Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-0 Salford City

[kentblues]

A hard thought point. We edged the first half, they edged the second. A fair result in the end. It's a point closer to safety with both Barrow and Grimsby losing. Defence looked solid despite having a new keeper behind them for 45 minutes and then a different one the second half. Midfield battled, Ferguson for me the pick of MM purchases. Attack still a problem despite Emile having a good game. We need to be more clinical.

Bass; 6- Kicking wasn't great but came and collected some challenging crosses. Hope the injury isn't serious.
Elvis; 7- Solid enough. Dealt with the threat on his side okay.
White; 7- Marshalled the back as he always does, solid in everything he did.
Hobson; 7- Again, did what he had to do with minimum fuss.
Clifford; 6- We've seen and probably expect better on an attacking front. Didn't do anything wrong though.
K. Taylor; 7- Can only assume he was taken off due to fitness. We lost all our creativeness when he left the field.
Dieng; 8- Solid performance, Defensively good, controlled the midfield I thought.
RHF; 7- First half was a threat. Second half got through a lot of defensive work. Worked hard all game.
Ferguson; 8- Get's through so much in both halves of the pitch. A very good signing.
Akinola; 7- Again, plenty of hard work. Hopefully the injury isn't to serious.
Emile; 7.5- I thought he played well. Was isolated at times through no fault of his own. Battled hard against three centre backs. Hard two very good chances he should have scored though.

Seaden; 8.5- Assured performance with two point saving saves. I'd have no concerns if he had to play the next few games.
McCormack; 5- Customary yellow card. Looked rusty.
ANG; 6- Best dribbler I've seen for a long time. So comfortable with the ball at his feet. Didn't get in to the game much though.
Demi; N/A- Strange substitute to make but I guess MM wanted to protect the point.

Ranger; Not even going to bother rating that cameo. It's the lads fault he had to go off with an injury but surely it isn't a surprise to anyone? We've pretty much pulled the lad off the street and let him train for a couple of months. It was far to early to give him game time and this injury proves it. What's more, that couple be a few weeks or month out now. It's safe to say that the Ranger experiment for me has been a waste of time.

On to Cheltenham midweek, a tough game on paper but I fancy our chances given our good away form recently.

No Rangers injury doesn’t prove that at all- look at the incident carefully and how he slips as he comes down. Could have happened to any player- some will be keen to pretend otherwise but it won’t make it true..

 

[MisterStubbs]

No Rangers injury doesn’t prove that at all- look at the incident carefully and how he slips as he comes down. Could have happened to any player- some will be keen to pretend otherwise but it won’t make it true..

Pretend? I'm not pretending. The bloke was blowing out of his backside even before this "slip" you speak off. A fully match fit professional footballer though might feel a slight tweak isn't pulling or tearing or whatever Ranger has done by slipping.

 

[kentblues]

Paul Clark suggested in his commentary that there's no substitute for playing rarther than training.As we're all awatre NR hasn't platyed 1st team football for 3 years now.Nothing to do with fitness-Ha!

That injury wasn’t- but I know many will be very keen to pretend otherwise. Yes PC said that and that is true also. It is also true that the moon is round and grass is green. Anyhow everyone will see it different and I suspect it will turn into Groundhog Day so I will avoid the topic having stated my view a couple of times now. I guess we hope that all the injuries turn out to be minor.

 

[MisterStubbs]

Paul Clark suggested in his commentary that there's no substitute for playing rarther than training.As we're all awatre NR hasn't platyed 1st team football for 3 years now.Nothing to do with fitness-Ha!

Saying it won't make it true though.

 

[kentblues]

Pretend? I'm not pretending. The bloke was blowing out of his backside even before this "slip" you speak off. A fully match fit professional footballer though might feel a slight tweak isn't pulling or tearing or whatever Ranger has done by slipping.

Well it’s your view. I see it differently. Neither of us is automatically right.

 

[kentblues]

But if you haven’t played much you are more likely to get injured slipping.

Maybe....but maybe not...in this instance. Anyhow let’s at least agree none of us actually wanted him to get injured.

 

[Maroon Blue]

Bass 6
Bwomono 6
Hobson 7
White 7
Clifford 6
Dieng 8 MOTM
Ferguson 7
Taylor 6
RHF 6
Acquah 7
Akinola 7

Seadon 7
McCormack 6
ANG 6
Ranger 6
Demetriou 5

A great point after all the drama of the keeper situation and Ranger pulling up, who won every header whilst on. Special mention to our Academy, Acquah again improving, was muscling their centre halves out the way, just needs next to learn to be cuter when finishing. Seaden had a very impressive half and had much more to do than Bass. But for me MOTM Mr Consistent Timothee Dieng nailed on Player of the Season. Extra bonus was Barrow and Grimsby losing. Expect to see a changed team Tuesday, maybe a start for Mr Holmes, we looked very jaded second half. UTB

 

[OldBlueLady]

I must confess to missing the start of the 2nd half as I had been doing a spot of clipping and tidying in the garden and lost track of time so I didn't get to see or hear what went on with Bass, Akinola and Taylor being replaced.

A hard fought and very important point, would definitely have taken that at the start of the day.

Acquah has to do better with those chances - heading a great opportunity straight at the goalkeeper in the middle of the goal is not going to score goals. Beaten in a race by someone several years his senior too. These are things that he should be doing better at. Having offered that criticism, I don't know how the ref failed to give so many challenges on him where he was clearly being held, sometimes with both arms around his middle by the Salford defender. Someone should maybe teach him how to cope better with that.

Played too deep today presumably protecting the keepers, I do wish we would leave someone like ANG up when the opposition has a corner though - gives us a possible outlet and doesn't invite pressure straight back on our box.

What is going on with our pitch though? It is absolutely treacherous, so many players falling over.

Bass - 6, kicking wasn't great but had a couple of good takes
Bwomono - 6, didn't seem to cope that well with Salford's attacking down the wings
White - 8, MOTM, solid, dealt with stuff in a sensible way, good header back across goal at the other end which deserved a better end result
Hobson - 7, solid also
Clifford - 7, had his hands full but coped very well
RHF - 6, not one of his better performances, very one footed
Dieng - 7, really developed into a key player
Taylor - 7, passing wasn't as good as the other day but still our best midfield player at the moment
Ferguson - 6, got a little over run today I thought
Akinola - 6, I'd much rather see him getting the chances Acquah is, seems to be out of position
Acquah - 6, be stronger!

Subs:
Seaden for Bass - 7, well done that young man. Came in and did well, including a great save early on
McCormack for Taylor - 6, not at his most influential and got dragged into a few unnecessary things, still think it was the right sub though
ANG for Akinola - 7, came on and made himself a nuisance which no-one else had done
Ranger for Acquah - 6, can't give him higher, but he made some great defensive clearances - I thought he'd just been kicked in the groin with the challenge to begin with
Demi for Ranger - n/a

Lino on the East side seemed to have forgotten what the offside rule was, couple of clear offsides not given, but the ref seemed to have a decent enough game.

 

[Camden Blues]

I’m staggered. 4 points from FGR and Salford. Beaming tonight - what a great week!

 

[sufc4life21]

I consider that a decent point considering we had to make 3 changes down to injuries. Acquah just wish he was more clinical! He got the stature to be a good striker but not clinical enough, shame to be honest. Salford are decent side and I rate them as 1 of the toughest opponents iv seen us play this season, squad full of league 1 players and can see them going up.

 

[Brett Angle]

Maybe....but maybe not...in this instance. Anyhow let’s at least agree none of us actually wanted him to get injured.

You would think so - but I've been on this forum long enough to know not to assume anything. He made some excellent clearances from our box defending corners before and immediately AFTER he got injured. The fact seem to have been lost on one particular member who refused to rate his performance.

 

[gatecrasher]

Even if you think the game was poor its yet another game where we haven't rolled over, this is the sort of scrappy point that could mean us staying up or going down come end of season.

Bass -6 looked very commanding but his kicking was horrific - might well be the Injury he had was the reason for that

Elvis -7 is becoming consistently solid, though his passing was suspect today

Hobsonbauer-7 really really starting to like him another really solid display, got his head in where it hurts and helped keep the shooting opportunities they had to a minimum

White - 7 seems to have his some what of a renaissance, defying his years with reasonable speed and close blocking today

Clifford -7 Ron - 5 year contract for this one. Always does the basics right and did so again today

Dieng - 7 great pass for Acquah and his usual solid self

Taylor -6 usual quick feet but was largely quiet

Ferguson - 6 didn't do much wrong, but seemed a touch behind his performances of the recent past, though did pop up with a deflected shot that had their keeper scrambling

Fairchild -6 no where near as good as his performance against FGR, attacking was horrendous today, ponderous, however defensively made up for it witj great tracking back

Akinola - 6 usual energy but seemed largely out if the game today

Acquah- 6 frustrates the hell out of me, never goes up for headers, doesn't use his frame ( Needs tips from Ranger who does this very well) but did his job to a point and had the two best chances of the game, neither were awful efforts but neither were great

Subs

Seaden -8 MOM for me, well if he " wasn't quite ready" he certainly is now! Unbelievable point blank save, solid catching, tipped a tricky one over that Oxley would of thrown in the net. Its hard for a keeper to come on at half time, no real mental or physical prep on the lead up to the game and then for the young man to perform so well. Well done Harry

Macca - 6 usual industry, was lucky to not get sent off though

Ranger -4 if he can get fit again he could be a real asset, showed in his cameo what he can do with his size in both attack and defence. Sadly he maybe out for a few more weeks and the season is fading fast

ANG -5 seemed off the pace when he come on

Demi - no real time to give a mark

All in all a solid performance, yes we were under the cosh for large parts of the second half but it wasn't Alamo stuff really. First half we should of nicked a goal but unfortunately the chances were not put away

 

[southendkid]

Absolutely nothing to do with fitness- he was very unlucky slipping as he fell. It will be convenient to pretend otherwise but saying won’t make it true.

I'd like to see it again when the full match replay is available in case I'm wrong but I'm not convinced a fully fit player would strain their groin from that slip, the more flexible your groin is the less likely it is to strain from something like that. Nile's been out of the game for a while so unless he's been doing yoga in his time between him leaving and coming back to us he's going to be a lot less flexible than most professional footballers are.

 

[Ted]

In context of our situation a draw is a decent enough result. Some decent performances from the likes of Dieng and Seaden.

Cant help but come away from this game though feeling like we are a shambles club playing in an awful awful league this year.

 

[jackj13]

Col U 2-0 down now too

 

[Boreham Blue]

Looks like a groin injury for Ranger

 

[geoffmundo]

Thought we defended well although rode our luck at times in the 2nd half. We had 3 good chances i 1st half and only 1 i can remember in the 2nd. Acquah hard 1st chance but has got to do better with that free header. He visibly tired in the 2nd half and if Sim hadn't already been subbed probably would have been replaced earlier.

Thought White and to lessor extent Hobson did well, Dieng and Taylor were excellent and I was surprised when Taylor went off and Macca looked out of sorts and on another day (and another ref) he may have received 2 yellows. His passing was as wayward today as his volley at goal!

Some of our dead ball situations were disappointing culminating in that poor short corner! However, we survived and a very valuable point.

Just seen Colchester 2-0 down already after 30 mins!

 

[tottenham541]

Would of taken that point at the start, and great for seaden to get 45 mins and a clean sheet, he will get confidence from that for sure

 

[Camden Blues]

And it gets better.....

 

[Whispering Bob]

Three players slipped on this atrocious pitch in the first two minutes, knew then it was never going to be a classic. I'l gladly take the point (especially as the two below us lost). We needed to move the ball quicker, but perhaps the surface prevented that. Macca was lucky to stay on the pitch.

Bass - Looked positive and got clattered the two times he came for the ball. His first two kicks went deep into their half, but he struggled thereafter, so one of those hits must have caused his withdrawal.
Seaden - Delighted for him, his kicking was good, there was one good quick long throw, a great point blank save and a positive punch under pressure.
Elvis - Looked quite sharp today
Hobson - A couple of vita last ditch headers and doesnt mind finding Row Z.
White - Aggressive and decent again.
Clifford - Composed and neat (got wrong side though when Seaden came to his rescue).
Reeco - Worked hard (especially defensively) but just couldn't get the ball onto his left foot (two poor crosses with his right).
Taylor - Disappointed to be taken off but didnt get on the ball enough.
Dieng - Shaded MOM - one exquisite pass with the outside of his foot, his deflected shot was well saved and he kept the ball quite well.
Ferguson - Quiet game
Akinola - Suffered most when it came to keeping his feet (wondering if a tackle or the pitch caused his injury?)
Acquah - Hint of a tad more aggression but not much came off for him, keeper blocked his early shot and should have put that close range header either side of him a little later. Did look to be running low on gas .