Post-Match Thread and Ratings Millwall 1-0 Southend United

THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK said:

I think when we go down to ten men, Wordsworth should be substituted as the workrate in midfield has to go up, not down. Amos is a perfect replacement. He hasn't got experience, but more than makes up for it with his tackling and effort. He can also pick a pass from what I have seen. He won't do worse than Wordsworth when down to ten men.

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Hindsight is great, what if Amos came on and the result the same. we would have people moaning that we threw an inexperienced kid on and withdrew one of our most potent goal scoring threats. Woody was quiet yesterday but could have easily put a free kick in the top corner given the opportunity.

I would have replaced him with John White and gone 3 at the back, pushed the full backs further forward as wing backs. That is what they are best at, we would have had width, Lenny would have had a smaller area to cover and not have to run all over the pitch and we may have got something out of the game.

Demetriou was at fault for the goal, carbon copy of Port Vale away second goal. He let the smallest Millwall player head in at the far post because he ball watches when the cross comes in and over his head and does not go to the ball and attacker. John White would have stepped back and if not got his head to it, he would have put off Onyedinma.

Jakob Sokolik bawled at Demetriou for that at Port Vale and never got a look in again after a full blown argument between the two on the pitch. Maybe Atkinson would have been thsir as an extra body if he had not been sent off? Hindsight is a wonderful thing as said earlier. Not wishing to moan about Demetriou as I prefer him as an attacking threat to JW and the positives outweigh the negatives, but JW is a better defender.

Ted was routed to the spot, was not the most powerful header and he maybe could have moved his feet to get to it. He seemed caught by surprise that the ball was headed back towards him and palmed at it as it bounced past him.

We must move on now and ensure Oxford do not also overtake us with victory on Tuesday.

MAF's instagram story was him with his fingers on his lips with the word Referee!

Napster said:

MAF's instagram story was him with his fingers on his lips with the word Referee!

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What a Legend
Coker and others tweets post game were good as well!

Ramsdenblue said:

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Quite agree. When we played millwall at home a young eager lad stood there in-front of me, his arms up in the air making an X shape, i politely asked if to put his arms down as we are Southend United and not wet Spam.

Also, yesterday, was it me, or did the team seem to be playing differently, yes same-ish players, and formation, but there was something different that i could not put my finger on, like he told the squad to play the same formation but in a different way.

Also they have a very wide pitch.

Snr.

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I think the pitch looked wider because we are set up quite narrow with 4 central midfielders. The sending off then created more space which made the pitch look bigger still.

It was my first match since our cup exit against the same opponents. Much like then we had the possession but lacked the quality to make it count and they pinched it towards the end.

This time though was a bit more promising as the link-up play had improved and we were playing with greater confidence. Fortune was holding the ball up, Wordsworth in particularly impressing with the purposefulness of his passing (if not his lamentable workrate - fortunately Lenny was everywhere and Timlin was Timlin) and Cox also contributing to some smart link-up play from the team more reminiscent of the early Sturrock era than the tepid stuff I've endured in recent years.

At the back Thompson and the assured Anton Ferdinand did well, although Anton has a touch of the Mark Phillips elastic band hamstrings about him and every time I see him play it always seems as if it's only going to be a matter of time before he's injured. He went down just the once but was able to finish the game.

We dominated possession without creating anything until Atkinson was sent off in pretty much the same spot that Damien Scannell was some years earlier. Let's just say that had that been a Millwall player it wouldn't have been red. The sending off evened up the game and it was even until about the hour mark when Fortune was taken off. Taking off Fortune was understandable - he doesn't have the legs and was tiring having worked hard - and bringing on the pace of Robinson to try and catch them on the break was understandable. But Robinson for Fortune didn't make any sense. Fortune was making the ball stick up front and taking three, four touches to give time for team-mates to get forward. I wonder if Ranger will be back next game; that's his game entirely. That's not Robinson's game though and predictably the ball stopped sticking up front and Cox became a non-factor.

It took Millwall barely a further 5 minutes to make that count. Demetriou got caught sleeping at the far post and the header crept past Ted Smith. Millwall then killed the game. What we desperately needed is someone who could run at Millwall and provide a bit of flair but sadly there was no Jack Bridge even on the bench. McGlashan though came on for an injured Timlin for the last 10 and gave some pace - he had a penalty appeal turned down that looked more desperate than convincing to me. Finally Nouble replaced the by now anonymous Cox for the last few minutes but it was too little too late.

A disappointing result but the sending off means the players can blame the ref and not lose confidence.

Yorkshire Blue said:

I think the pitch looked wider because we are set up quite narrow with 4 central midfielders. The sending off then created more space which made the pitch look bigger still.

It was my first match since our cup exit against the same opponents. Much like then we had the possession but lacked the quality to make it count and they pinched it towards the end.

This time though was a bit more promising as the link-up play had improved and we were playing with greater confidence. Fortune was holding the ball up, Wordsworth in particularly impressing with the purposefulness of his passing (if not his lamentable workrate - fortunately Lenny was everywhere and Timlin was Timlin) and Cox also contributing to some smart link-up play from the team more reminiscent of the early Sturrock era than the tepid stuff I've endured in recent years.

At the back Thompson and the assured Anton Ferdinand did well, although Anton has a touch of the Mark Phillips elastic band hamstrings about him and every time I see him play it always seems as if it's only going to be a matter of time before he's injured. He went down just the once but was able to finish the game.

We dominated possession without creating anything until Atkinson was sent off in pretty much the same spot that Damien Scannell was some years earlier. Let's just say that had that been a Millwall player it wouldn't have been red. The sending off evened up the game and it was even until about the hour mark when Fortune was taken off. Taking off Fortune was understandable - he doesn't have the legs and was tiring having worked hard - and bringing on the pace of Robinson to try and catch them on the break was understandable. But Robinson for Fortune didn't make any sense. Fortune was making the ball stick up front and taking three, four touches to give time for team-mates to get forward. I wonder if Ranger will be back next game; that's his game entirely. That's not Robinson's game though and predictably the ball stopped sticking up front and Cox became a non-factor.

It took Millwall barely a further 5 minutes to make that count. Demetriou got caught sleeping at the far post and the header crept past Ted Smith. Millwall then killed the game. What we desperately needed is someone who could run at Millwall and provide a bit of flair but sadly there was no Jack Bridge even on the bench. McGlashan though came on for an injured Timlin for the last 10 and gave some pace - he had a penalty appeal turned down that looked more desperate than convincing to me. Finally Nouble replaced the by now anonymous Cox for the last few minutes but it was too little too late.

A disappointing result but the sending off means the players can blame the ref and not lose confidence.

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I felt that watching live but after watching back it does look like a stonewall penalty.