Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend 0-0 Exeter

[C C Csiders]

Mildenhall - some good saves (1 great one, and good handling) 8

Francis - the usual some good, some woeful 6
Baldwin - one excellent block in a reasonable performance 7
Barrett - one greta tackle on the edge of the box mixed with woeful distribution. Committed as ever 7
Malone - possibly the worst left back in the land 1

Laurent - a luxury we cannot afford in our predicament 4
Moussa - so much better in the middle. Will be a class act in a few years time after he has been hounded out of the club (if it still exists in 32 days time) 7
Grant - so much better than the Irish bloke. Commitment and desire (the antithesis of Vernon (see below) 7
Scannell - some good flashes going forwrad, and committed working back 6

Paterson - did OK I suppose 5
Vernon - no commitment or desire or goal threat 4

sub: Spencer - did he touch the ball? 5

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Mildenhall 7 - best keeper we've had since Royce.
Francis 7 - still our most likely source of goals
Malone 5 - his passing is intelligent when he has time, but poor under pressure. I get the impression he isn't the most popular player at Roots Hall, despite the fact that he wasn't beaten defensively once today.
Barrett 6 - thought he tried too hard and was trying to do other players' jobs instead of concentrating on his own.
Baldwin 6 - a clean sheet but I still wasn't particularly convinced with us at the back.
Grant 7 - thank God he's back, although thanks to Macca's stupidity he had to play the final 20 minutes when he was struggling fitness wise and which is why we were struggling to hold on at the end.
Moussa 7 - yet again we moved the ball around better with him in the middle, and I think it is no coincidence that Scannell plays a lot better with Moussa rather than McCormack in the middle because he gets that much better ball.
Laurent 4 - not afraid to put his foot in, but is so slow to close down. Defending doesn't come naturally to him. A luxury in our predicament.
Scannell 8 - the black Scott Forbes was full of energy and running, but surely he should be on the right hand side?
Vernon 6 - an experienced old pro
Paterson 5 - I fear we've been sold a dud here. For all his fancy footwork he's nowhere near physical enough to play professional football. Who was that Norwegian/Swedish kid that we signed who was supposedly the saviour of our youth team, but ended up being released? I think Paterson might be the second coming of him (not that I ever saw him play). Spencer might be the second coming of Trevor Fitzpatrick as well.

 

[shrimpfan]

Spot on. I really thought that Dave Webb would have totally reorganised the whole club by now.

I know whats he been doing,thought he would had started the new ground this week as well.Could have sorted the debt, bit off a slow coach why arnt we in the play offs.

 

[united we stand]

Forgot him, 8 as it happens, another bloke like Barrett gives his all for the cause but didn't think the loanees put in much more than 60% maybe Baldwin more, don't get me started on that young so called Southend United prospect Moussa.......!

I thought Baldwin did well and would be happy to sign him, plus no one is mentioning a brilliant headed clearence he did late second half. If Barratt had done it everyone would be going on about it.

Grant was excellent, but with the total lack of effort from Laurent we just looked outnumbered - which is ridiculous when playing at home against a team in the bottom four

 

[OldBlueLady]

I would have thought Webby left yesterday pretty much to Tilly to assess for himself what changes need to be made. I expect a few "hairdryers" might be dispensed during the next few days.

Got so annoyed with those who were and are still berating individuals....Simon Francis had a great game yet one slip up and the morons were on his case yesterday. Likewise Franny Laurent, playing along a completely unfamiliar line up in midfield and having to defend a lot more....anyone knocking his effort obviously didn't notice his chasing back after they broke down the left in the 2nd half immediately after he'd just had one of his mazey runs. These players are playing UNDER PRESSURE so they're going to make mistakes, we have to get OFF their backs and get behind them.

For that reason I really didn't get the "One Adam Barrett" chant that went up when Franno was down and injured. Franno is a player that never feigns and has been our POTY in my eyes so far and we STILL don't have a chant for him, if ever there was a time one was appropriate, that was it, not chanting to Adam.

Mildy - 6.5, marked down a bit for too much faffing when taking kicks, if we were going to score yesterday we needed some quick ones for Paterson or Spencer to chase
Franno - 7.5, another good game
Baldwin - 7, like him a lot, would love him to stay, instils confidence in the others
Barrett - 6.5, please stop the grappling Adam
Malone - 6, I like him but he backs off too much and gets turned too
Laurent - 6, not a good day but kept on trying
Grant - 8, MOTM without a shadow of a doubt, lovely to see him back and in form, backed out of some challenges unsurprisingly, keep on with the fitness work
Moussa - 6.5, also backed out of some challenges but without Grant's reasons to, still not playing to his full potential
Scannell - 7, was being marked well, and looked much better on the right - why don't him and Laurent swap about during the game?
Vernon - 5, had a mare, nothing worked, but there were plenty of intelligent flicks and turns, just need to practise
Paterson - 6.5, tried hard against a physical defence, noticed loads of nudges

Subs: Spencer for Paterson - 6.5, not his fault, wrong sub, should've gone 3 up top, Screech and Paterson either side of Vernon.

 

[Rob Noxious]

We played a straight 4-4-2 and Mvoto was dropped. There are two changes for you! It is not as if we have got a 30 player squad and can change the entire tram at a drop of a hat!

:DI thought M'Voto was looking somewhat tram-like last week too! :)

 

[Kenny]

A truly depressing 90 minutes, we opened brightly dominating possession and going at a good pace but the longer the half went on you could tell it was going to be one of those days where we huffed and puffed against a team that was there for the taking with no end result.

Mildy - 8 Made some good saves to keep 1st clean sheet in ages

Francis - 7 Had to have his wits about him all game as Laurent kept losing their no.11
Barrett and Balders - 7 Looked pretty solid and a couple of great last ditch tackles from Adam. Barring injury can't see why we'd break these up to put M'voto back in
Malone - 4 had a shocker, passes often went to a red & white shirt. Don't know how much of his wages we are paying but I'd be up for sending him back and giving Herd a run and then re-deploy that wage money elsewhere.

Laurent -4 a real enigma and we're not in a position to carry players like him in our situation.
Mousse - 6 thought he did ok but sometimes frustrating with his first touch.
Grant - 8 MOTM for me, was like a terrier all game even though hes probably not fully fit. If only he could shoot as well.
Scannell -6 had a good game by his standards but the booking was totally ********.

Vernon - 5 almost anonymous, powder puff shots when chances did come his way.
Paterson - 6 Impressive passage of play where he held off 4 players before eventually drawing the foul but quiet game apart from that

Subs:
Screech - did he even touch the ball?

 

[RobM]

Screech? Who's he?

 

[class]

Screech? Who's he?

Scott Spencer.

 

[Andy_S]

Such a frustrating afternoon, one of which you always kind of knew that we wouldn't be scoring in. Vernon missed 3 guilt edge opportunities, which cost us big time. The two strikers, after looking so good against Charlton had an absolute mare, and quite why we left it until the 80th minute to bring on Spencer, well, I don't think anyone other than Tilly knows. We were crying out for a bit of pace up top and it was quite simply criminal that we left it so late. Spencer touched the ball ONCE after coming on.

3 points were a must yesterday and I can't help but think that, that's that for our chances of survival.

Ratings:

Mildenhall 7: His kicking, as it has been since his hip injury, wasn't great, but he claimed 2 very difficult crosses and made several stops.

Francis 7.5: A very decent performance from him. Did well at the back, despite getting sod all help from Laurent in the first half.

Baldwin 7: You know what you're going to get with him. His brave header towards the end was vital.

Barrett 7: One of his better displays, although he still was far too gung ho for my liking. Won more against Haber than I thought he would so credit where it's due. Why is EVERY set piece aimed at his head? Ridiculous.

Malone 4: Tilly's love child was quite frankly dreadful. He wasn't tested defensively very often, but that's because Exeter tried to exploit the space that Laurent was affording Golbourne. His distribution was atrocious. When he did get forward, he didn't even break sweat to get back, often leaving Scannell to bust a gut and help out. The poorest and most pointless loanee of recent memory.

Laurent 4.5: He gets an extra half a mark for the shot just after half time. He beat his man once and I can only think of 2 crosses that he made. Otherwise he trotted around and played far too narrow, which allowed yards and yards of space for Golbourne. The fact that he was given instruction after instruction from the bench kind of summed up just how poor he was.

Grant 7.5: Generally he was fantastic, especially as it was his first game back. He covered acres and boy have we missed him. Proved even more that he's a class above Christophe and McCormack.

Moussa 6.5: Got stuck in and drove forward when he could, but on more than one occasion he got caught in possession because he paused for thought when he was looking to play a ball over the top, only to realise that the strike force were not making the run and nor had the pace to get on to anything. Grant and Moussa is definitely the partnership that I'd give some time and thought to though.

Scannell 7: The only attacking player to cause any kind of consistent problems to Exeter. His work ethic was fantastic, he beat his man time after time, put crosses into good areas and most impressively, he was always tracking back when Malone was caught up field. IF we do go down then it's very important we give him a new deal IMHO.

Vernon 5.5: Huffed and puffed, although not as much as recent weeks, but fluffed 3 chances that a professional footballer shouldn't, especially in our situation.

Paterson 5.5: The other half of our slowest strike force in recent times struggled also. He's young and learning though and he's another one that I'm sure would be very important in the League below. And no, I'm not enjoying thinking about these things.

Sub:

Spencer /: Touched the ball once and basically didn't really have a chance to get into the game. Should've been on 20 minutes sooner.

 

[GBJ]

We cannot score goals. For this reason we will be relegated.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Likewise Franny Laurent, playing along a completely unfamiliar line up in midfield and having to defend a lot more....anyone knocking his effort obviously didn't notice his chasing back after they broke down the left in the 2nd half immediately after he'd just had one of his mazey runs.

Laurent's tracking back was abysmal. I'm not doubting his effort, but he was truly shocking defensively. He lets his man drift far too far away. The reason he has to run so much is because he switches off so much. He is so bad he nearly makes Simon Francis seem switched on.

Paterson - 6.5, tried hard against a physical defence, noticed loads of nudges

This is because he has all the physicality of an asthmatic ant carrying some slightly heavy shopping. Someone needs to tell him it's a contact sport. If he wants to have any future in professional football he needs to toughen up. Exeter weren't even a particularly physical defence, but they were able to be against him.

He could also do himself a favour by getting the nudge in first. Vernon is a good player for him to learn from.

Did you also notice loads of nudges by Adam Barrett? Barrett would eat him alive and there aren't many strikers in this division you can say that about.

Such a frustrating afternoon, one of which you always kind of knew that we wouldn't be scoring in. Vernon missed 3 guilt edge opportunities, which cost us big time. The two strikers, after looking so good against Charlton had an absolute mare, and quite why we left it until the 80th minute to bring on Spencer, well, I don't think anyone other than Tilly knows. We were crying out for a bit of pace up top and it was quite simply criminal that we left it so late. Spencer touched the ball ONCE after coming on.

3 points were a must yesterday and I can't help but think that, that's that for our chances of survival.

Ratings:

Mildenhall 7: His kicking, as it has been since his hip injury, wasn't great, but he claimed 2 very difficult crosses and made several stops.

Francis 7.5: A very decent performance from him. Did well at the back, despite getting sod all help from Laurent in the first half.

Baldwin 7: You know what you're going to get with him. His brave header towards the end was vital.

Barrett 7: One of his better displays, although he still was far too gung ho for my liking. Won more against Haber than I thought he would so credit where it's due. Why is EVERY set piece aimed at his head? Ridiculous.

Malone 4: Tilly's love child was quite frankly dreadful. He wasn't tested defensively very often, but that's because Exeter tried to exploit the space that Laurent was affording Golbourne. His distribution was atrocious. When he did get forward, he didn't even break sweat to get back, often leaving Scannell to bust a gut and help out. The poorest and most pointless loanee of recent memory.

Laurent 4.5: He gets an extra half a mark for the shot just after half time. He beat his man once and I can only think of 2 crosses that he made. Otherwise he trotted around and played far too narrow, which allowed yards and yards of space for Golbourne. The fact that he was given instruction after instruction from the bench kind of summed up just how poor he was.

Grant 7.5: Generally he was fantastic, especially as it was his first game back. He covered acres and boy have we missed him. Proved even more that he's a class above Christophe and McCormack.

Moussa 6.5: Got stuck in and drove forward when he could, but on more than one occasion he got caught in possession because he paused for thought when he was looking to play a ball over the top, only to realise that the strike force were not making the run and nor had the pace to get on to anything. Grant and Moussa is definitely the partnership that I'd give some time and thought to though.

Scannell 7: The only attacking player to cause any kind of consistent problems to Exeter. His work ethic was fantastic, he beat his man time after time, put crosses into good areas and most impressively, he was always tracking back when Malone was caught up field. IF we do go down then it's very important we give him a new deal IMHO.

Vernon 5.5: Huffed and puffed, although not as much as recent weeks, but fluffed 3 chances that a professional footballer shouldn't, especially in our situation.

Paterson 5.5: The other half of our slowest strike force in recent times struggled also. He's young and learning though and he's another one that I'm sure would be very important in the League below. And no, I'm not enjoying thinking about these things.

Sub:

Spencer /: Touched the ball once and basically didn't really have a chance to get into the game. Should've been on 20 minutes sooner.

Agree with most of that except Mildenhall's kicking was far better than his opposite number's or his predecessors, so I find it strange that it is yet again criticised for it. I also think you are a touch harsh on Malone and Vernon who seem to attract stick because they don't belong to us. The reputation of Spencer and Herd grows with every game they don't play.

 

[Tilson_Blues]

my ratings pure and simple

mildy 9
franno 8
barret 6
baldwin8

laurent 7 (dont see what he did wrong)
grant 10 (brilliant best iv seen him)
moose 6 (passing was awful
scannel 7 (tried his best)


paterson 7

vernon 1 (rather have drew broughton/ Graham Jones)

 

[watchtheballboys]

Terrible....

Due to work commitments I could not get to the game until half time so can only comment on half the match. I thought we were terrible only to be informed by those around me that the first half was actually worse!

My view of the players performance is based on what I saw so must be subjective however I do feel our reliance on loan players is an important factor when looking at commitment. The players on loan will return to their clubs at the end of the season, they have not been relegated while the Blues will be. The fulltime signings will be facing the prospect of picking up the pieces in division two.

On top of this some could leave as I am sure the insecurity of not knowing if they will in fact be paid must make them look at more financially secure options.

I think Mildy will go, something in his attitude near the end of the game when he seemed to waste time made me think does he care and has he simply had enough.

Macca and Francis have been courted by other clubs and they could easily walk for nothing if they are not paid, again according to the PFA they have the right to terminate their contracts if regularly not paid on time....as is the case currently. With little prospect of any change as the summer looms I can only see the situation getting worse as revenue streams dry up.

Player by player :
Mildy ~ ok, some good saves, distribution poor and worry about that time wasting
Francis ~ ok and some improvement in crossing, especially corners was good to see at last!
Malone ~ poor, certainly no better than Herd, distribution is not great.
Barrett ~ a few good clearances, distribution poor on Saturday
Baldwin ~ good, I think he is the pick of the loanees, committed but I doubt we will get him fulltime, probably playing for a future elsewhere!
Laurent ~ poor, a 'luxury' player, does not know when to pass the ball and crosses are terrible. If we were playing well I would be happy to have him but does not track back and ineffectual
Grant ~ good, put a lot of effort in and tackled well
Mousse ~ poor, I know he needs a rest but has gone backwards this season in my opinion, not the player he looked last season
Scannell ~ good, plenty of effort and some effective runs
Vernon ~ poor, does not look interested to me and will go back to Col U
Paterson ~ poor, needs a bit of building up as looks lightweight at the moment does not get forward quick enough
Spencer ~ ok, needs to be tried from the start in my opinion, can walk at the end of the season.

Nothing on Saturday made me change my view that we are relegated, it was a must win game and we never really looked likely to achieve that.

The spirit has gone and Tilly does not look a happy man.

My view is that Adam Barrett will be offered a player coach role as assistant to Tilly in the summer if Tilly stays......could even get the Managers job if Tilly goes.....what do you think?