Positives from today.

[Kestrel]

Bird in ticket office Been there done it FACT!

I'm reporting you to the RSPCA

:flamer:

Al

 

[Beefy]

Blimey! All the tripe that the Usual Suspects spout is like water off a duck's back to me, but Beefy unhappy with Tilly? Now that DOES worry me!

:(

I defend Tilly on here more than most but that performance was indefensible. The tactics were completely wrong, we had no width at all with McCormack having been shunted wide-right and Gower having an off-day so we resorted to hitting hopeless longballs forward despite having two strikers playing who clearly aren't suited to that brand of football.

It's not the result that bothers me as it is the impression that I've got that Tilly has just sent them out there to play a game of football today without any real gameplan for what we were going to do when we had the ball.

In my opinion this is the biggest month of Tilly's reign here with some massive league matches and the transfer window being open but it's got off to a horrid start.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I thought I was fighting a one man crusade to get people to appreciate what Matt Harrold brings to the team...strange how things have a habit of changing so abruptly!

Steady crusader. They've been in the minority, but there have been quite a few people flying the ginger flag, not just yourself!

I'm going Saturday week; should I bring a good book?

 

[Sherif H]

Steady crusader. They've been in the minority, but there have been quite a few people flying the ginger flag, not just yourself!

I'm going Saturday week; should I bring a good book?

Fellow crusaders, God bless you all in that case! :angel:

 

[Andy_S]

Whatever anyone says, we should have started with Harrold. Also, forgive me for saying, but am I the only one who is not filled with confidence when the best Tilly can come up with in a crisis is to bring on a player whose head drops after one misplaced pass/shot in Hooper?

To be fair, Hoops brought some impetus when he came on. Admittedly wasn't hard with the gutless crap going on around him.

What winds me up is that today was a completely insipid, clueless performance, yet there was no guidance from the bench. They both stood there with not a word to the players all game. We had 11 lost souls out there with nobody to turn to. There was no width, no options, nothing. For God sake get out there and show them who is boss.

Oh and Damian Scannell looked completely and utterly depressed with what he was watching. Methinks he might be on the way down the road to Southampton begging them to take him.

 

[Sherif H]

What winds me up is that today was a completely insipid, clueless performance, yet there was no guidance from the bench. They both stood there with not a word to the players all game. We had 11 lost souls out there with nobody to turn to. There was no width, no options, nothing. For God sake get out there and show them who is boss

Andy...this is 100% on the money for me. We all know after almost 4 years, that Tilly and Brush are not the most vocal of managerial teams, but presented with a situation where all manner of disorganisation and chaos is ensuing on the field of play, and where most opposition managers (usually in a winning position I may add!) are venting their spleen/barking instructions with unquestionable authority, our duo remain cross-armed against the dugout wall...it beggars belief.
We need inspiration and more importantly, clear directions when all is not well, and all is most certainly not well at present.

 

[the_forgotten_man]

I defend Tilly on here more than most but that performance was indefensible. The tactics were completely wrong, we had no width at all with McCormack having been shunted wide-right and Gower having an off-day so we resorted to hitting hopeless longballs forward despite having two strikers playing who clearly aren't suited to that brand of football.

It's not the result that bothers me as it is the impression that I've got that Tilly has just sent them out there to play a game of football today without any real gameplan for what we were going to do when we had the ball.

In my opinion this is the biggest month of Tilly's reign here with some massive league matches and the transfer window being open but it's got off to a horrid start.

Once again "what Beefy said" is applicable.

I also thought that the way in which we had almost half of the outfield players - Morgan, Macca, Hunt, Barrett - all playing out of position was very worrying. Now Tilly has had several years to build this squad, and yet in January, after not a huge number of injuries, we are having to resort to playing players out of position.

Tilson needs to do something to make sure the crowd stay on his side - what that is I don't know. I'm not sure that bringing new faces in will actually help (although a new centre-back and striker are pretty vital if he continues to refuse to play Harrold). Maybe he needs to hire another coach or something like that - to be honest, I just don't know how he's going to get us out of this rut.

Whilst I have seen worse Southend performances in the past, I think that was possibly the worst managerial display I've ever seen.

 

[Bluesmanager]

We didn't get a yellow card.

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

Blue Belles were nice.

There was a decent ref at Roots Hall.....a first for a while.

 

[Beefy]

The Blue Voice flags looked very impressive.

 

[Andy_S]

The scoreboard didn't flash up the wrong opposition and score for once.

 

[Kenny]

Blue Belles were nice.

I was going to add that but then decided to strike them off the list for being too covered up for my liking.

 

[BrettieAngell]

look...i have read most the posts from the last couple of games and lets face it, the majority on here pre season opted for a midtable finish. Now to do that we win as many as we loose and will probably have good spells and bad spells, both of which we have already encountered this season.

Lets see what happens this month with players, apparently according to the echo we are in for another championship striker, and see where we are.

This should really be a consolidation season in my opinion blood some younger players, perhaps get in some seasoned pro's now / summer and push on for next year and hopefully maintain a promotion and stay up. i can't think of one non money funded team that has shot through the divisions and stayed up in the championship, the problem is we did it too quick.

If we finished mid table the year we gained promotion no one would have argued, top half pushing for promotion no one would argue, but that all changed when we gained promotion early. i think we are now rebuilding again so lets get a reality check, see who comes and goes this season and take it from there.

having said that the Tillys substitutions do puzzle me a little

Good post!

 

[The General]

Kenny, Biffa is currently going out with one of the girls from the Ticket Office, although im not sure that is the one you are talking about as no-one good looking would get with someone like Biffa ... !!

 

[Thurrock_Blue]

Thought Hoops looked quite sharp when he came on - and was unlucky with that chance.

 

[J]

Thought Hoops looked quite sharp when he came on - and was unlucky with that chance.

Shut up baldy... hoops gone. :finger:

 

[BoyWonder2]

the substitutions puzzle me to, now why take Gower off when he has proved in the past that he is ok to pop up for a goal and sneak us a draw or a win!

Because he didn't beat his full back once. Lescott bossed Gower all day long, they could still be out there now and Gower wouldn't have got passed him.

The game was screaming out for Matt Harrold...

 

[peanut12]

I am surprised at how many people on here actually expect our strikers to play with confidence.

None of them has set the world alight this year so it is no surprise that they don't feel composed. Having said that what would help is if the 3 men who played on the left today had put a fecking cross in from the byline rather than cutting back and laying it off, or drilling it straight into the keeper's stomach. Their keeper was poor and had we got to the byline more, Charlie was always sniffing in the right areas. If you cut back and put a ball in the air, he ain't gonna out jump two 6'3" centre-backs.

Tilly made the right choice in taking Gower off as he had an awful game, sadly, both players who played in that position after him were equally void of all ideas.

positives:

Peter Clarke and Nick bailey were standout superb today and fully commited.
Macca was better once he got a kick up the ****.
Charlie worked hard for very little APPOPRIATE service, even winning headers.
Collis was stable and not at fault for the goal.
Better defending from set pieces
No yellows or reds

to be improved:

Players dallying on the ball, mentioning no names of course
Hitting the byline and then putting low crosses across the face of goal

Morgan was ineffective and opened the way for Matt Harrold to come back in. Despite what anyone says his work rate is second to none, he wins headers and flick ons, he is ginger - how many more reasons do we need?