Official Match Thread Southend United 0-2 Newcastle United

[Tommy2holes]

Have you met Mrs Blue?, comments about her love child like this will not curry you any favours :omg:

Yeah she can get a bit hot under the collar about the subject .

 

[SHRIMPERPETER]

Is it me or isn't Bridge supposed to be a central midfielder. I thought he did ok on the right first half but with Tims and Worthy both out and Atkinson being sh#te, surely trying him in the middle with Lenny would be a better idea.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

First pre season game for me. Oxley looks ok, good save first half, maybe could of got finger tips on the 2nd.

Sokolik, again ok. Would sign as 3rd/4th choice.
McGlashan, didn't really do much for me, couple of good crosses, but I think O'Neill is a better bet at the moment.
Bridge showed quite a few skilful moments, and will be knocking on the door this season. Very promising.
Murray, ran around a lot, never really looked like getting the ball much. Would sign agin as our 4th forward.
Williams, started brightly, but then did nothing. Never held the ball up, never won a header. Please send him out on loan to a league two team, as there is a promising player in there somewhere.
Billy edge, my God please no. 50p head, 2nd to almost every ball, despite his size, never won a thing, clumsy as well.
Cox took about 10 minutes to touch the ball, and tried a few good link ups. Should do well in this league. I think Hunt was a more clever player, but I think Cox is more of a goal scorer.
Demetriou did well when he came on, always wanted the ball, looked to play it to feet and keep it simple.
Kyprianou looked very promising, would be more than happy to have him as back up from the 25 minutes tonight.

Overall a very dull game. Our front two were isolated all night. Newcastle never really created much other than from our mistakes. We offered even less going forward.

No point whatsoever of signing him as a 3rd or 4th choice, we need competition for places, not just someone to make up the numbers

 

[KiwiRob]

Is it me or isn't Bridge supposed to be a central midfielder. I thought he did ok on the right first half but with Tims and Worthy both out and Atkinson being sh#te, surely trying him in the middle with Lenny would be a better idea.

Really good point, SHRIMPERPETER. Bridge should get his chance in his best position - as an attacking central midfielder.

 

[mrsblue]

80th minute we buggered off,had enough of watching us make the Geordies look really really good,we sat too deep,zero service for the forwards,thought Williams was decent .

Shelvey ran the show with an excellent range of passing.

 

[shrimperjon]

Three strikers- Ranger, Cox and Mooney? We have Ranger and I don't think we will activate our option to release him.

My undertanding is that ranger is on a months trial and not officially our player. Obviously he is injured which hasn't helped. Would say Murray has done more in his time with us to warrant a contract

 

[shrimperjon]

Really good point, SHRIMPERPETER. Bridge should get his chance in his best position - as an attacking central midfielder.

Bridge himself has indicated that he would rather play out wide, guessing that's why PB put him there, but agree that we are very light in the CM area.

 

[RHB]

80th minute we buggered off,had enough of watching us make the Geordies look really really good,we sat too deep,zero service for the forwards,thought Williams was decent .

Shelvey ran the show with an excellent range of passing.

I agree with you entirely on Shelvey, he's a class act.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I thought it was a decent test for us. Bit disappointed not to have started with our strongest, and presumably, first choice team and also disappointed not to have seen Murray alongside a "proper" forward. That sounds like I'm having a real pop at Jason Williams, I'm not really. Probably the best I've seen him play in the 1st team, he put himself about, challenged and leapt like a salmon for headers for most of the 1st half, best interaction was with Jack Bridge, unsurprisingly.

I was very disappointed that the Coker/McGlashan link up which had looked so promising back in the 1st pre-season game at Wakering seems to have disappeared. There was very little play between these two, with most moves coming via Bridge on the right. I thought Sokolik and Barrett was the superior partnership of the central defenders, Sokolik looked confident and composed alongside the veteran Barrett. Again, criticism seemingly being made of White, I don't get that, I thought he had a composed game without being too exciting.

We suffered from creativity in the 1st half, Murray had to drop deep a few times to get the ball and Bridge was the only real provider. I thought he was our stand out performer, certainly in the 1st half. Definitely going to be knocking on the door of the 1st team and actually, to me, he offers more than Jack Payne did.

2nd half, obvious changes, ended up with a very young and inexperienced central midfield with two good wide men and two good forwards. Central midfield was just dominated by Newcastle. "Billy Edge" (love this, kudos to whoever thought of it!), I thought, did ok, Thompson looked a bit nervy. He really needs to work on defensive headers under pressure as he frequently mis-judges them.

I really hope we start with what should be our 1st team on Saturday, and I really hope the day trippers stay at home. Idiots everywhere last night!!!

A quick word on some of the West stand crowd, do try to get to your seats on time and don't bore the arse off me by talking about West Ham the whole game, thank you.

Bit harsh considering, so I was told, that there were limited turnstiles open and the queues were very long approaching kick off. That was why so many people were late getting in. Same issues at the end in the West, seemed to take an absolute age before people started moving.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I thought it was a decent test for us. Bit disappointed not to have started with our strongest, and presumably, first choice team and also disappointed not to have seen Murray alongside a "proper" forward. That sounds like I'm having a real pop at Jason Williams, I'm not really. Probably the best I've seen him play in the 1st team, he put himself about, challenged and leapt like a salmon for headers for most of the 1st half, best interaction was with Jack Bridge, unsurprisingly.

I was very disappointed that the Coker/McGlashan link up which had looked so promising back in the 1st pre-season game at Wakering seems to have disappeared. There was very little play between these two, with most moves coming via Bridge on the right. I thought Sokolik and Barrett was the superior partnership of the central defenders, Sokolik looked confident and composed alongside the veteran Barrett. Again, criticism seemingly being made of White, I don't get that, I thought he had a composed game without being too exciting.

We suffered from creativity in the 1st half, Murray had to drop deep a few times to get the ball and Bridge was the only real provider. I thought he was our stand out performer, certainly in the 1st half. Definitely going to be knocking on the door of the 1st team and actually, to me, he offers more than Jack Payne did.

2nd half, obvious changes, ended up with a very young and inexperienced central midfield with two good wide men and two good forwards. Central midfield was just dominated by Newcastle. "Billy Edge" (love this, kudos to whoever thought of it!), I thought, did ok, Thompson looked a bit nervy. He really needs to work on defensive headers under pressure as he frequently mis-judges them.

I really hope we start with what should be our 1st team on Saturday, and I really hope the day trippers stay at home. Idiots everywhere last night!!!






Bit harsh considering, so I was told, that there were limited turnstiles open and the queues were very long approaching kick off. That was why so many people were late getting in. Same issues at the end in the West, seemed to take an absolute age before people started moving.

Shame he leapt at the wrong time

 

[BlueBore]

Yeah I did quite like their chant "you look like a salmon....you look a salmon" :smile:

I think his gonna hear that a lot this season.

More of a Shrimp now surely?

 

[BlueBore]

Guess Phil is trying out the gantry due to his forthcoming four game touchline ban

Good old CP .. chipping in with the humour..:smile::hilarious:

Taking his media duties too seriously perhaps?

 

[Pubey]

Guess Phil is trying out the gantry due to his forthcoming four game touchline ban

Good old CP .. chipping in with the humour..:smile::hilarious:

Always desperate to be in front of the camera.

 

[BlueBore]

We suffered from creativity in the 1st half, Murray had to drop deep a few times to get the ball and Bridge was the only real provider. I thought he was our stand out performer, certainly in the 1st half. Definitely going to be knocking on the door of the 1st team and actually, to me, he offers more than Jack Payne did.

That can be a serious failing in a team, although in fairness Phil normally tries to stamp down on that (Rafa too from what I've heard)

 

[lawrenceaustin]

Honestly, what game was you watching? Sokolik looked shaky I felt, mclaughlin was a highlight for you? He came on touched the ball a couple of times, ran through but his first touch was terrible and ran into trouble, the big centre half guy from Coventry looked ok, strong, won quite a few headers, nothing pretty but looked quite commanding... although you hadn't mentioned Williams I've seen other posts saying he did well, he didn't win 1 single header, his hold up play ended up with him losing it almost every time, ran a lot but not upto it at all, he's just not good enough. I was pleasantly encouraged by the energy levels of bridge, he showed willingness to make things happen, ok a bit lightweight but I think he will grow with a few sub appearances under his belt

 

[Ricky Otto]

Really good point, SHRIMPERPETER. Bridge should get his chance in his best position - as an attacking central midfielder.

He played wide at Chelmsford and was superb

 

[londonblue]

We are woefully short at the back. The two trialists are not the answer.

Why, how tall are they?

 

[Greebosan]

Last night was ok, obviously a friendly and played as such.

Anyway, as ever, a series of random thoughts struck me during the game.

This is what I done thunk (apologies in advance for the excessive detail).

Oxley looked very good.
Sokolik looked very good.
I liked the look of Bridge. He looked good.
Leonard also good.
Atkinson off the pace.
O’Neill was, briefly, good.

Can’t recall the name of the other centre back trialist, but I liked the look of him too, he looked alright at Wakering as well.

Williams, sadly, did not impress, as he has not impressed me every time I’ve seen him prior to this. To be fair to him, there was very little cutting edge from us in their final third, and he had little to work with, but apart from a single incident of holding the ball up, I can’t remember another contribution from him. Plus, and most damning of all, his beard seems to be a bit of an odd shape, making him look like a strange cross between a weeble and an Amish farmer.

By contrast, Murray had exactly the same service to work with, but managed to look much livelier and more positive.

Our new kit also impressed, held its shape well, tidy at the back, smart going forward, nice use of colour. Only slight downer on it is its passing resemblance to a Primark ‘lounge/pyjama set’.

 

[RHB]

Bit harsh considering, so I was told, that there were limited turnstiles open and the queues were very long approaching kick off. That was why so many people were late getting in. Same issues at the end in the West, seemed to take an absolute age before people started moving.

This was maybe 20/30 minutes into the match.

 

[united we stand]

Honestly, what game was you watching? Sokolik looked shaky I felt, mclaughlin was a highlight for you? He came on touched the ball a couple of times, ran through but his first touch was terrible and ran into trouble, the big centre half guy from Coventry looked ok, strong, won quite a few headers, nothing pretty but looked quite commanding... although you hadn't mentioned Williams I've seen other posts saying he did well, he didn't win 1 single header, his hold up play ended up with him losing it almost every time, ran a lot but not upto it at all, he's just not good enough. I was pleasantly encouraged by the energy levels of bridge, he showed willingness to make things happen, ok a bit lightweight but I think he will grow with a few sub appearances under his belt

We all see things differently and sometimes where we sit can make a big difference , it doesn't mean one person is wrong and another is right . Theoir is quite a mixed view on Sokolik on this thread. I thought of the pair of centre backs Sokolik looked far better. Edjenguele looked very nervous to me. On one hand you could argue that he was effective, but in the sense of an old fasioned lump pf a centre back . He actually reminded me of Carlton Palmer in the way he moved (not a good look). I'm not saying that he isn't any good, but I didn't see anything last night that screamed 'sign me' .