Donkey Derby - A match overview

[Southendsleeper]

Started off seeing fans were being bundled into a police van as I approached the ground, and the stewards at the North Bank seemed busy in the first half

Lets do the good first

How good is Alan McCormack? If only we had signed him in the summer. Comes away with the ball so many times and then runs up the pitch with it, good passsing, will shoot, gets back and defends. £30,000...a stunning bargain

Ooooh ah JCR, the foul on him in the first half in front of the East Stand appalling. His pace frightening, our most attacking player, another great performance by him.

Hammell, he had a good game today, much improved some good clearances and possession. Possible MoM contender with the other two above.

We deserved a draw...the first half was fairly dire, too many players either passing or kicking it up to thin air. A lot of miscommunication, and our timing was off. A first half to forget

I think I'm just going to copy and paste 'The officials were rubbish', once again a ref and the west stand linesmen were poor, Brian Wheeler coming out and asking if anyone in the crowd was a trained referee was amusing though

Second half was so much better a constant bombardment of the Derby goal. Derby broke easily when regaining possession, were guilty of some bad fouls and a lot of timewasting. They also were well organised and seemed to position themselves well so that it was hard to play up the middle, leaving only JCR on the wing to cause damage, (Gower seemed out of sorts) and then at times he had to get past 3 defenders at a time.

How close was that clearance off the line?

Too many soft shots when we had chances that didnt give their goalkeeper any difficulty.

Overall though we were never outplayed by the team top of the league, which was frustrating for the fans. South Stand fans excelled themselves loads of noise.

 

[Dave Smiths Love Child]

Have to agree officials were awlful, but it doesn't change the scenerio, unless we buy three players we are doomed, no one on the bench that can turn a game, and it shows in Tillys sub times.

We huff and puff, but a part from Alan McCormack we lack idea's in front of the goal.

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

The Derby commentators suggested that Southend United would be nothing without Freddy Eastwood; are they right?

 

[Southendsleeper]

The Derby commentators suggested that Southend United would be nothing without Freddy Eastwood; are they right?

Not at all

JCR played out of his skin, some of the fans calling for him to shoot whenever he got near the Derby goal

We made chances but just couldnt put them away.

Wasnt one of Freddie's best games, too often he got the ball then doubled back and got caught in possession.

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Not at all. JCR played out of his skin, some of the fans calling for him to shoot whenever he got near the Derby goal. We made chances but just couldnt put them away.

They considered JCR to be "full of tricks but with little end product".

I have to say that the Derby commentators came across a very arrogant, constantly taking the mickey out of the commentary box, the standard of catering, "small tight stadium" whilst praising the virtues of Pride Park.

By contrast, Billy Davies was very appreciative of the win.

 

[Dave Smiths Love Child]

Flavs was class yet again already my player of the season, McCormack now drives the mid field, and Freddy has too many players on him, and not good enough players alongside him to help him or get into positions.

JCR runs and runs and runs, but then fails at the moment when a pass or cross is needed, Im afraid I will get slagged off for this, but we are a Division One team fighting in the championship, and the players give their all, but are not up to the standard for a whole season, no good playing in patches we need a 20 run game streak to see us safe, Colchester have made their season safe, and anything now is a bonus, we should be looking at the same.

 

[* ORM *]

The Derby commentators suggested that Southend United would be nothing without Freddy Eastwood; are they right?

The sooner we get rid of him the better as far as I can see. It's great to be a selfish forward when he is scoring goals but when he isn't and he's in a position to offload the ball for the good of the team he fails to do it. 7 goals in the league is not a fantastic return and is perhaps a measure of why no-one has seemingly offered us the money we seem to be after. A great player when the team is doing well but a liability when we're not.

Still, on the plus side, he is keeping Harrold out of the starting line up and that can't be a bad thing. :eek:

 

[Bielzibubz]

The Derby commentators suggested that Southend United would be nothing without Freddy Eastwood; are they right?

I don't know exactly what game they were watching if that was their interpretation of events. Far to many times his first touch let him down and he gave away possession .

We are far far more than a one man team and we certainly deserved something from todays game, especially the second half when all the players gave it 110%.

Officials, as had been said, were diabolical and Harrold should have had two penalties in the last ten minutes when he virtually had his shirt ripped from his back in the penalty area.

 

[Southendsleeper]

The sooner we get rid of him the better as far as I can see. It's great to be a selfish forward when he is scoring goals but when he isn't and he's in a position to offload the ball for the good of the team he fails to do it. 7 goals in the league is not a fantastic return and is perhaps a measure of why no-one has seemingly offered us the money we seem to be after. A great player when the team is doing well but a liability when we're not.

Still, on the plus side, he is keeping Harrold out of the starting line up and that can't be a bad thing. :eek:

Did you take your kids to the game Orm? I'm looking for someone to blame :D

 

[* ORM *]

Did you take your kids to the game Orm? I'm looking for someone to blame :D

I'm afraid not - Sh!t - I'm at fault and I'll gladly take the blame. :o :o

 

[canveyshrimper]

Officials, as had been said, were diabolical and Harrold should have had two penalties in the last ten minutes when he virtually had his shirt ripped from his back in the penalty area.[/QUOTE]

I wasn't too sure about the second penalty shout, but the first one was as blatant as anything I have seen this season.

Ironically we said after about 25 minutes that the ref seemed to be doing a good job, how wrong was that.:mad:

 

[Westcliff Shrimper]

Officials were rubbish - but they have been on the whole, rubbish all season...

 

[Andy_S]

I'd have actually liked to have seen Paynter being available to come on today. He'd have stood up to the physical treatment Moore was handing out. It makes me laugh to see that the Derby camp are saying that the felt they needed to "match us physically". Clearly they've never seen us play then if they think we're a physical side.

McCormack was outstanding yet again, whilst JCR started well, faded, but then perked right back up when put out on the left where he was pretty influential. Freddy is still not Freddy for whatever reason, whilst Maher had another poor game at home for some reason. Gower was off colour as well.

I've got a question for anyone in the South as well. What exactly did Clarke's header from that corner in the second half hit? To me in the East it looked possibly handball at the time and there were a few appeals from our players. Cracking delivery from Hammell though.

 

[Southendsleeper]

I also forgot that thunderbolt in the first half that beat Daryl only to rocket off the right post

 

[shrimpled]

Don't think it hit a hand to be totally honest, looked as though it may even have crossed the line. Talking about officials, i was nearly 4th official, having heard a referee was needed i saw my nearest steward and was told the job was mine over his radio and i wandered/staggered down to the tunnel, i was in fact deemed surplus to requirements when i arrived as a slightly plump man donned a nice new fly emirates jacket and the £260 match fee!:mad:

 

[Pubey]

Don't think it hit a hand to be totally honest, looked as though it may even have crossed the line. Talking about officials, i was nearly 4th official, having heard a referee was needed i saw my nearest steward and was told the job was mine over his radio and i wandered/staggered down to the tunnel, i was in fact deemed surplus to requirements when i arrived as a slightly plump man donned a nice new fly emirates jacket and the £260 match fee!:mad:

haha unlucky!! didn't the 4th official have something to do with the derby manager being sent to the stand? fair play if that was a shrimper!

 

[Dave Smiths Love Child]

I've got a question for anyone in the South as well. What exactly did Clarke's header from that corner in the second half hit? To me in the East it looked possibly handball at the time and there were a few appeals from our players. Cracking delivery from Hammell though.[/QUOTE]

Andy it was a keepers green arm that punched the ball, I think it was a half hearted appeal for the ball crossing the line, but no one ran to to the ref or linesmen.

From where I sit in the family stand it was clearly a green shirt that punched the ball, and everyone sitting by me agreed.