Looking at the side yesterday

[BARNETBLUE]

I agree, Dicko despite what many think on this forum is a good League one asset. He is 100% committed and I wish people would give him a break. No he is not perfect but he gives it his all., I think him and Beynon will prove to be a good combination. Please remember we are well ahead of expectations, we are second placed with excellent goal difference just be pleased with that.
I very rarely comment on this site but the negativity expessed is really quite depressing. We are doing well and be pleased with it. The style of play is effective and producing results what else do you want?
Sturrock in my mind is an absolute legend, what he has achieved and done to date is nothing short of remarkable, support and congratulate it, we are very fotunate to have such a wise and wily manager.Up the Blues.

Quite agree SimonRav!...Perhaps you should post more often....I was pleased we got PS when he came in as I felt we would be likely to do a lot worse post Tilly...He knows what he is doing and his CV is impressive

 

[CocklesShrimps&Whiteweed]

I came out of the game very disappointed. Even at HT and 2-0 up I wasn't overly impressed. I didn't feel I was watching a promotion favourite. We're lumping high balls up to a team setting out 5 in defence with almost zero going through the middle and two wide men. Even with a man advantage we continued to do this. At the same time both the two uP front won their fair share. I suppose the positive is that we did this with a strong bench and both Benyon and Martin will get better with games under their belts. I'm also beginning to think Barker is not 100%. Shrewdest purchases for me are Timlin (Obviously) and Phillips who just gets better and better.

Thank heavens someone else felt the same as me. I've never come away from a 3-0 win feeling so deflated, but, once again we have come away with three points having not played great. Port Vale were simply awful and offered nothing - including their away following. Hard to believe that that was the side that Sturrock said we had to try and emulate at the start of last season. Before anyone jumps on my back...big fan of what Sturrock and team have done so far and I can see genuine flashes of a very good League ONE side. But they are just flashes at the moment. Down the years Southend has always been known as a footballing side and our supporters won't tolerate the long high ball for too long without getting tetchy. If it gets us out of this god awful division then so be it but the style will have to change more than a little if we are to leave league one in the right direction.

 

[Maidstone Shrimper]

We've just got to stop the knee-jerk reactions to single games. We win and getting the ball forward quickly to avoid being caught in possession in our own half is the way to get out of this division, we lose and "hoofball" will prove our downfall. Yesterday we won comfortably against a team right against the ropes given their injuries and financial position - and that's good considering how often we've not done the business against such teams in the far too many years I've been following the blues. Yet we won, not because of a new-found on-the-deck football style but because of two long high balls into the danger area that caught out Port Vale's immobile lumpish defenders and a comedy own goal. We won despite Martin having an ineffective debut. He looked really rusty and had few opportunities to run at the Vale defence thanks to always being given the ball with his back to goal in tight situations. He's the sort of player we need though and I hope he finds his form once he and Gilbert get on the same wavelength. Benyon gives me cause for optimism because he offered something our forwards haven't had to date - a good first touch, intelligent runs, a bit of pace over the first few yards coupled with a good work ethic. If he proves to be a goalscorer then we'll do well. It would have been interesting to have seen what he produced had he not been cynically brought down by McDonald in the second yellow/red incident.

We won thanks to things that have won us many games so far this season. The defence being pretty solid (especially Phillips and Cloughessy) and taking advantage of the opposition's shortcomings. I think the side we put out yesterday has the potential to be better than the sides we've put out so far this season .... and they've got us into the promotion slots so it's good being a Shrimper at the moment. Let's enjoy it.

 

[henry18]

The fans moan when we play direct and they moan when we keep possession on the ground. Get a grip.

totally agree ! i was in the family enclosure and people around me moaned when barker hoofed it up the pitch (fair enough is frustrating) but just after that he played a ball short to phillips and then everyone was complaining and saying just get rid of it ? there is no pleasing some shrimpers i tell you

 

[shrimperjon]

totally agree ! i was in the family enclosure and people around me moaned when barker hoofed it up the pitch (fair enough is frustrating) but just after that he played a ball short to phillips and then everyone was complaining and saying just get rid of it ? there is no pleasing some shrimpers i tell you

Well i can top that, we had some morons at the back of the east yellows slagging martin off from around 30 mins in to his debut. For christ sake the guy arrives on thursday, is short of match fitness and was then thrown into a game barely knowing any of his team mates. I just dont get why these idiots bother turning up, how can they be so abusive to a new player? did he set the game on fire, well no, but we know that he is a good player and he did show some positive signs. One word of credit to a guy who stood up eventually and confronted these idiots. we are second in the league for gods sake lets get behind the boys. UTB

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

T Down the years Southend has always been known as a footballing side and our supporters won't tolerate the long high ball for too long without getting tetchy.

I've been watching SUFC for years. When exactly was this "footballing side". I must have missed it. We've had some good sides and some poor sides over the years, probably more of the latter. This is a good promotion squad. What do people want. Barcelona??

 

[henry18]

Well i can top that, we had some morons at the back of the east yellows slagging martin off from around 30 mins in to his debut. For christ sake the guy arrives on thursday, is short of match fitness and was then thrown into a game barely knowing any of his team mates. I just dont get why these idiots bother turning up, how can they be so abusive to a new player? did he set the game on fire, well no, but we know that he is a good player and he did show some positive signs. One word of credit to a guy who stood up eventually and confronted these idiots. we are second in the league for gods sake lets get behind the boys. UTB

Unreal i must admit we have the token moan in the family enclosure and i thought martin had a good game considering the circumstances fair play to the lad showed promising thing UTB

 

[leeblue]

I've been watching SUFC for years. When exactly was this "footballing side". I must have missed it. We've had some good sides and some poor sides over the years, probably more of the latter. This is a good promotion squad. What do people want. Barcelona??

spot on sir, in what 106 years how many promotions have we acheived.......6/7/8 thats 6/7 successful seasons WTF do some supporters expect we always have been and certainly are a small town club that has had very little success over the years to anyone who wants to bang on about style of football blah blah blah have a look at the league table and get back to me

 

[Murkey_Mouse]

Yeah, we cannot always play well like Barca or Real and expect easy wins, we are winning games, even we not getting out of first gear like yesterday game, 3-0 win and a 3 point is all I care about, I am not bothered if we scrape anothers 10 win in the next 22 games, that would be enough to get us out of League two - we need at least 34 points to make sure we finish in top 3!

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

just a few thoughts on the 2 new players. Firstly I'm not sure how fit either are or how many games they've been getting recently. Benyon had his thigh well and truly strapped in his first game. Neither know their team mates. my verdict FWIW. Promising. They seen to know what's what and have a bit of skill. What struck me though is how they are typical of some players we've acquired over the years. Lads who have shown early promise in their careers but lost their way. The sort that would consider moves to Blues as a good move. A bit like Hall, though Hall went up to join us and the other have come down. Hopefully they can blossom like Hall has.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

spot on sir, in what 106 years how many promotions have we acheived.......6/7/8 thats 6/7 successful seasons WTF do some supporters expect we always have been and certainly are a small town club that has had very little success over the years to anyone who wants to bang on about style of football blah blah blah have a look at the league table and get back to me

well I always remember my dad somewhat proudly saying when I was a kid we were the only club (along with one other like Torquay or someone) who had never been relegated..... this was our claim to fame.......but also had never been promoted. Stuck in the same third division as it was known then for what seemed to be forever. Then we did manage it....by going down. And the yo-yoing started.

I also remember him saying quite a lot actually that "I'm never going to watch that old tripe again"........but of course he did.

 

[henry18]

just a few thoughts on the 2 new players. Firstly I'm not sure how fit either are or how many games they've been getting recently. Benyon had his thigh well and truly strapped in his first game. Neither know their team mates. my verdict FWIW. Promising. They seen to know what's what and have a bit of skill. What struck me though is how they are typical of some players we've acquired over the years. Lads who have shown early promise in their careers but lost their way. The sort that would consider moves to Blues as a good move. A bit like Hall, though Hall went up to join us and the other have come down. Hopefully they can blossom like Hall has.

Benyon didnt go down ? he was playing in the same league with swindon and before that torquay where he impressed me i think we will be there or there abouts at the end of the season if we get these two match fit and playing with the team more often UTB

 

[Southend Neil]

We've just got to stop the knee-jerk reactions to single games. We win and getting the ball forward quickly to avoid being caught in possession in our own half is the way to get out of this division, we lose and "hoofball" will prove our downfall. Yesterday we won comfortably against a team right against the ropes given their injuries and financial position - and that's good considering how often we've not done the business against such teams in the far too many years I've been following the blues. Yet we won, not because of a new-found on-the-deck football style but because of two long high balls into the danger area that caught out Port Vale's immobile lumpish defenders and a comedy own goal. We won despite Martin having an ineffective debut. He looked really rusty and had few opportunities to run at the Vale defence thanks to always being given the ball with his back to goal in tight situations. He's the sort of player we need though and I hope he finds his form once he and Gilbert get on the same wavelength. Benyon gives me cause for optimism because he offered something our forwards haven't had to date - a good first touch, intelligent runs, a bit of pace over the first few yards coupled with a good work ethic. If he proves to be a goalscorer then we'll do well. It would have been interesting to have seen what he produced had he not been cynically brought down by McDonald in the second yellow/red incident.

We won thanks to things that have won us many games so far this season. The defence being pretty solid (especially Phillips and Cloughessy) and taking advantage of the opposition's shortcomings. I think the side we put out yesterday has the potential to be better than the sides we've put out so far this season .... and they've got us into the promotion slots so it's good being a Shrimper at the moment. Let's enjoy it.

This is absolutely correct. I think the result and the fact we won 3-0 can cloud people's judgement of the performance just as it happens the other way round if you lose 3-0. Against Vale we just did enough and nothing more to beat a woeful team who are having dire problems on and off the pitch. That isn't a criticism of us at all, you can only beat what is front of you and we did so efficiently and this wasn't a game where we 'got away with it' as on many occasions this season. However the opponents did make it easy and that has to be taken into account but I didn't see any particular change in style of play and we still only scored 1 goal from open play from a long ball into the box and we didn't force their keeper into many saves. Nothing wrong with that but I dont think it can be argued that we played great football and as FBM said we certainly aren't built to entertain.

The one criticism I would have is that we should have made more of an effort to get more goals after Vale went down to 10 men, goal difference could be vital at the end and effectively we still have a worse one than Swindon for example.

Despite Martin not being up to the pace of the game and enjoying a quiet debut, I agree with DTS about the balance of the team being better and the new signings will improve the side I'm sure. I like the look of Benyon, more mobile than Harris and a nice touch but Sturrock did say that he would be good alongside a targetman and that certainly isn't Dicko. Of course he was much improved on Saturday and lovely to see him score a header but the fact it was his 1st one for 18 months says it all and immense he wasn't. DTS mentions further improvements and the main priority is to find a quality targetman/ leader of the line, easier said than done of course but this would help us enormously to get over the line and this is one position where others in the division have the edge on us. Dicko has played his part of course but 4 goals from open play in 20 odd games isn't great, unfortunately our best striker has been on the treatment table all season and doesn't look like leaving it in the near future.

I also still dont rate Kalala, never a good sign when you worry about a midfielder being able to make a 5 yard pass and Grant or Kane are more than capable than performing the defensive duties but with more quality. In fact people behind me were saying they preferred JPK to Kane, I just laughed. I wonder who will have the better career.