him. The big issue with this is moving Lenny into right back, he did well, but he is much better in midfield.

Timlin and Deegan both worked hard, but between them are about as creative as my cat. Worrall impressed again, but was the single creative outlet.

Then we scored. At long last! I thought that finally, PB had seen some sense and would stick with 442. But no, we sat back and it went rapidly downhill.

Firstly, Barney came off, going back to 451, which I really don't think works at all, and worse unbalancing the front line. From being no 1 troublemaker, Barry was immediately no longer able to make any impact, and the overcrowded midfielders looked completely clueless for the next 10 minutes, and inevitably conceded. The other substitution was a bit pointless after this because we were totally on the back foot.

then the referee didn't give what to me was the most blatant penalty I have seen for a long time.

We should have won today, and we threw away 2 points again. It is relegation form, and we don't look like promotion contenders at the moment. The answer is staring us in the face, go back to 442, play Barry and Barney up front together, get Lenny back into midfield and do something about the central defence. It really isn't that hard to work out how to fix this.

Click to expand...

DTS said:

This must be a joke. White nearly gifted them the lead in the first few minutes and he was an inept as a centre back as he is as a full back. I think he is one if the first players we should be looking to replace.

Click to expand...

JamesTheSuperBlue said:

I genuinely don't know where to start with that. I am disgusted. Phil Brown and Phil Brown only cost us 3 points in that match.

Now I will be the first to admit that we were not brilliant in the first half. It was all a bit scrappy and there were a few too many aimless hoofs forward. But we were comfortable and not once did Bury ever look like they were going to threaten. Yet you could see the players immediately start sitting back on the lead. Instead of going for the jugular and opening up a bigger lead against what, up until that point, had been very poor quality opposition, we have a situation where Timlin and Worrall are playing a short corner and trying to hold the ball down there 2 minutes before half-time! I couldn't believe what I was watching.

It got worse after half-time. From the 50th minute, White was watching the ball go out of play by the corner flag for a goal-kick to us and leaving it there for a ball boy to trundle over and return it to Bentley. And then Bentley making a point continually of walking to the opposite side of the goal from where the ball went out to take his goal kick. Timewasting in the 50th minute!

What in the name of sweet Jesus is that idiot saying to them at half-time? Bury are there for the taking, all he had to do was tell them to keep the pressure up and turn the screw after half-time.....but they did the opposite. So now we'll have a situation where some of the more short-sighted fans will start blaming the failure to hold a lead today on the lack of goals or the 4-4-2 system which we began the game with (a system which will come good with Corr and Barnard up top if it is persevered with) when in reality, it is clearly down to something that he is saying to them before the match (“get the first goal and sit on it”) or at half-time (“now you're 1-0 up, take it easy and see the game out”).

It is made all the more infuriating to hear him in his post-match interview saying “we knew Bury would come back into the game second half and we tried to tighten things up a little bit at half-time to counter that”. Sorry, but what sodding aspect of Bury's woeful first half display gave you any sort of impression that they would come back into the game? The only way they were ever going to work their way back into it is if you allowed them to do so with your half-time team talk and tactical tweaks you stupid, inept *******. What football manager worth his salt honestly makes that kind of prediction when 1-0 up and in control after 45 minutes at home against one of the poorest sides we've seen this season? He's made tactical tweaks at half-time to counter something which hasn't happened yet and allowed them to come back into the game. Go for the fecking jugular and try to create a 2-or-3 goal buffer. If Bury still come out, manage to move into the ascendency and put our slender lead under threat despite Southend still throwing men forward and attacking then fair enough, react to it and try to protect it. You can't make changes and base your half-time team talk on something which is showing no signs of happening, but he's done exactly that and plunged his team into a situation where its lead IS under threat.

We may even have been able to hold on despite the tactical tweaks and half-time team talk, but the final nail in the coffin was the decision to haul Barnard off for Weston and switch to a negative 4-5-1 set-up. From the moment that change happened, the ball stopped sticking up front like it had in the first half due to the fact that Corr/Weston (whichever of the 2 chose to be the one player to stay forward at the time) was isolated up top alone and we had lost the energy and the ball-retention skills of Barnard. We put 10 men behind the ball and straight away invited a pressure onto our own goal which was never there before and had shown no signs of appearing. The old man and I turned to each other as soon as that change was made and said “that's it, we'll either cling onto a 1-0 win by the skin of our teeth or it'll finish 1-1,” because as soon as that change is made you know that Phil Brown ain't looking for any more goals. From that point on I pretty much switched off because I knew the equaliser was now going to come. The goal and the free-kick which led to it would never have happened if he had kept things as they were but the Bury pressure, the panic in our defence and the three successive corners that Bury forced, all the result of that substitution and negative change in shape and mentality, told you exactly what was around the corner.

Of course, as anyone could have predicted, the tired excuses came out in the post-match conference and the first words which came out of his mouth were about the referee, the penalty and the fact that they cost us the game. I'm sure many of our less-observant fans will fall for you hiding behind that excuse too but sorry mate, forget the non-penalty because YOU cost us that win and should never have put your players into a position where they needed to be awarded a late penalty to get the 3 points.

As an aside, there have been plenty of stonewall penalties not given and shocking refereeing performances over the years but it's a long long time since I've seen our players react to a decision like that. Is that frustration with their manager boiling over on the pitch? I can't see how the changes he made in the second half, the clear difference they made to the shape and mentality of the team, and the fact that we conceded a goal minutes later will help the players' confidence in El Tango and it already looks like he's lost them a little bit. There certainly seems to be something more deeply and fundamentally wrong than just the “lack of a goalscorer”.

Either way, he's certainly lost my confidence. The old man reckons he's the worst football manager we've had since Dick Bate. He might not be far wrong. The Alvin Martin and Alan Little days may have been dark ones but those two never had the quality available to them that this clueless idiot has. This group of players has the collective quality to be fighting at the top end but they are continually being blunted by a manager who is tactically inept and has no idea how to get the best out of them. I think the players themselves know this too and IMO this frustration is showing in their body language and even more so in their reaction to the non-penalty today. There is a total lack of confidence among, and maybe that is to blame for ridiculous time wasting in the corner before half time and at our own goal kicks after 50 minutes (although I'd say it's more likely Brown's instructions), but it is our own manager who has drained the players of confidence with his negative tactics and formations, his chopping and changing of the starting line-up, and his ludicrous substitutions. He needs to go.

Cut your losses Ron.

Click to expand...