Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-0 Crawley Town

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United held promotion rivals Crawley Town to a 0-0 draw at Roots Hall tonight – despite playing the final 10 minutes of the match with just nine men.

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[Farmer Fossett]

Ratings:

Belford 9 - Superb performance, MOM.
Clohessey 5.5 - Very poor first half especially distribution, far better second half.
Barker 5 - Looked poor before being sent off.
Phillips 8 - Looked assured our best defender on the night.
Hills 6.5 - OK home debut although faded in second half.
Timlin 5.5 - Poor - Needs to recapture early season form if we are to maintain push for promotion.
Sawyer 7 - Quality whilst in posession which sadly was not often enough.
Grant 7.5 - One of our better players on the night.
Harris 6.5 - Should have scored in the first half otherwise OK.
Sampson 5.5 - Average, however not looking good for future of English football considering he is a U19 International.

Subs
Prosser 7
Dickinson 7
Ferdinand 6.5

 

[blue79]

I'm led to believe Hills went off with a knock. Hope its not a repeat of his past injury. This post may be knocked by Canvey.

 

[leeblue]

everyone deserves a ten for effort alone tonight, crowd included.

 

[southendkid]

Ratings:

Belford 9 - Superb performance, MOM.
Clohessey 5.5 - Very poor first half especially distribution, far better second half.
Barker 5 - Looked poor before being sent off.
Phillips 8 - Looked assured our best defender on the night.
Hills 6.5 - OK home debut although faded in second half.
Timlin 5.5 - Poor - Needs to recapture early season form if we are to maintain push for promotion.
Sawyer 7 - Quality whilst in posession which sadly was not often enough.
Grant 7.5 - One of our better players on the night.
Harris 6.5 - Should have scored in the first half otherwise OK.
Sampson 5.5 - Average, however not looking good for future of English football considering he is a U19 International.

Subs
Prosser 7
Dickinson 7
Ferdinand 6.5

The England U-19 thing seems to get a lot around here, he has played 1 game for them, he's hardly being billed as the next David Beckham!
We were dreadful 1st half, second half we were still dreadful until the penalty save, at which point we looked like the most likely team to get the 3 points until Dicko got injured. We showed great character to see out the remaining 15 minutes and I'm sure it will give us a big boost to our confidence. Coming out of the ground felt a lot better than some of our wins this season! :smile:

 

[blue79]

Agree with you but this may hit us in the long run.

 

[eastling]

Great effort by the lads to earn the point and especially Belford. 10/10! Also it was brilliant to see the 9 men hold out in front of the pantomime act on the Creepy bench! Those two were the most ridiculous play actors I've ever seen in a dugout or rather in their case stretched along the touchline!

However, in truth the last 25 mins masked the fact that despite the conditions, it was in general a poor home performance again. We didn't take the game to Crawley and I'd hoped with the wind in our favour 2nd half we'd capitalize. Sadly we didn't but from the sending off until the end the players stepped it up. I'm hoping that this might be a catalyst for future team performances at home. A win against Accrington a must!

 

[Strykr]

Agreed, 10 for effort. Thought crawley were very poor, and that we might just nick it, but we didnt create any chances.

Thought Timlin had a poor one tonight, which was a shame as we looked to pass the ball around with this set of players, but without a good passer in the middle spraying it about and seeing the runs, it didnt work.

Jury still out on Sawyer, but I for one was glad to see him play, hopefully someone will pass to him next time.

Barker out for a few games now, his lack of pace was exploited, but the handball getting him sent off , stopped us from going 1-0 down, its a weird one that. Anyway, time for Baldwin to step up.

Steve evans is a ******.

Definite early legend status for the keeper. Some great saves, looked confident, excellent celebrations at the end, and some of the most textbook time wasting i've ever seen.

With Dicko out imo we should look to get a striker in on loan. Sampson, flood or Benyon I dont think are the ones to score us into the automatics.

Lets hope a few results go our way. This game in hand business is doing my head in!

UTB

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Did Turdinand touch the ball?

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

Well, another Sky experience from deepest Suffolk.

For reasons I won't bore you with I could only see the 2nd half, but got to the George with Shrimper (family hound) at HT. On arrival the TV was off. Hmmm. 'No probs' said 'all tits n teeth' (same Arsenal fan barmaid from the Gills game), so I ordered Guinness for Shrimp and me whilst the hound looked forlornly around without success for the Landlords dog to annoy. The darts team had a cup semi match on (only four had entered I was informed) and 'star man' Nobby was rallying the troops - 'Come on lads, we'll whip their arses' I heard him shout in welcoming tones to the local bespectacled historian group who looked a tad worried at this show of Suffolk aggression. Still, it promised to add again to the 'pub experience' and this time I even had a co-watcher, the toothless landlady from the White Hart who had seemingly given up on the prospect of any custom on a wild wet night Suffolk and come to drown her sorrows at her main competitors. 'Wot's this then?' she asked as the T&T struggled with the remote. 'It's a telly Doreen' T&T answered - Doreen seemed satisfied with the response and went back to quietly staring at her pint.

After exchanging the best part of a tenner (isn't Guinness expensive?) for 1.5 pints and pork scratchings, T&T announced that 'me pinger is ****ed' and that I'd have to watch Coronation Street instead. Not impressed. I offered to try her 'pinger' but she wouldn't let me anywhere near it. 'The Legion got Sky' was all she blurted in compensation in her highly tuned customer friendly tones, so I took the hint, encouraged Shrimper to slurp up and off we went round the corner to the place that time forgot.

Luckily, earlier in the year I had invested in an annual membership for the Legion. I had been told that if I had shot any Taliban the membership was cheaper, but at £16 I reckoned that I had a bargain anyway so I had paid the full price. I'd only used the membership a couple of times since when fancying a pint on a Sunday afternoon for the occasional big Premiershite match, so Monday eve there was a whole new experience. I pressed the buzzer and was let in, warmly welcomed and got the drinks in for Shrimp and me plus some 'Nobby's Nuts' (not hungry, just liked the irony) for less than a fiver. There was one other customer in the main bar, some girl (approx 14) breastfeeding a newborn (presumably hers) whilst rocking the pram with another in it. 'Nah probs mate' the barman said when I enquired about putting on SUFC v Creepy, 'as long as it won't put off young Kylie off giving her milk to young Reggie here' he said pointing at Kylie who seemed less than shy on feeding tactics. There was so many questions I wanted to ask I just gormlessley retorted that all would be fine and Shrimp and me sat isolated at a table in the middle of the dance floor as the delights of Roots Hall opened up before us on a 70 inch screen, Reg slurping noisily away in the background. Luverly.

Early on we were joined by Colin. I sussed this out from the tattoo on his wrist which I assume was there in case of memory failure (he didn't look like the sort that batted for the other side). There was some activity in the Legion, but in an adjoining room. 'Legion A v Legion B' he announced, arrows in hand. 'I'm B' he qualified. 'No one wants to play us since last month so we playing wiv ourselves' he added. Even Shrimp seemed to look up with disdain and wondering whether we had plumbed new depths in our experience of Suffolk life. I was just about to enquire further when Colin announced 'I loike Sarfend, I visit me kids in Basildon when I can'. We struck up a bond, Basildon was where I haled from in the early 60's and over the next curious 40 or so minutes we exchanged Basildon memories, though thankfully not shared ones. 'I dun't loike it there now' Colin said, adding 'ate going back there, too ****in violent, last toime I wuz there me mate got his stereo knicked but we found out who did it and did him ovver'. A shout from the other bar from his fellow B team rejects stopped Colin from confessing more and he shuffled back to the other bar.

I glanced back at the TV screen. Fascinated by 'Basildon tales' I had only paid scant attention to the game and it was now injury time. Faced with a free kick after 96 mins and fuelled by too much cheap mild consumed too quickly I announced to the still mostly empty bar 'Come on Sarfend'. Shrimper barked, the baby cried, and we missed the goal by miles. Colin shook my hand on the way out, 'Basildon blood brothers' he announced with a grin as I was walking out, I quickened my pace and walked out in to the driving sleet. Shrimp pulled to go back in but he hadn't sussed out we had a lift home so I focused on making it to the Co op trolley store to wait without getting too drenched.

When's the next Sky game?

UTB

 

[blue79]

Wins tomorrow for Shrews, Chelts and Swindon will suddenly make this one point gained look a tad dissapointing. Especially when Harris might haver scored in the first half. I appreciate the games in hand thing is a pain in the peverbial but as its a fact I think we have to win at least 5 or even 6 of our remaining games to stand a chance of the top 3.

 

[Kevin Hogg]

Outplayed ..for certain.
However, was great to see some character on show and the players digging-deep at the end. Mr Belford was a loanee keeper at 7:45 but by the end of the game had become a Shrimper.
The love returned to The Hall...a real passion for the team from the fans.

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

Belford 9 - MOTM. Great saves
Clohessey 6.5 - Ok, but didn't get chance to get forward much tonight.
Barker 6 - Still not at his best. Made one huge error that could have been fatal.
Phillips 8 - Won countless tackles and headers. Getting better and better.
Hills 6.5 - Looks a decent player. Nice having some pace back there.
Timlin 6 - Worked his socks off, but gave the ball away cheaply at times.
Sawyer 7 - Some nice touches and put in a good shift.
Grant 7.5 - His form is picking up. Just wish he would stay on his feet.
Martin 6.5 - Quiet game. He gives us a better shape
Harris 6 - Worked hard aswell, but also gave away possession.
Sampson 6.5 - Ok, but was up against two big strong centre backs. Unlucky to be taken off, but had to be done.

Subs
Prosser 6.5 - Not on long. Ok
Dickinson 6.5 - Same. Hope he's ok
Ferdinand 6.5 - grafted to the end

 

[shrimpled]

For the first time in a long time it felt like my team. It was determined and gutsy, absolutely tremedous to see. I'm not one to moan about the style of play, I just want the players to try their best and to a man they did tonight. Superb from Belford, does anyone know his contract status at Bury?

 

[bazzashrimper]

Did Turdinand touch the ball?

No.........

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Just watched the game again. In 20 minutes Ferdinand did not touch the ball at all.

How are some people rating him higher than those that put in a real shift for 90 minutes!? It's baffling what some of you lot watch at times.

 

[james_c]

Belford 9 - Superb performance, MOM.
Clohessey 6
Barker 6
Phillips 8 my poty
Hills 7 alot better than gilbert
Timlin 6
Sawyer 8 real quality looks better in midle though
Grant 7
Harris 9 thought he was class especially when down to 9
Sampson 5 poor
Subs
Prosser 6
Dickinson 7
Ferdinand 5

 

[PrawNZ]

Barker 9 - Great save! 2 pts, cheers son!

 

[Ulysses]

From a TV perspective

Belford 9.5 - superb MOM.
Clohessey 7 - okay does getting a lot of space for crosses but doesn't deliver.
Barker 3 - woeful even before sending off. reckon he made about 80% of teams mistakes. On that performance shouldn't be anywhere near starting 11.
Phillips 8 - solid looked great
Hills 7.5 - solid
Timlin 6 - lots of stray passes
Sawyer 7 - think he'll improve as time goes on
Grant 7.5 - Solid display
Martin - 6.5 - bit disappointing
Harris 7.5 - ran around like a nutter
Sampson 6.5 - hit and miss

Subs
Prosser 7 - solid
Dickinson 7.5 - changed the game (well for a few minutes)
Ferdinand 6 - don't think he touched the ball

 

[OldBlueLady]

Feel people are being a touch hard saying players were poor and criticising the passing, the gusty conditions were really difficult to gauge and almost any time a long or crossfield pass was attempted it never made it. Having said that there were a few who struggled, Harris for one initially. Think this came from his desire to do well as what he was trying was good, just it didn't often come off.

Belford - 8, fantastic save, definite MOTM, very impressed with what I saw
Clohessy -7, tried to link with Sawyer but no telepathy developed as yet
Phillips - 7, another good performance from Mark, but could so nearly have been sent off for that sliding tackle that fortunately didn't connect
Barker - 6, haven't seen the pen again but felt there was little he could do, it was very close range. Good to see him going forward and the two quicker full backs staying back
Hills - 7, quietly impressive, understand he went off with a hamstring problem so hope that sorts itself out
Sawyer - 7, did some decent stuff in the first half, looked a threat. Thought he was less impressive when Timlin dropped out of midfield for some reason
Timlin - 7, dunno why some people reckon he was poor. Surging runs forward to test the keeper
Grant - 7, return to the Granty of old, again, until the change to midfield. Looked at ease alongside Timlin and definitelyh preferable to me than Kalala
MArtin - 8, always looks threatening, needs to develop with Harris
Harris - 8, things didn't come off but he kept trying and trying
Sampson - 6, not overly impressed, no rapport with Harris

Subs:
Prosser for Martin - enforced, thought he did ok
Dickinson for Sampson - real shame, wanted him to get out there and prove a point and he almost did
Ferdinand for Hills - shame Hills needed to go off though I didn't think Ferdinand was the answer at that point

Officials:
For someone who Mick felt was a "homer" I've never seen anyone less so! Allowed constant advancing with throw ins by Crawley, missed a blatant handball by Torres in the incident which led to Barker being sent off, and seemed to penalise things for us but not for them. Rather inconsistent.

TBV - well done to all, really good to hear the North Bank rocking - more so than last time it was opened for us.