Post-Match Thread and Ratings Kings Lynn Town 0-1 Southend United

[sufc4life21]

Wasn't their today but reading the report...... we controlled the game and should of been 2/3 up but could of lost it late on. So 1-0 win is decent start! But let's not get to carried away as its only kings lynn. I will be at the stockport game, despite stockport result today I am expecting a tougher game. That 1-0 scoreline reminds me of the 2014/15 season, hopefully more to come. UTB

 

[fredheim_holm]

Will post a more detailed synopsis when I’m home, but Phillips looks a new player. Deserves a special mention. Was unbelievable in the middle of the park.

Agree with this, multiple times in the game I noticed him standing out, probably the pick of our midfielders for me.

Of the rest most performed well, Murphy looked confident but didn’t quite come off for him today, defence was solid and Arnold looked solid in goal.

 

[Strykr]

Commentator said arnold was peppering the stadium with his kicks?

Clean sheet should do wonders for his confidence.

 

[Floval Flyer]

The cat cannot believe his luck tonight! He’s not been kicked !!!

 

[LennySUFC]

Controlled the game, could’ve had 5

 

[blueblueblue]

Feels good to win

Amen brother.......

 

[blueblueblue]

We’ve won. Not really sure what to do with myself now.

This is all so new to me.

Have a cheeky w&&nk, we've won a game of footdall :)

 

[LCBB72]

And we are 8th in the table .

 

[Jacob Sladder]

A win, fantastic support, good performances and plenty of reasons to be optimistic for a good season. A good day!

 

[hlane17]

Controlled the game, could’ve had 5

*Should’ve! Still good to see us threatening on the attack

 

[GBJ]

Have a cheeky w&&nk, we've won a game of footdall :)

Sure. But 45 seconds later I’ll be back to square one ?‍

 

[Austin the Shrimper]

Well done boys. Nice feeling getting 3 points on a Saturday afternoon. New away kit is actually pretty nice. feet firmly on the floor, but hopefully a new dawn for the mighty shrimpers ???

 

[USAShrimper]

Feels great to grab hold of something positive. Looking down the results for the NL it finally hit me how tough this league is going to be. So many big league clubs all trying to get back into the FL. Let's keep this going and have a major part to play through out the season. Well done lads.

 

[The Original Tribal Chief]

Many times last year I didn’t bother watching the Saturday game at 8am Colorado time despite having a season pass. An extra hour or two in the ****ing chariot seemed a much better bet than seeing another woeful loss. If felt good to be listening to BBC Essex this morning, long may it continue.

 

[Chrisb]

How great not to start the season bottom of our league.

 

[palexander]

Could have finished 5-3 that. Odd as it was quite gritty rather than particularly entertaining. Murphy will be absolutely gutted he has ended the game goalless. Looked a bit rusty but damn if he keeps this up in terms of intent he’s gonna get a hatful.

surprised Hobson was dropped, hopefully that’s not gonna be a feature going forward.

nobody really had a bad game though, can’t recall last time that happened!

Also finally though the 352 system worked really well. Interesting brown said it’s more for Coulsens benefit whilst he gets fit and when he is we will maybe look at a 4….

ratings:

arnold - 7 - couple of really good saves, an absolute peach of a ball to Murphy but also sliced 3 into the stands.

JD - 7 - solid defensively and didn’t quite get forward as much as he’d probably want. Rolling around to get their red was classic Demi.

white - 7 - it’s a solid 7 again! Seemed to be a bit more passionate which was good to see.

Coulsen - 7 - gonna be 7s all the way at this rate. Slightly sluggish as you’d expect but battled with their giant forward all day.

Ralph - 7 - prob pick of the 3 for more but did tire. What a leap he has though, quite often he outjumped their 6ft 4 forward and also got forward with bridge a few times.

Bridge - 6 - started brilliant with some surging runs and the cross for the goal. Took an awkward challenge though and was a bit quieter after before coming off

Ogogo - 6 - broke the play well but thought he was a bit sloppy on the ball sometimes. Definitey a big plus signing though, I’ve got no worries over him.

Ferguson - 6 - probably if had to pick someone who had a quiet game would be Fergie. Used the ball well when he had it but sometimes the game was passing him by.

Phillips - 8 - busy little performance which I wasn’t expecting. Be hard to leave him out for Stockport.

Dalby - 8* - MoM for me plus a goal. Hold up play is superb. What I like is he can lay it off but also he will turn and run at the defence which they hated. A few times he slipped a ball through for someone else after running the defence back. Could be an absolute hidden gem signing.

Murphy - 6 - should have had a hattrick and I reckon he will be fuming tonight. But as I said above, he is gonna score a tonne no doubt. Just keep doing what he’s doing and that sharpness will come. Works really hard and getting a good partnership with dalby.

Subs

Dennis - 5 - quick but boy he’s decision making and end product are a concern. One point went clean through and didn’t know what to do with himself.

Hobson - 6 - did Hobson like things.

 

[kentblues]

There will be no easy games as Stockport, Torquay, Wrexham have discovered straight away.

It’s about winning when you play well and when you don’t. Throwing money at it in this division has proven unsuccessful again and again. There is not one of our nine signings I look at and think that wasn’t a good signing. Dalby I think will turn out to be inspired. He reminds me of Fortune- which is a good thing !

 

[Ricey]

I’ve just got home. Well where do I start? FOOTBALL IS BACK and we are back to winning ways!

Parked outside the away entrance which was an absolute bonus, the ground was everything I expected from a non league club and they really struggled to cope with the amount of away support. The Crossings chip shop up the road from the ground was excellent and 2nd only to The Fish House.

We managed to get into the covered standing area which was a bonus and also a nightmare. We had a massive pole (floodlight) in front of us which I spent most of the time switching from side to side when they were up the other end. But I was dry. As the fans piled into the away end it got a bit of a squeeze and they stopped people coming into the covered bit until a pyro was thrown and the stewards dealt with that and more piled in. They had stopped us having the whole behind the goal which was crazy and they realised this and opened it out in the end.

From the moment the players came out the fans were excellent! Barring a few gobby ****s who wanted to take on the King’s Lynn Massive but I won’t dwell on that. The noise was outstanding and the singing was phenomenal and has been sorely missed. We didn’t come across as a club that has had back to back relegations and 3 seasons of ****e!

The game we started off brightly I was gutted to see Dunne not start due to an injury but I was pretty happy with the starting line up. We got the goal early on and unfortunately the post blocked most of it but I saw it get bundled in and the ball came from Bridge. We look good for the first 30 mins and just started to trail off a bit and looked like we could concede before half time.

Second half we came out bright again and then started to fade away, we were a little slow to make the subs as we could clearly see we needed a change. Bridge took a nasty tackle and didn’t seem the same player after that and it should’ve changed after that. We had some very good opportunities to score in both halves and it could easily have been 3 or 4, their keeper made some good saves. King’s Lynn were lucky not to get one. Their chances came to a head after their No.10 stamped on JD. Overall a good game, very physical and we look a very big side and it’s much needed from this league. One thing we need to stop though is the short corners! We aren’t good at them and they were a complete waste EVERY time! We have some very tall players and players who are good with their head just whip it straight into one of those.

Ratings:
Arnold - 7 - Made a couple of good saves, looked confident coming out to catch or punch. Unfortunately his distribution let him down massively. Terrible from a goal kick, gave it away once and then out for a throw twice. Other than that pretty good.

Ralph - 8 - Really good player and has a good partnership with Bridge. He’s good in the air and great passing.

Coulson - 9 - Solid as a rock, makes me laugh he looks like that lad who carries a bit of weight at Sunday football but runs his socks off and then has a fag and a beer at half time. He was commanding and kept the other two well organised. A really solid player and the back 3 were excellent.

White - 8 - Great partnership with JD and pinged some great balls, a couple of wayward passes but I won’t hold that against him.

JD - 8 - Good going forward and worked well with White.

Ogogo - 8 - A real engine in midfield, think he would be better suited with Dunne as I saw before they work well together but played really well.

Ferguson - 7 - Looked much better than I had seen him before.

Phillips - 8 - Surprise package! He looked dreadful against Brentford but looked really confident and was all over the place.

Bridge - 7 - Excellent in the first but then got taken out early on in the second and was obviously struggling. He dropped right back and wasn’t going forward. He should’ve been taken off not long after but was left on for a while and wasn’t the same.

Dalby - 9 - Hats off to whoever scouted this lad! He holds up the ball excellently and plays like an experience pro. Can’t tell you much about his goal but he scored.

Murphy - 7 - Should’ve had at least one maybe two. Think once he gets his first league goal for us they will come by the boat load. Very silly getting booked after squaring up to their lad who got sent off after Murphy was subbed off. But nothing wrong with a bit of passion and defence towards your lads.

Subs:

Hobson - 6 - Looked solid and wasn’t really on long enough.

Dennis - 6 - Should’ve squared his chance, very selfish and a typical attempt from a prem youngster. Looks decent though and has speed and power.

I’m really looking forward to this season, it’s not going to be easy but the foundations are there. We are building a good spine and hopefully that win will be the boost and we can continue that against Stockport next week!

 

[8]

I must have been at a different game to other posters this afternoon. Personally I thought Phillips was a bit of a disaster second half giving the ball away too often. We lost the midfield for a large part of the second half and encouraged KL to get forward. Thought we were lucky to get away with it. So pleased to see strikers like Dalby and Murphy. If only we had them last year. There are goals in those two and could form a formidable partnership. Bridge tried to take on too many much of the time and could have passed the ball sooner. However, we won, the support was excellent and there was some excellent play from all players. This could be a very good team. Lets save judgement until 6 or so games.

 

[Norwichshrimper]

This was my first game in ages, a couple of nagging health issues meaning I haven't been to a game since 2017 (other than an u23 friendly at Lowestoft) so it was a very different Shrimpers team to the last one I saw live. There was a lot to really like about the performance today, and a few things to worry about. It's far too early to read anything into the result tthough, if KL win their next 5 games it will look great, if they lose their next 5 then not so much!

I was really impressed with the work ethic and team spirit, they really, really wanted that win and all 13 players used put in a hell of a shift, really worked to earn the right to play. Quality not always there, but the grass was too long and decent football wasn't easy to play.

Won't do ratings as they are meaningless particularly as I've no recent games to compare players against, but a few comments

Arnold - Looks exactly what we need from first glance, solid, mobile fantastic kick out to put Murphy through, though a few iffy kicks afterwards
White - no problems there good solid performance
Coulson - really solid, constantly first to balls on ground as well as in air, despite their no.9 looking a really good player
Ralph - Impressive, hopefully more to come as he gets back into things
Demetriou - good solid performance going forward and back
Bridge - Bit disappointing for me, worked really hard defensively but not much came off for him attacking-wise, reminded me a bit of Bridge before he left - hopefully he can improve though
Ogogo - probably my MOTM. I was honestly expecting another JP Kalala, but as well as doing the dirty work he has a great touch too, just did the simple things but did them really well.
Ferguson - Impressed with him, stayed in the game and use the ball well. he was part of a really high tempo midfield that prevented KL getting a foothold in the main
Phillips - Impressive as well, drifted in and out a little more than the other midfielders but looked composed on the ball and won a lot of second balls and broke attacks up.
Murphy - worked hard, got nothing from the referee, finishing was a wee bit off today but his all round game, off the ball movement etc was excellent, I think he'll lead the line well.
Dalby - good all round game, hold up play got better as the game went on and retained a lot of 50/50 balls chucked at him. Really looking forward to seeing him develope more as the season goes on

My early concerns are that the squad looks set up the be solid and stop teams playing without a huge amount of creativity, concerned we may struggle if teams come and park the bus or pack the midfield against us, but as mentioned earlier too early to judge really.

So good to see the team winning and enjoying their football!

Finally can I suggest a Charity Swear Box type thing for whenever posters use the phrase "at this level"