new member

[shrimperjon]

Hi fellow shrimpers. My name is jon and i have been a blues fan for 27 years. Over the past few seasons i have been logging on to shrimperzone and reading the views and opinions of you guys. I have finaly decided to pluck up the courage and post a few thoughts myself.

1. Wiggy, do you ever attend games. Your views and marking of individual players is at times a farce and wrong. Flavs along with freddie was clearly one of the main reasons we gained promotion from league one, however, he was found out in a big way in the championship and indeed at the start of this season. Collis has done nothing wrong, yes he may have made the odd mistake, but keepers are prone to that and unfortunatley their mistakes often result in goals. However, he has made many outstanding saves and deserves his chance in the side.

2. The booing of players. Is completely inappropriate. I agre.e that at times we as fans can get very frustrated, that is part and parcel of supporting the blues. However, the treatment that certain players have suffered is bang out of order. matt harrold appears to be the main focus. He is not my favourite player and i think tilly got it wrong when he bought the guy, however, booing him in the way certain fans did at luton is awful. We win as a team and lose as a team, if you want to boo, boo the team as a whole not individual players.

3. Blues Voice. Where are you? I agree that at the oxford game, arguably was your best performance to date. But where were you at the cheltenham, luton, swindon and huddersfield games??? The atmosphere is poor at the hall. I have a season ticket in the east stand and can barely hear any noise from the south or west stands. By the same token, people say the east stand is quiet, I disagree, we do sing and are very vocal at times.

4. Tilly and brush. Have they had their time? Time will tell. I think that if we dont succeed this season they may well move on. At times tillys teams selection and tactics are woeful, luton in particular, and i wonder if at times his heart is in it. Before those of you shout me down and tell me all he has done for the club, there is no room in football for sentiment. Yes, he has bought in bailey, hammell, mccormack, leon etc but he has also made some poor signings, notably, harrold, hooper, painter, cole and let go a talent such as knightly. Morgan is another example. Tilson says he is a forward, his record suggests not. Morgan in the same report says he is a winger. why has macdonald not been given a chance, whilst hooper and harrold have. All questions i would love answered.

Anyway they are some points that spring to mind. Of couse some will agree and others disagree, they are just my views.

Up the shrimpers

 

[Smiffy]

3. Blues Voice. Where are you? I agree that at the oxford game, arguably was your best performance to date. But where were you at the cheltenham, luton, swindon and huddersfield games??? The atmosphere is poor at the hall. I have a season ticket in the east stand and can barely hear any noise from the south or west stands. By the same token, people say the east stand is quiet, I disagree, we do sing and are very vocal at times.

Welcome to The Zone...

The Blue (not blues) Voice has only been active for around a month, so it will take time to get a project of this enormity off the ground...give it time!

Roots Hall has crap acoustics, we all know that.

A lot of bloody hard work is going into this and it will be a success, maybe not at Roots Hall, but at Fossetts Farm certainly, this is the main focus of our initiative.

99% of people on here will agree that the atmosphere has improved, not to mention Tuesday night against Oxford.

Why dont you come over to The West and sample it for yourself?...New years day is a perfect opportunity, as it's our Official Launch Day

 

[shrimperjon]

thank you for your welcome. Of course i understand that it takes time to get projects such as this off the ground and appreciate the efforts of those involved. I will stick to the east stand however and try to keep some sort of atmosphere going from there, in our own way. i thought tuesday was excellant considering the few people in attendance and of course if the blue voice can build on that performance then great. well done once again.

 

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

"1. Wiggy, do you ever attend games. Your views and marking of individual players is at times a farce and wrong."

You will get onn well here lol

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

welcome shrimperjon.......from the small but nevertheless sensible Southminster contingent. :p

 

[Smiffy]

thank you for your welcome. Of course i understand that it takes time to get projects such as this off the ground and appreciate the efforts of those involved. I will stick to the east stand however and try to keep some sort of atmosphere going from there, in our own way. i thought tuesday was excellant considering the few people in attendance and of course if the blue voice can build on that performance then great. well done once again.

Thanks Jon, I can assure you that The Blue Voice will continue to grow and improve the atmosphere for all.

We will do our best between now and Fossetts Farm although this is a monumental task what with the poor acoustics at RH.

But Tuesday for instance showed that with everyone behind us, we can achieve the unachievable!..

Roll on Oldham, with 7,000+ in the ground, hopefully we can improve on Tuesdays efforts..

:)

 

[shrimperjon]

Cheers guys, thanks for all your comments. Although often outspoken at times and sometimes that upsets the east stand faithful, im southend til i die and am very passionate about our football team. I talk from the heart and not always from the head but hope that my views will be appreciated. not sure how wiggy will take my opening piece mind!!!

 

[Sean 2]

Are you in the Reds Jon?

 

[shrimperjon]

explain shrimp and two veg!!

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

explain shrimp and two veg!!

wild guess from here.....seat colour in the east stand?? :p ;)

 

[shrimperjon]

good point southminster, still new to this game. i am in the yellows. would of course relocate quite happily to the north bank if poss. mayb ron will give us that in our final season. with the tiny recent away followers to the hall there must be some way of giving us our wish. the north bank is where i started and means a lot to many fans. how many other teams have given up their 'home end' to accomdate away fans?

 

[Jam_Man]

Hi fellow shrimpers. My name is jon and i have been a blues fan for 27 years. Over the past few seasons i have been logging on to shrimperzone and reading the views and opinions of you guys. I have finaly decided to pluck up the courage and post a few thoughts myself.

Welcome to SZ, what a post to start with :)

1. Wiggy, do you ever attend games. Your views and marking of individual players is at times a farce and wrong. Flavs along with freddie was clearly one of the main reasons we gained promotion from league one, however, he was found out in the championship.

Do you not think the team as a whole were found out in the Championship and the beginning of this season was a hangover from the relegation ?

Flahavan was made a scapegoat and I dont think Collis would have done any better.

The arguments against Flahavan were he wasnt commanding enough and too small and couldnt deal with corners and crosses. Unfortunately Collis has struggled just as much with those and dropped some major clangers already.

Wiggy goes over the top, but she has a point, Collis hasnt shown himself to be any better in my book, but he isnt a bad keeper either.

2. The booing of players. Is completely inappropriate.

Indeed....

3. Blues Voice. Where are you?

I think they have done a good job so far and its a proactive work in progress.

It will really come into its own at the new ground but in the meantime they have a couple of seasons to get their profile up.

4. Tilly and brush. Have they had their time? Time will tell. I think that if we dont succeed this season they may well move on.

Sorry but this is a case of inflated expectations. 3 years ago we looked like we could go non league, yet one brief instance in the CCC and suddenly some people think thats where we belong.

Based on the size of club we are a top 6 finish in League One is a success.

If you think we are under achieving in the play offs then Im sorry you are expecting too much.

 

[JoshC]

I have a season ticket in the east stand and can barely hear any noise from the south or west stands. By the same token, people say the east stand is quiet, I disagree, we do sing and are very vocal at times.

You have just highlighted the big problem and that is the acoustics. The west can get loud as can the east but neither can hear each over. That minute after Gowers goal against Swindon the atmosphere in the West was electric, if only the goal was 5 minutes earlier then we would have had the stadium really rocking for the first time this season.

 

[Irish_Shrimper]

Hi fellow shrimpers. My name is jon and i have been a blues fan for 27 years. Over the past few seasons i have been logging on to shrimperzone and reading the views and opinions of you guys. I have finaly decided to pluck up the courage and post a few thoughts myself.

1. Wiggy, do you ever attend games. Your views and marking of individual players is at times a farce and wrong. Flavs along with freddie was clearly one of the main reasons we gained promotion from league one, however, he was found out in a big way in the championship and indeed at the start of this season. Collis has done nothing wrong, yes he may have made the odd mistake, but keepers are prone to that and unfortunatley their mistakes often result in goals. However, he has made many outstanding saves and deserves his chance in the side.

2. The booing of players. Is completely inappropriate. I agre.e that at times we as fans can get very frustrated, that is part and parcel of supporting the blues. However, the treatment that certain players have suffered is bang out of order. matt harrold appears to be the main focus. He is not my favourite player and i think tilly got it wrong when he bought the guy, however, booing him in the way certain fans did at luton is awful. We win as a team and lose as a team, if you want to boo, boo the team as a whole not individual players.

3. Blues Voice. Where are you? I agree that at the oxford game, arguably was your best performance to date. But where were you at the cheltenham, luton, swindon and huddersfield games??? The atmosphere is poor at the hall. I have a season ticket in the east stand and can barely hear any noise from the south or west stands. By the same token, people say the east stand is quiet, I disagree, we do sing and are very vocal at times.

4. Tilly and brush. Have they had their time? Time will tell. I think that if we dont succeed this season they may well move on. At times tillys teams selection and tactics are woeful, luton in particular, and i wonder if at times his heart is in it. Before those of you shout me down and tell me all he has done for the club, there is no room in football for sentiment. Yes, he has bought in bailey, hammell, mccormack, leon etc but he has also made some poor signings, notably, harrold, hooper, painter, cole and let go a talent such as knightly. Morgan is another example. Tilson says he is a forward, his record suggests not. Morgan in the same report says he is a winger. why has macdonald not been given a chance, whilst hooper and harrold have. All questions i would love answered.

Anyway they are some points that spring to mind. Of couse some will agree and others disagree, they are just my views.

Up the shrimpers

Welcome to the board Jon from the Irish contingent ;)

Good first post - With the one thing standing out to me the most being the booing of certain players. It annoys me considerably hearing people booing the likes of Harrold, Hunt etc. And i actually spoke with Macca after Huddersfield last week at a nightclub about this. It really gets to the players - and he can't understand some of the abuse that get's thrown at them sometimes. Rather than complain about these fans, i choose to focus my energy on cheering these individuals even more so - so that at least I am trying to drown out the boos (although usually unsuccessful in doing so...). Taking Huddersfield for example, me and the lads chanted and cheered Lewis Hunt EVERY time he touched the ball from the South Upper - and i at least would like to think he appreciates the gesture.

Again welcome, and agreeing with Aberdeen Shrimper about your opening statement about a certain Flavs lover, you will fit right in here mate :D

Anthony

 

[shrimperjon]

i do not think that the whole team was found out. certain players looked the part and produced great peroformances such as west brom, southampton, sunderland, stoke at home, brum and preston away, all teams that on aper were superior to us. the problem was, and where the management were niave, was losing the games that really mattered. we only beat qpr and burnley of the bottom sides and this ultimatley cost us our place in the championship. already this season we are losing the games that really matter, although 6th and 2 points off the top suggest otherwise. we could easily have been 6 points clear with results against in particualr orient, leeds and brighton.

i am a big fan of flavs, i have signed gloves from our league winning season, but i really feel at the start of the season he conceded goals that collis wouldnt have, baring in mind extra height and reach. collis really hasnt done much wrong. of course any keeper thats makes a mistake will probably in most cases be punished, as we were on saturday. in saying that i dont think putting flavs in goal and dropping collis would in any way be right. collis earnt the right to play and deserves his chance, if flavs comes back in then i would support him the same way. they are wearing our colours after all.

blue voice i agree did well on tuesday, but other than that have been barely heard. i like many wish them luck and away from home will join in as i always have done. generally it is at home where the noise is poor. the ground does not have the right acoustics to generate the right sort of atmosphere apart from the north bank which we insist on giving to 300 travelling fans most games. we in the east do try to get things going, but it needs more than just a few. again well done the blue voice and good luck.

Inflated expectations, no. we have a good enough squad in this division to succeed. it is our inconsistant form that holds us back. we have proved that we can compete in this league and our midfield is one of the strongest in league one. in saying that splitting bailey and mccormack up is still puzzling. why shouldny we believe that we desrve championship football. weve been there b4 and whether you are a big club or a small one as a fan you have to believe. look what col u and barnsly achieved lasy season, burnley this season. they r not big clubs and are surviving in that league. so, i think that finishing mid table is a tad dissapointing if thats the case. january is very important. if we can sign leon and mayb one other then i think we have a chance. we must find the right combination up front and that is not playing a winger, his words, up front. morgan prove don tuesday that he is not comportable up front.

appreciate your views though and well argued.

utb

 

[Smiffy]

You have just highlighted the big problem and that is the acoustics. The west can get loud as can the east but neither can hear each over. That minute after Gowers goal against Swindon the atmosphere in the West was electric, if only the goal was 5 minutes earlier then we would have had the stadium really rocking for the first time this season.

The Bass drum will get the ground going Josh (Once it's had a makeover!)

Hopefully the drum will be in fine voice itself for the Oldham game.

 

[ashingdon shrimper]

well i,ve moved my seat with my daughter for the day to stand with the voice on new years day, so lets get roots hall rocking and shaking for the first time this season. last year we had a good atmostphere but this year we are just too quiet, lets get behind the team and sing no matter how the team are playing or the score. it can only help the players if we are behind them no matter what. lets get the atmostphere of the southamptom game last season, we lost but never stopped singing, what a day that was i will never forget it

 

[shrimperjon]

well put ashingdon, i agree that when full and the fans are behind the team the old ground does rock. for some reason this season the fans are more quiet than normal. strange when you consider we are pushing for promotion. the new years day experiment is an excellant idea and one that i hope takes off in a big way. you are right that we should get behind the team at all times, unfortunately that is not always the case with some fans. i also hope that the blue voice gets all stands singing and behind the team and if that can happen then hopefully the team will respond. utb

 

[discord]

Welcome

although 6th and 2 points off the top suggest otherwise.
utb

You'll find that two years ago we were in the same position going into the Christmas period after a woeful November/December which saw us slip down to sixth!
And much the same as then all of theother clubs struggled too!

Agree with the booing of certain players is not on!

Flavs v Collis neither are good enough to progress from league 1 to a higher standard and to be honest the amount of shots Freddy had saved by Championship keepers would suggest this too if anyone looked at the opta stats on forwards last year Eastwood had the most shots on target yet scored so few, but back to our keepers

Flavs
brilliant blocker with body, agile and fast reactions.... Not being tall enough is his ownly downfall so has no presece in the box at corners.
Collis
Have not seen the agility that Flavs has got, but he does at least have the height to command his box, however his handling is a bit suspect at times.

But in this division it does not matter who is best as all the really good keepers are already in the Championship!

 

[Kristof]

Welcome abroad Jon. Have fun