Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1 - 2 Bradford City

Lord Football said:

I gather, and this comes from a couple of sources, that Anton, on hearing he wasn't selected, went home.

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they said on the radio that he was in the director's box

I thought Lenny was unlucky with his first yellow. Didn’t do much wrong and got shoved over too.

Match was terrible first 20 and then we got better, until we scored. Coker, oxley, turner played well. Lenny was the main spirit in getting us going though for me, with some biting tackles and a couple of surging runs. We will miss him!

Oh and anyone know the rules for interfering with security stewards trying to throw someone out for encroaching on to the pitch? I thought the Bradford 29 was lucky to stay on the pitch there.

Post-match interview :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05r9zmg

bazzashrimper said:

I thought Lenny was unlucky with his first yellow. Didn’t do much wrong and got shoved over too.

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Lenny had a kick out at their fella, when he was on the floor, hence the reaction.

Probably right to yellow them both, IMHO 'bazza'.

AndyT said:

Lenny had a kick out at their fella, when he was on the floor, hence the reaction.

Probably right to yellow them both, IMHO.

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I'd say he was trying to kick the ball that their player sat on to try to win a free kick

Not from where I was sitting 'DWB'.

AndyT said:

Not from where I was sitting 'DWB'.

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I was in the South Upper and from in front of us it looked like Lenny trying to kick the ball. I think the whistle had gone by then tho for the foul. The ref got so much wrong though. The penalty, the booking of Ranger for a foul on the keeper to name but 2

I was Block G, South Upper and we were right in line.

It was a petulant kick out by Lenny, more than trying to get the ball, as I saw it.

AndyT said:

Lenny had a kick out at their fella, when he was on the floor, hence the reaction.

Probably right to yellow them both, IMHO 'bazza'.

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Ok. I never saw it, but if that’s what happened I stand corrected

Chris Powell's mate said:

Was a harsh ending to a decent second half. But if we're honest we currently have the cutting edge of blancmange.

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Some of our players look like their living on the ceiling

Perhaps a proper clean out is needed ,not just PB as a few here would like to see ,but also the trouble makers within ,whoever they are plus those who think its great just to go through the motions and not commit themselves to do the right thing when chosen or otherwise .Me i would nt mind so much losing if i could read how the players themselves put in a 100% effort , not just one or two but every player that stepped out onto the ground ,subs included .

Wickford Blue said:

Responding t Post re Ferdinand going home when told he wasn't picked - not true - was in the tunnel at full time and watched the game from the directors box with Cox

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Crowstone Crevette said:

According to the BBC Essex commentators, Aliker and/or Clarke, he was sitting near them at the back of the directors box only minutes before kick off.

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Bearded Shrimper said:

they said on the radio that he was in the director's box

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There's the photo of them in the directors box 5 times on page 2 and 3 of this thread.

i MAY HAVE WATCHED A DIFFERENT GAME TO SOME ON HERE

Oxley Not at fault for anything
Coker Not ready to come back tried to get rid as soon as ball arrived
Turner Caught out a few times
White His best position without doubt
Demi Not a player for a fight
Defence in general a mess and unorganised at corners
Timlin Cannot find a Blue shirt
Macca See Timlin
Woody Lazy
Ranger Double Lazy
Lenny Never stops running. We will miss him

PHIL BROWN I am a long time advocate of PB but even I think this is it. First half the only time movement from him was for a corner where he put his hands up in the air for a corner. Looks a desperate and beaten man

The crowd
Disinterested in general and in need of some effort and passion from the players. Its gonna be a long season with a squad who should be doing more.

Stuart W said:

They don't necessarily need to be wet behind the ears, but they do need to be hungry and ambitious to play in League 1. Here are two names to put into the pot: Sam Higgins (East Thurrock United) and Jake Robinson (Billericay Town).

What have we possibly got to lose?

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A couple of interesting players with little in common other than prolific goalscoring. Robinson is in his 30s and plays like a youngster; Higgins is in his 20s but looks and plays like he's much older than his 28 years.

Robinson is actually a bit of a veteran of the best part of 300 appearances in League and Cup, mainly Brighton but also Shrewsbury, Northampton and Torquay. He came up against Southend several times before drifting into non-league via Whitehawk (played in their Cup run), Hemel and then Billericay paid £24,000 for him and his goals are propelling them to the National League (South). They would want to at least double their money on him or more likely want to keep him.

I've seen Higgins play many times and seen him score many goals, some nothing short of spectacular. He's been at Chelmsford, Bromley and, most notably, East Thurrock. He has, of late, had a number of injury issues and I doubt whether he has the pace, fitness and durability to cope with League football at this stage of his career.

Couldn't agree more with the suggestion of fresh blood - hungry and ambitious to do well; however I fear that if you're waiting for our "scouting network" to come up trumps, you've got a long wait !

Bobby dazzler said:

PHIL BROWN I am a long time advocate of PB but even I think this is it. First half the only time movement from him was for a corner where he put his hands up in the air for a corner. Looks a desperate and beaten man

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Agreed.

Sounded it last week, as well. Even today's interview was painful to listen to.

Taters123 said:

It was Wordsworth who missed the header in front of goal

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It was that west stand post in the way again then.

rigsby said:

Some of our players look like their living on the ceiling

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better than dancing on it?

We played like greats after the first 9 mins, I firmly believe that we would have won if that obvious foul for their pen hadn't of been given

I thought that's a strange team when I saw it. I thought Coker would play but didn't expect the other changes. Wasn't keen on one up front though - and I wasn't reassured when I was told the Phil had said on the radio before the game that Wordsworth was playing up front with Ranger and it wasn't 4-5-1. I said I heard that before and alas I was right. As Paul Clark said after the game no one had a clue where they were supposed to be playing. Wordsworth went nowhere near Ranger.

Bradford had 3 great opportunities in the first 3 minutes and then they walked straight through us with quick neat passes and movement off the ball - just what we don't do and scored easily. I guess they thought that would be enough as the game subsided into tedium for the rest of the first half. I think our game plan was keep them to one at half time. They let us have loads of possession of the sideways, sideways, backwards forward kind ( maybe it was over under sideways down - it wouldn't have been any less threatening). This seems to be our tactic of slowly squeezing opponents back towards their goal shooting from range to try and win a corner or long throw. We go forward so slowly. Any way we had one chance when a cross found a static Wordsworth who nodded straight at their keeper. Our tactic of boring them seemed to work but bored us all as well.

At half time they replaced Taylor with Reeves - I reckon Taylor had a knock towards the end of the first half and their attacking threat subsided. We started to get more into the game. When it got to 60 mins came the expected/ predictable arrival of Fortune - I reckon Wordsworth limped off - we shall see though. Followed 10 minutes later by the next predictable sub McGlashan and we had a bit of an attacking threat.

A cross from McGlashan after along run was blocked and it fell back to him with time to lob the ball towards the far post to where not one but two of our forwards had managed to find their way and between them Ranger and McLaughlin managed to score. Rather than them playing silly boys trying to pinch the goal of each other I would have preferred them to have grabbed the ball and get the game going again -maybe only winners do that though.

Lenny got booked for trying to wrench Poleon's arm out of it's socket and a little bit of handbags ensued.

Their left back Robinson went on a great run and they should have done better.
Phil got in a huff when they were given a free kick for a foul on Mclaughlin.

The second play from their kick resulted in Law again making a smart run playing a one two and Lenny took out everything trying to rescue the situation. Wyke then showed us how to take a penalty and their celebrations resulted in someone booting the ball out of the ground, according to Phil, towards a council estate in Rochford.

Phil then took it upon himself to get a spare ball from the fourth official's ball bag ( pardon the expression) - "cos the 4th official wasn't doing his job properly" and found his way into the stand.

Bradford could easily have scored again.

After the first 10 minutes I thought we did OK not losing by more, but keep two up front, get someone with bit of bite and pace into midfield, Wright and Timlin just pussy around compared with their midfield tigers.

Coker did great on his comeback - their right winger was supposed to be their main threat but hardly had a look in.
Ranger did OK with no support and Lenny tried to cover everything.

Once we drew level we eased off -their winner was probably inevitable. They were quicker and sharper than us and I had the feeling were content to win 1-0 but were able to step it up again after we equalised as I thought they would.

davewebbsbrain said:

I was in the South Upper so nowhere near enough to comment on the actual tackle/foul, but from the reaction of our players alone, I would suggest that Lenny was very hard done by

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I sit in the east stànd, nailed on penalty, his tackle and technique was all wrong and had did it been on a southend player we would have been screamingly for a penalty.