Post-Match Thread and Ratings Cheltenham Town 1-0 Southend Utd

[RHB]

A gutsy defensive performance to no avail. You know what to do.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Solid, disciplined, gave them a game. Only lost through a soft penalty. You can see the effort and defensively, we look good, but we’re sadly lacking in the final third. Not creative enough, not enough balls played into threatening areas, not enough accuracy where it matters. When we do get chances we rarely take them. So.....yeah, not a poor performance but frustrating as I felt we matched them.
On the good side, look at who we were able to bring on! Imagine that bench earlier in the season.
MoM between White, Clifford and I’m eating humble pie here .. Cordner. We missed Elvis. Hobson isn’t a RB.

 

[Paulie Walnuts]

A gutsy defensive performance to no avail. You know what to do.

Make sure you keep that In your inbox for “copy and paste” purposes. Don’t forget to add “no shots on target”.

 

[Chapperz]

Post your ratings here - https://www.shrimperzone.com/zoneratings/ratings.php?fixture=103

We set out to defend and stop them. We did that until we gave a silly penalty away. Even after the subs and a more attacking intent, we struggled to create good chances. Acquah spent his whole time on the pitch completely isolated, with ANG and Holmes providing very little support.

 

[RHB]

I couldn't have asked for more effort or togetherness from the team, they gave their all from start to finish but in the end one moment of clumsiness from Shaun cost us. That said, until the last 10/15 minutes, we looked pretty toothless up front and I've only just calmed down from cursing the shape of Dieng's head in their 6 yard box. As usual we will get some mindless morons on here who's only match comment will be to abuse Acquah but we really didn't deserve to lose that one and Emile ran himself into the ground in an attempt to affect the result but it was not going to happen, again. There were some mutterings before the game about Cordner, but I honestly thought he and JW were my joint MoMs.

On to Oldham away on Saturday, please let us find our shooting boots before then.

 

[tallboyblue]

Make sure you keep that In your inbox for “copy and paste” purposes. Don’t forget to add “no shots on target”.

We didn’t lose because of a penalty we lost because after going behind we had no quality in midfield or up front and were unable to fashion chances. Back four constantly blasted the ball upfield making it too easy for Cheltenham too defend . We do not have a playmaker who can create chances. No point in setting up to defend in the hope of a point if you can’t score.

 

[Tommy2holes]

Very dissapointed with Holmes tonight. Looked way of the pace.

Halford should never get another game and demtriou in midfield when we have so many options is pathetic.

Acquah only has something to offer when alongside another striker.

Cheltenham were plain ordinary and we didn't register a single shot.

The pitch was in good order and we barely strung two passes together.

 

[Chrisb]

Thought Clifford played really well, he and JW my MOM's, along with the Cheltenham commentary team.

 

[sufc4life21]

Typical league 2 game with the ball mostly being up in the air! Cant knock the team battling qualities but we hardly created anything....... MM dont play Hobson at right back, just doesn't look comfortable their at all.

 

[southendkid]

Feared we'd go back to being shaky in defence with the line up but we still looked very solid which is a massive plus. Still very little threat up front but given we were clearly playing for 0-0 that's to be expected, there's only so much you can do with so many defensive players on the pitch.

We created a couple of decent chances in the last 20 but we're still sorely missing the creativity of Olayinka to split the defence open, hopefully he's close to fitness because we need someone like him to help us look more dangerous up front.

MotM was Clifford for me, although White and Cordner (who I previously didn't understand why we bought in) looked very solid as well.

Montgomery 7

Clifford 7
White 7
Cordner 7
Hobson 6

Halford 6
Dieng 6
Demitriou 6

Holmes 4
Acquah 6
Nathaniel George 4

Ferguson 6
Akinola 6
Rico 5
Taylor 5
Goodship 6

 

[southendkid]

No point in setting up to defend in the hope of a point if you can’t score.

Surely the point of setting up to defend is so that you can get a point without scoring? If it wasn't for a foolish error from Hobson it would have worked.

 

[MisterStubbs]

I had a quick look at the starting 11 just before I left work and in truth I was a little disappointed with it. I thought it looked far to defensive and that we were setting up to nick a point. I knew there were going to be changes tonight but I felt some of them were unnecessary. Moving Hobson who has improved over the last few weeks when alongside White moving out to right back has ultimately cost us tonight. When you’ve got the likes of JD and even White in the squad who can, have and will perform better as a full back than Hobson, it baffles me as to why MM still opts to put him out there. Starting Halford in midfield again was a strange one for me, god only knows where Mellis is, that’s looking like a waste of a signing already.. and to have the likes of Ferguson and Taylor on the bench and being happy to bring them on with half hour or so to go tells me that they probably were fit enough to start. Despite all this I was fairly pleased with how we performed in the first half. We looked well organised, we limited Cheltenham to nothing more than a few long throws (by the way, what’s with the whole towel business?) and we looked good for at least another point on the road. The problem was and remained throughout the game though our attacking threat which was non existent but again at no point throughout the first half did I feel threatened by anything they could throw at us.

The second half of course started with the conceding of the penalty which looking back I think yes, it’s a penalty but it’s certainly soft. We’ve had stronger claims waved away this season and from that point of view it’s very frustrating as that is what’s turned out to be what separates us from the team that’s ending the night top of the league. Can we just talk about that for a second, we’ve played Cambridge, Forest Green, Newport, Bolton, Salford and now Cheltenham in recent weeks.. all teams who are up the right end of the table and can anyone honestly say that any of them are any good? The standard in this league this season is so incredibly poor.

Back to tonight though, it’s a tough one to take but with Barrow and Grimsby both losing we’ve not lost any ground. Here’s hoping we seeing something that resembles our strongest team at the weekend (which doesn’t include Holmes on tonight’s viewing, sorry you know who) and legs get a result away at Oldham.

 

[Maroon Blue]

Montgomery 7
Hobson 5
White 7
Cordner 7 MOTM
Clifford 6
Demetriou 6
Halford 6
Dieng 6
ANG 6
Acquah 6
Holmes 5

Ferguson 6
Akinola 6
RHF 6
Goodship 6
Taylor 5

Got done by a soft pen. Once their attacker got wrong side of Hobson, he was smart enough to just stop, knowing Hobson would just stumble into the back of him. We had the chances at the end to get a point, but not to be tonight. New keeper looked assured. White & Cordner were a solid partnership. Cordner shades MOTM, had his best game for us since joining. Onto some more winnable games now after a tough run. UTB

 

[Petejames]

Hobson the old cart horse always going to do this type of thing can not turn is so slow.... good solid player tho ??

 

[flangejackrabbit]

We lost 1-0 away to top of the league via a penalty with a load of injuries while resting a load of knackered first-choice players. For a team in our position this is really not half bad.

 

[wiggy]

Very dissapointed with Holmes tonight. Looked way of the pace.

Halford should never get another game and demtriou in midfield when we have so many options is pathetic.

Acquah only has something to offer when alongside another striker.

Cheltenham were plain ordinary and we didn't register a single shot.

The pitch was in good order and we barely strung two passes together.

Pathetic starting line up from the defensive manager. Acquah should never get another game....he wouldn’t get a game for Wakering, why us and he loves him. Goodship looked far more like a footballer, that’s how bad he is.
Is there anyone out there that would line up like this, bring on the apologists for him, not good enough in a two let alone on his own.
Point lost thanks Mark, plenty of capable players now in the squad but you insist on playing the worst forward in the history of the club. If he’s young and not ready, do the same as you have with Rush and Taylor....don’t ruin our chances of survival with this pile of rubbish up front.
Thought the keeper shaped up really well, next year maybe?

 

[hlane17]

Let's hope the manager's plan is to nail the next run of games. We've done well against some top teams. Are we up for the fight against those closer to us?

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

We didn’t lose because of a penalty we lost because after going behind we had no quality in midfield or up front and were unable to fashion chances. Back four constantly blasted the ball upfield making it too easy for Cheltenham too defend . We do not have a playmaker who can create chances. No point in setting up to defend in the hope of a point if you can’t score.

Cue......................return of Olayinka................very soon, I hope!

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

I feel similar to the Bolton game. Very frustrated that an individual error has cost us. Very clumsy challenge from Hobson

But, despite Col U winning, take the positives that the 2 below us didn’t close the gap

 

[Lincoln Shrimp]

It's great that we look so solid and compact but we're becoming very predictable and are very easy to defend against.
I can't remember the last time one of our wide players whipped over a decent first time cross or got to the by line and pulled the ball back into the six yard box.
I don't know about anyone else, but I crave the days when every team played 442 and you had two centre forwards in the box getting on the end of a cross whipped in from a winger!
As things stand my gut feeling is that we aren't going to score enough goals to survive.