Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-1 Chesterfield

[Ricey]

Post all your reports and ratings here.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

We did ok and were heading for a draw, we had the best chances but couldn't take them,
On 80 minutes Barnett got taken off and we went down to 10 men.
They broke quick and got an easy goal - all over.
The starting line up was good, Wozza going off broke up our play and Hunt (odd sub swap?) coming on lost us shape and the midfield was too often lacking in ideas.
Mc'Queen (only plausable sub?) gave us a bit of shape back for the hard working Atko.
Barnett ought to have buried the open header he had but...................
Then Phil saw something no-else did and we went down to 10 men..................
Last 3 games, 1 point from 9 and poor, poor play and tactics.

 

[eastling]

The best footballing team won. They passed the ball better than us and retained possession better than us. I cannot argue with the result.

 

[LennySUFC]

I said it after Crewe and I'll say it again today...

who remembers that nice 3511 we played and went unbeaten vs peterborough, Coventry, shrews and colu among others(?)

problem is there's no consistency, brown doesn't know his best XI!

 

[Fairport]

Just heard Phil Brown say that Chesterfield came for a point. Totally disagree with that comment as they played some decent attacking football.

 

[Lord Football]

Not quite sure what some of you were watching. Chesterfield were poor. We should have beaten them. It was one of those games where the wrong team went home with 3 points (bit like us at Shrewsbury). Maybe should have had a penalty, maybe should have done have better with the chances we created, maybe the post should have been an inch further out. Maybe. They never looked like scoring until they did, and you need to ask questions about the amount of room their player found himself in. Disappointing day.

 

[MilkeySUFC]

That. Was. Woeful.

Can't say anything about the tactics if the players put in that kind of performance. Couldn't pass, tackle or keep the ball. It was poor from every player on the pitch.

I wasn't at the game Tuesday but I doubt that was any worse.

The penalty - absolutely stonewall, from my view - would only have served to gloss over the tripe of the rest of the game (assuming we would have scored - which is by no means certain given the rest of the game).

Top mark, of 6, goes to Worrall for being on the pitch the shortest amount of time.

 

[Danshrimper]

The decision to put on Hunt for Worrall is one of the main reasons we didn't win the game. Ideally I'd like to see us play with 2 wingers but at least with 1 we had some width, were playing reasonably well and were creating some decent chances. But, throught no fault of his own, when Hunt came on the system went completely out of the window and we were overwhelmed in midfield and they had all the space in the world. The logical move was a like for like sub with McQueen coming on. It's a shame Worrall had to come off because I thought he was excelllent and probably our best player until he came off.

The play offs are now looking unlikely which is annoying because we really should have taken more points away from the last 6 games. Another refereeing decision let us down today but we really should have done more in the 80 or so minutes before that to win the game.

 

[mgh]

If Worrall had buried that early chance it might have been a different story but Deegan wordsworth Atkinson gave us lots of effort but nobody to play in the hole. The number of times Chesterfield picked up the ball between the midfield and Barnett...
Bentley 7 some decent saves some awful distribution
Coker 6 tidy nothing going forward today
Barrett 7 won everything in the air
Bolger 6 decent without the ball
White 6 solid but again nothing attacking
Deegan 6 worked hard but too often turned back
Atkinson 5 anonymous
Wordsworth 7 mom i thought worked hard and tried to use it intelligently
Worrall 6 started brightly missed a sitter shame he got injured
Payne 6 tried hard to find space and work the ball forward
Barnett 5 didn't really come off for him today

Hunt 4 poor
McQueen 4
Mooney 6 thought he made a difference when he came on

Ref generally good but missed a stonewall pen on Mooney though they had a good handball shout

 

[Shrimper]

Awful. Bye play-offs

Was a clear penalty too

 

[Sufc.2008]

Bentley - 4 - Poor again today from Bentley IMO. Bad distribution, slowed down the play and still not very commanding where crosses are concerned.

White - 5 - Not bad defensively, better than O'Neill - but sad to see the return of the "White Hoof". His crosses are arguably some of our best when he does get down the wing though.
Barrett - 4 - Slow and misplaced most of this passes today. A couple of times when he got forward he seemed to struggle getting back quick enough, putting Bolger under pressure.
Bolger - 6 - Solid defensive performance, with the usual poor distribution. Would like to see Cian play with Thompson next match.
Coker - 5 - Still not back to his best... not the Coker of old.

Worrall - 6 - Easily our most dangerous player until he got injured. Shame, as I can't see any of our other wingers getting into the team... it's only going to get narrower now.
Atkinson - 6 - He covers a lot of ground and does a lot of the dirty work which I think goes un-noticed. Some silly decisions at times to give the ball away.
Wordsworth - 4 - Usually a big fan of Wordsworth, but today he looked lazy and didn't do a lot right.
Deegan - 5 - Looks a lot safer now with no silly challenges, but I think it's a rather boring role that he is now playing. Rarely passes the ball forward.

Payne - 5 - Always looks likely to offer something attacking, however much too lightweight and got bullied at times today.
Barnett - 6 - Our best striker by an absolute country mile.... Does well when the ball is played to feet, but when you have the ball smashed in the air every time with no support, you're unlikely to score!

Subs:

Hunt - 3 - Might aswell have not bothered today. Offered absolutely nothing... Not the player that he looked at the start of the season.
McQueen - 6 - I like him... Would benefit from playing in a more attacking formation with another winger... Where we're so unbalanced, he gets dragged inside and can't focus on his natural position.
Mooney - 5 - Didn't really do much. Should have won a penalty but other than that, not sure what he offered... wrong substitution in my eyes.

 

[Eddy Melito]

We did ok and were heading for a draw, we had the best chances but couldn't take them,
On 80 minutes Barnett got taken off and we went down to 10 men.
They broke quick and got an easy goal - all over.
The starting line up was good, Wozza going off broke up our play and Hunt (odd sub swap?) coming on lost us shape and the midfield was too often lacking in ideas.
Mc'Queen (only plausable sub?) gave us a bit of shape back for the hard working Atko.
Barnett ought to have buried the open header he had but...................
Then Phil saw something no-else did and we went down to 10 men..................
Last 3 games, 1 point from 9 and poor, poor play and tactics.

Barnett was inconsistent today and was labouring late on. Not only that, but despite being booed and jeered from the moment he went on, Mooney then made enough of a nuisance of himself that he should have had a stonewall penalty. That gets scored and it probably turns into a regulation tatty 1-0 win. The way Chesterfield were playing it was never going to be more than that and their away record suggests as much.

 

[tottenham541]

When you look at the gate we had for the Crewe game then look at today's gate I can only say a big well done to those that turned up today, I never thought there would be 7,500 plus for today going on the back of the Crewe match:thumbsup:

 

[geoffmundo]

If Worrall had buried that early chance it might have been a different story but Deegan wordsworth Atkinson gave us lots of effort but nobody to play in the hole. The number of times Chesterfield picked up the ball between the midfield and Barnett...
Bentley 7 some decent saves some awful distribution
Coker 6 tidy nothing going forward today
Barrett 7 won everything in the air
Bolger 6 decent without the ball
White 6 solid but again nothing attacking
Deegan 6 worked hard but too often turned back
Atkinson 5 anonymous
Wordsworth 7 mom i thought worked hard and tried to use it intelligently
Worrall 6 started brightly missed a sitter shame he got injured
Payne 6 tried hard to find space and work the ball forward
Barnett 5 didn't really come off for him today

Hunt 4 poor
McQueen 4
Mooney 6 thought he made a difference when he came on

Ref generally good but missed a stonewall pen on Mooney though they had a good handball shout

Agree with most of this, except I thought Barnett worked his socks off, he was everywhere, even chasing back to close down. Brown, if he wanted to bring Mooney on should have taken off Hunt, but bottled it. Also I would have rated Payne higher. Ball to feet he was the architect of most of the attacking play setting up Wordsworth for his shot on target and I think it was his delivery that led to the Barnett header and White follow up. Looked a penalty to me, but I was a long way away in block V in West stand. As for Chesterfield. yes they were poor in the final 3rd,but in terms of passing and attacking, they were sharper and more creative than us, perhaps the way we set ourselves up gave them the space to look good, but if they were poor, than we were poorer.

 

[BlueBore]

That. Was. Woeful.

Can't say anything about the tactics if the players put in that kind of performance. Couldn't pass, tackle or keep the ball. It was poor from every player on the pitch.

I wasn't at the game Tuesday but I doubt that was any worse.

The penalty - absolutely stonewall, from my view - would only have served to gloss over the tripe of the rest of the game (assuming we would have scored - which is by no means certain given the rest of the game).

Top mark, of 6, goes to Worrall for being on the pitch the shortest amount of time.

You are sadly mistaken. It was much worse! :-(

 

[AndyT]

Blimey, not sure I agree with some of those ratings.

Thought Bolger, Barrett and White hardly put a foot wrong and kept Novak quiet ALMOST all afternoon and restricted them to a few pots from distance in the first half and hardly anything in the second half.

Coker did OK, but why can't he just bung a first time cross in more often. So frustrating.

Midfield is the real problem. Totally disjointed. Worrall looked good and should have scored, but Atkinson wants too many touches when one or two is enough and Deegan, though I'm a fan of his enforcer role, was not at his best today.

Wordsworth plays too much like he's Michael Carrick, which works OK in a one touch side, but not so well when we hold onto the ball too long.

Barnett had a better game and should have buried that header, but I have to say that poor old Noel Hunt is a yard off the pace and not sure whether he will be here next season.

Payne was the star man for me. Always looking for the ball short, prepared to run with it and open up space and not frightened to shoot. That short corner at the start of the second half would have been a hell of a goal.

McQueen hasn't got it, IMHO and I'm hoping McLaughlin is fit soon. Offers far more.

I was in the South Upper and that was a penalty all day for me, but we got two the other night and neither were as clear cut as that one, so you win some, lose some.

The difference was that Novak had one sniff all afternoon and buried it.

Overall, we worked hard and it was a marked improvement on Tuesday. We didn't deserve to lose that match, for me.

BUT, we really need to sort out what style we want to play and stick to it.

That's two sides who have come here in a week, struggling at the bottom, yet seem more organized and know their gameplan better than us.

I like PB and respect where he has got us, but if he is constantly going to tinker and mess around with the team and system, then maybe he needs to either make a commitment to us or walk now and give someone else a chance to assess what we have for next season.

 

[steve54]

Can we get Hendrie back to replace Coker who has been very poor, if not Brown needs to have a word with him to hit a few early crosses into the box instead of keep cutting back and trying to beat his man again, our strikers never know when the cross is coming in at least with White they know its 1 touch then the cross.

 

[Floval Flyer]

Got home about half an hour ago freezing cold

very poor our performance against an average team, we gave the ball away too easily, gave Chesterfield too much space in
the middle 1/3rd, too may balls hoofed up for Payne and Barnett to chase, missed a 1st minute sitter, lacked shape and were tactically poor again, although we should have had a penalty - and were beaten by a sucker punch goal in the 89th minute...

Cant be bothered to rate the team, instead We've just ordered a take away curry, so I will be consoling myself in. Chicken Dansak and a few beers :smile:

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Chesterfield were more up for it. Had more ideas, moved the ball quicker. We were slow in any build up lay, when we weren't lumping it up front.

We looked like a team playing away from home, trying to grab something on the break. We need 2 wingers at home, use the width of the pitch but we seem to play a very unbalanced midfield.

Ref had a good game, barring Mooney's penalty shout, which was a penalty all day every day.

I think we have to accept this season is consolidation, like we always hoped it would be, and just forget about the play offs. We just haven't got it in us to play in the Championship at the moment. Maybe another season in L1 with a different manager once PB has gone to Bolton will see some advancement on the pitch.

 

[Stuart W]

You always see possession stats, shots on target, corners etc, one stat we would walk the league by a country mile if there were ways to measure it, and that is the distance and height we kick the ball. I have not seen any side this season who lumps the ball as aimlessly as us, and that my friends, is why we are now sinking down to mid-table, probably to finish around 15th.