Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-1 Plymouth Argyle

Blues4LifeDan said:

Whilst I agree that White had a good game, it did look as though it was his man that took advantage of the height difference to score the goal, something that will remain a big weakness in games to come. We really need height back there as soon as possible.

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I was thinking exactly the same. You can play really well for 89 minutes but it's the little things that are the difference between gaining all 3 points and having to settle for just the 1.
No matter what level you're playing at, having two centre halves who can handle themselves physically makes a massive difference over the course of a season.

The Plymouth fan's report states "Fortuné is an absolute handful, and McGlashan will cause left backs sleepless nights all season. Timlin and Leonard in the centre are a solid partnership who both have quality when they get forward."

I hope he's right.

You'll find some really top pics from the game yesterday from an Argyle fan at https://www.facebook.com/GRTourist

Cam across his blog link on the Argyle chat forum PASOTI and he granted me permission to share one of the pics on my book facebook page. Might well be worth liking his page as he seems to be an excellent photographer

My ratings for what it is worth:

Oxley - 7 - Some superb saves but lacks a bit of authority on balls in the box
Demetriou - 2- Granted I sit in the West as he had a second half shocker, but awful defensively and no final product going forward. Weak link in the side IMO
Hendrie - 6 - Some good runs going forward, needs to clear his lines better
Ferdinand - 6 - Been average this season at best, started this season like he finished last....2 year contract....
White 8 - Revelation at centre back, although out jumped for Plymouths equaliser and think Brown will drop him with one bad game unfortunately
Timlin - 7 - Good solid performance, 100% commitment as ever
Leonard 7 - Solid, will be pleased when August is over and he can concentrate fully if he is still here
McGlashan - 7 - terrifying pace, but still think he will make way for McLaughlin at some point
Knightly - 7 - Neat touches but needs to be more clinical
Cox -5 - Very poor start to season, hope he comes good again
Fortune - 7.5 - Holds the ball up well but no threat in the box

For me missing creativity of Wordsworth, aerial threat of Ranger and need a new right back.

Unbelievably harsh criticism of the two backs. So much effort is going into covering for the weak ferdinand who didnt train half the week. JW Hendrie and Demi are somehow managing to be alert at the back for Ferdinands errors and slowness while the two backs are running their engines on overtime getting up and down the pitch to support the non imagination of our forwards and make something happen (MAF at least running himself into the ground).
Moreover, I believe the guy Demi was marking has been one of Plymouths best creative players in the past and for most of the game he was kept quiet in professional ways by Demi, a lot of that goes unnoticed when the ball is in transit.
Thought it was a cracking game to watch and while 3 points would have been nice, they were a tall handfall of a team that we dealt well with considering our lack of height.
The pitch is as farcical as PBs substitutions

Perhaps this should be a new thread but it's worth a post anyway.

We have now played 4 competitive games, and it's now over 300 mins since one of our players scored a goal... That's quite worrying.

Even with the OG, it's GF 3 GA 9!

LennySUFC said:

Perhaps this should be a new thread but it's worth a post anyway.

We have now played 4 competitive games, and it's now over 300 mins since one of our players scored a goal... That's quite worrying.

Even with the OG, it's GF 3 GA 9!

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Its around 330 minutes Lenny....when OG is joint top scorer you know something is very wrong.

I thought we were unlucky with a draw and were open to them scoring whenever they had a setpiece. Thought my MOM was White followed by Timlin, with McGlashan not far behind. marks

Oxley: 6 - decent saves but needs to dominate opposition corners.
Demetriou: 5 - average, some things came off, some didn't
Hendrie 6 - looks a bit rusty but know he can get better
White- 7.5 immense but it was his guy who scored
Ferdinand 5 - ponderous, pedestrian. didnt look up for it
McGlashan - 7 worked hard all game some great crosses
Timlin - 7 industrious as always, tackled well, organised, gave 100%.
Leonard 6 - looked a bit out of sorts, woeful pass in 2nd half when we were on attack
Kightly - 7 - tried too hard at times, but some real quality at work
Fortune - 7 - up against the ref and some dirty tactics. did well but never looked like scoring
Cox- 5 poor on his part. looked quite anonymous

Robinson 4 - wasteful
Mclaughlin 5 - a winger that kept straying into the middle

when fit, I'd swap Wordy for Leonard, Ranger for Cox and Turner for Ferdinand. Maybe even White to RB and have Turner/Kiernan or Turner/Ferdinand. We need that height and sharpness.

I'm confident we'll be there or thereabouts this season,

Sat in the front of the Family Stand, I can't comment too much on the first half as all the action was up the other end. You did feel that our inability to make all that possession - and all those corners! - count might come back to bite us and it did.

Felt to me like there was a lot of poor decision making, something mentioned once or twice already in the thread. Too many balls just popped in to the box which were easily dealt with by their centre backs and keeper.

Chatting to my PAFC mates after the game, all they could talk about was the Oxley save and having seen a clip taken from the North Bank I can understand why. Absolutely phenomenal.

A bit of a disappointing afternoon - let's face it, after taking the lead at home you shouldn't be happy with a draw - but at least there didn't appear to be hangover from the Rotherham nightmare. Looking forward to getting Wordsworth and Ranger back ASAP, but certainly not feeling despondent about our prospects for the season.

LennySUFC said:

Perhaps this should be a new thread but it's worth a post anyway.

We have now played 4 competitive games, and it's now over 300 mins since one of our players scored a goal... That's quite worrying.

Even with the OG, it's GF 3 GA 9!

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Don't worry wordsworth will be back soon...then injured again....then ranger will be back..unfit just like last season then get injured or suspended or go AWOL. So relax we are in good hands

leeblue said:

Don't worry wordsworth will be back soon...then injured again....then ranger will be back..unfit just like last season then get injured or suspended or go AWOL. So relax we are in good hands

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This does seem to be a feature of our current playing staff -especially when you throw Ferdinand and Turner (and possibly Kiernan into the mix as well).

Could cost us big time at the business end of the season.

LennySUFC said:

Perhaps this should be a new thread but it's worth a post anyway.

We have now played 4 competitive games, and it's now over 300 mins since one of our players scored a goal... That's quite worrying.

Even with the OG, it's GF 3 GA 9!

Click to expand...

If anyone saw the pre-match shooting they wouldn't be surprised by the above. The only players who actually tested Ted Smith were McLaughlin and Ba (who looked fairly effective). Cox's shooting was way off.

Not sure of this Oxley MOM stuff. Yes that save was world class, but other than that, he had two "slightly" harder than regulation saves to make. That was it. Plymouth had 4 shots on target.

A keeper should not get MOM for that surely? A keeper gets MOM when he pulls off half a dozen saves surely?

Woody, Ranger, and Kiernan cant get back fit quick enough for me though. We just need to make sure we aren't in as bad a position as last year after the next 3 or 4 weeks until they are back and playing.

Tangled up in Blue said:

This does seem to be a feature of our current playing staff -especially when you throw Ferdinand and Turner (and possibly Kiernan into the mix as well).

Could cost us big time at the business end of the season.

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Sounds like de ja vu unfortunately

The omens aren't good when you play badly and get beat 5 none and then play well but can't put the game to bed and end up with just a point.

Good job we haven't got a tricky "bogey" team this weekend.....

Zeuss said:

Man of match : Oxley- 2 fantastic saves and total competence.
Laughably inept substitutions by Brown,taking off McGlashan,our most likely source of a goal and Cox,our most likely scorer and bringing on McLaughlin,who did ok and hopeless Robinson.

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I would hardly call the substitutions inept. We needed fresh legs and Robinson and McLaughlin were the most obvious players to bring on.

I would probably have taken Fortune off instead of Cox but Fortune had caused them more problems earlier so can understand the thinking there.

I sit in S block and McGlashen had clearly tired and had lost that cutting edge. McLaughlin is one of our best strikers of the ball and better finisher than McGlashen. A perfectly valid substitution by Brown.

Blues bounce back from disappointment to pick up point against Plymouth

AFTER starting the season with extreme highs and lows, Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle saw Southend United on far more of an even keel at the final whistle.

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