Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-1 Gillingham FC

[ms brush]

For the third home game in a row, I really enjoyed the game last night. We are young, very inexperienced, and really depleted across the field, yet we taught a hardened, typical Evan's side a lesson in respect last night. They thought that turning up would give them the 3 points, and we outplayed them in the first half and matched their increase in tempo in the second. The difference was a single mistake from an 18 year old rookie goalkeeper o his first team debut. They took their one chance to take the lead, unfortunately we couldn't convert young Rush's outstanding chance at the end to nick the point.

We are down, no doubt about that. But the lads are growing in confidence and they played some beautiful football, especially in the first half. We did lack the killer edge, and kelman upfront alone doesnt work. Great to see Kyps and Shaunessy back, all helps!

Sol is rotating the squad as much as he can. Frankly, results don't matter so much now as we are relegated regardless. So, great time to give the young players some valuable opportunities, and help build their stock / selling on value! I totally get why Hutch is on the bench, having seen some of the others, Issac has the talent and obvious potential, but he faffs about and isnt getting stuck in and grafting as some of the others are doing. That is why he is on the bench. His time will come, if he shows the character Sol is looking for. Creative or whatever, he isnt the messiah or the answer right now, and we proved last night he isnt necessary for us to play well and start to really compete.

 

[united we stand]

I thought we played some really nice football, gills were poor- or we made them poor?
We closed down quickly and ( until the goal) looked like we were played my with confidence and I actually thought we would win if we scored first

They had one chance - scored, we had two chances and didn’t.

Game on game we are improving we are improving so all positives but........

Let’s be honest, a lot of the views on here are, quite reasonably rating the performance taking into account that half of them have less than a few games experience, and it seems every match someone makes a debut.

If oxley had missed that ball ( and earlier crosses) he would have been lambasted on here.
Mitchell nelson looks assured for a 18 year old, but would anyone pick him normally? ( I’m in W block so he played in front of me second half and he made a lot of mistakes).

Egbri- did he really create anything? Did he perform for 90 mins

Subs- it’s not often SZ is in agreement but many on here question why Egbri wasn’t taken off early second half.

I’m not running the team down, I’m enjoying watching the togetherness and the effort, I loved some of the one touch stuff.
If we knew 4 months ago how many kids would be playing I think we would be amazed by how well they ( and the senior pros- especially Milligan and dieng)are playing.

I just think our expectations are so low at the moment that we are understandably easily impressed. Some are marking the game talking into account they are kids, some are not hence the big differences ( ( although how someone can think Milligan and Mantom did nothing is beyond me)

 

[mfurok]

I think Sol is actually having a bloody good bash at polishing a ****.

I think he is operating a squad rotation system to avoid the kids getting too burnt out or demoralised and the seniors from getting too injured. Bear in mind that Kyp and Shaughnessy are just coming back, Demi (injured anyway) and Macca can't do 3 games in a week, Milligan is 34 and White, Humphreys, Lennon, Ralph and Hyam are all out long term. I'm not sure what Hyam is out with to be honest but he's nowhere near anything so I assume he's got something!

My mate's 12 year old daughter wondered what the average height of the team was... even she noticed we were much smaller than the opposition! Tonight we were crying out for some height - hence Shaughnessy coming on. Kyp did well and that enabled Clifford to move further forwards and the link up play in the first half was superb on occasion. Unfortunately we have limited striking options which, as good a prospect as Kelman may be, is not helping us because there is no-one else able to play alongside.

Sol has lost, what, 8 players and brought in none. That isn't his fault.

The pre-season fitness (or lack of) isn't his fault.

Yes, his interviews are a bit strange at times but "I don't know" (or course he does) is more professional in my opinion than "No comment".

In any event, none of this is his fault and the team effort and ability has improved massively since the Bond days.

Some of the comments and rating son here are so harsh for tonight - I can't believe I was at the same game. We were by FAR the better side, Gillingham were poor, the only difference being the inexperience of an 18 year old debutant keeper. We did not deserve to lose that game.

Ratings -

Seaden - 6 - Kicking was in difficult conditions, did nothing wrong other than not attack a very good cross from the right for their goal.

Elvis - 8 - Solid, mature performance and provided good attacking options in the first half, especially.
Mitchell-Nelson - 8 - Very calm and assured, looked like he's played there for ever. Can't believe it's only his 3rd appearance.
Dieng - 8 - Decent performance, again, didn't put a foot wrong.
Kyprianou - 7 - Good to see him back, started blowing after about 55 mins and was surprised he wasn't subbed sooner.

Egbri - 6 - Ok, full of effort but am not sure he has the all round game to progress. Lacks the blistering pace and super skills to make up for his small stature. We will see.
Milligan - 8.5 - MOM - Superb. Linked up really well with all his midfield collegaues and barely put a foot wrong.
Mantom - 7 - Good effort again, didn't do anything wrong and linked play well, especially in the first half.
Clifford - 8 - Moved into left midfield and wasn't intimidated, used the ball well.
McLaughlin - 7 - Played out of position and it showed, good effort though.

Kelman - 7 - Battled very hard up top on his own and got little service, did well to create something from nothing a couple of times.

Subs -

Shaugnessy - 6 - Brought on to provide a bit of height as Gillingham were winning everything in the air.
Rush - 6 - Had a golden chance in injury time to equalise. Hit it well and fooled everyone in the East as they thought it would nestle in the back of the net. It didn't.

…..and here is the contradiction highlighted in bold.

You're spot on that we didn't deserve to lose. We were set up not to lose but unfortunately we did and by your own admission to a poor Gillingham side.

You're also spot on about Kelman.

So if the players are playing very well as per your ratings - again you're spot on - but Sol sets us up so defensively and we never win how is that polishing a ****?

Surely that is **** tactics?

No surprise because Sol's record of winning matches at Macclesfield was also awful.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I thought this on Saturday. For some reason, probably being a bit prejudiced I suppose, I expected him to be very quick and tricky, but it doesn’t look like he actually is. He works bloody hard definitely, but without super pace I fear he’s going to struggle to carve a pro career.

Not all short players are quick and tricky ?

 

[fbm]

…..and here is the contradiction highlighted in bold.

You're spot on that we didn't deserve to lose. We were set up not to lose but unfortunately we did and by your own admission to a poor Gillingham side.

You're also spot on about Kelman.

So if the players are playing very well as per your ratings - again you're spot on - but Sol sets us up so defensively and we never win how is that polishing a ****?

Surely that is **** tactics?

No surprise because Sol's record of winning matches at Macclesfield was also awful.

I think he sets us up in the best way he can given the players available. Earlier in the season we were shipping goals for fun. If you don't concede, you don't get beat. It's boring and defensive, but first thing to do is stop the rot.

We aren't blessed with many available attacking players, so he sets us up in the best way he can.

I'm not sure what tactics he could employ that would make much improvement to be honest.

 

[gazza]

Except it was nowhere near 6,000. They include season-ticket holders in the figures, and I would say over 1,000 of them were absent tonight.
I have not seen so many empty seats in the West Stand for a long time.

There were loads of regulars missing near me in the East Stand as well. People will pick and choose games as this God awful season finishes out. Is there a way we could erase this season from all records and pretend it never happened?

 

[Rayleigh boy]

I thought we played some really nice football, gills were poor- or we made them poor?
We closed down quickly and ( until the goal) looked like we were played my with confidence and I actually thought we would win if we scored first

They had one chance - scored, we had two chances and didn’t.

Game on game we are improving we are improving so all positives but........

Let’s be honest, a lot of the views on here are, quite reasonably rating the performance taking into account that half of them have less than a few games experience, and it seems every match someone makes a debut.

If oxley had missed that ball ( and earlier crosses) he would have been lambasted on here.
Mitchell nelson looks assured for a 18 year old, but would anyone pick him normally? ( I’m in W block so he played in front of me second half and he made a lot of mistakes).

Egbri- did he really create anything? Did he perform for 90 mins

Subs- it’s not often SZ is in agreement but many on here question why Egbri wasn’t taken off early second half.

I’m not running the team down, I’m enjoying watching the togetherness and the effort, I loved some of the one touch stuff.
If we knew 4 months ago how many kids would be playing I think we would be amazed by how well they ( and the senior pros- especially Milligan and dieng)are playing.

I just think our expectations are so low at the moment that we are understandably easily impressed. Some are marking the game talking into account they are kids, some are not hence the big differences ( ( although how someone can think Milligan and Mantom did nothing is beyond me)

I thought Macca was outstanding for the effort he put in ... he was target man for the second half and competed for every high ball and won some ... clearly totally exhuasted at the finish

 

[southendkid]

…..and here is the contradiction highlighted in bold.

You're spot on that we didn't deserve to lose. We were set up not to lose but unfortunately we did and by your own admission to a poor Gillingham side.

You're also spot on about Kelman.

So if the players are playing very well as per your ratings - again you're spot on - but Sol sets us up so defensively and we never win how is that polishing a ****?

Surely that is **** tactics?

No surprise because Sol's record of winning matches at Macclesfield was also awful.

This is like asking why sides park the bus against Man City instead of playing attacking football. If you play openly against a side far better than you then you'll be punished for it. We're playing half our youth team, every side in the league is miles above us in terms of ability. Expressive football would cause us to return to the 4-0 thrashings we were getting earlier in the season.

 

[rigsby]

Just looking at all the regulars missing and endless choice of seats in the Greens gives you and idea of how many really went through the door. So well done to the 4,000 the fans who turned up.

Unlike the idiots having a dig at Seaden from their armchair, we gave good support and the young lads battled a lot harder than their recently departed senior team mates.

Unlike our only win at RH, we didn't have anyone to back up Kelman whilst we had the wind advantage first half. Kelman is not up there to win headers and nor does it matter. What we missed was Harry Phillips and Hutch winning the second or 3rd ball high up the pitch. Milligan was covering and Mantom was giving us a 3 games in a week standard 80% effort.....So never quite got up to were it counts. Sadly neither did, I cant push to hard as I wont be getting my normal 60/70 minute substitution, McLaughlin.

For those that weren't there a good example of what i'm talking about was the Kelman chance in the second half....He looked up desperately hoping for support and in the end done really well to beat 2 players and hit the target...Yet gets slagged by some for his effort

Sol failed to react on Saturday and as OBL says the obvious decisions were made to late. Good to see Kyp back but he was never going to last and with `Clifford at LM and and Barratt on the bench that was no brainer. Equally, if not after 45 and certainly no more than 55, then McL out wide for Egbri and Hutch on in the middle.

As it happened a struggling Terrel gave the kick away and their lad beats Kyp and gets a great cross in.....Dieng, despite winning some goo headers in the game was never going to protect his keeper because when it really matters and in were it hurts.....Dieng is not your man.

Oxley gets slagged for covering his near post for the cross at Blackpool fort their first. Seadon goes central and we had a swirling wind and rain by then but not matter some a queuing up to have a dig. Despite the lad was on debut and had got something on a difficult and deep cross in the first half etc. The rest of his game was fine and kicked well into the wind whilst 'encouraged' by those extras from the Hills Have Eyes, that were behind his goal.

Of course we wanted Rush to score because we deserved it. A point was not the point, if you get my drift. Who knows had he been on 10 minutes earlier, rather than his first sort of touch.....Oh well.

One last thing.... Evans would be one of the last people I would wan to ever see in charge of SUFC......If he was a town in the South East it would be Gillingham....Long may they to be together.

 

[Barling Magna]

Not one corner won for us the whole game. Kelman as a lone target man jumping against giants, two shots on target the whole game. Gillingham were poor but my goodness its tactically, the worst Southend side I've ever seen.

We had three shots on target actually. Gillingham had one.

Our lads did well. We deserved at least a point. Most posters on here are being positive but there are some very negative posts which makes me wonder whether they are actually supporters of Southend United at all. By all means be critical but.... Jeez.....consider the context - a team largely composed of kids, a club without any money, a manager without any chance to strengthen his team and a chairman who is floundering as his dream still recedes into the distance.

 

[danburyshrimper]

Seadon 6 - Felt for the lad , did ok but the goal didnt look good. Kicking a bit eratic.
Elvis 7 - Much better as an attacking right back, strong and commanding, future captain.
Mitchell-Nelson 6 - Handled the big strikers ok but not really ready yet, needs to be stronger
Dieng 7 - Not a centre back but coped ok although was weak for the goal. Fairly composed.
Kyprianou 7 - Great to see him back + maybe could play CB , strong and good positionally
Egbri 4 - I so wanted him to demand the ball + take on the full back, but not effective enough
Mantom 7 - Most of our good play was around Mantom, clever onetwo's + broke up play well
Milligan 6 - Steady + a few nice touches, but a far more commanding CB than CM
Clifford 6 - Looks a better LB , gets stuck in well + glides with the ball.
Macca 7- won every header , looked lively but played too deep + central to be a goal threat
Kelman 7 - Battled really hard, used body well to back into defenders, was a handful

Shaunessy 6- Good strength + touch, another played out of position. Glad hes back.
Rush 5 - Should have come on much earlier to partner Kelman. Almost snatched a point for us.
Hutchinson 0 - shouldnt have ran over Campbells cat.

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Completely agree. Some of those knocking Mantom and Milligan in these threads are doing it based on not hearing their names mentioned. FFS If you are listening to the game on the radio don’t even think about reviewing the game!!!!!!!!

All the players put in a shift and while there were some errors from the youngsters we know that will happen and we are competitive in matches.
My biggest gripe is Sol. Why not make changes earlier? Why not try and attack at 1 0 down. Egbri wasn’t getting anything out of them second half and we had options on the bench. Even Barrett having a dangerous long throw would have been a benefit. Really worry that he is not the footballing genius I hoped but bearing in mind what he has to work with I’ll still give him the benefit of the doubt.

Was watching the game, and thought Milligan did OK.
But Mantom?
Please tell me any telling contribution he made. He didn't get his name mentioned because he didn't do anything. It's not rocket science.

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

Wind back a few months to the back end of last year, and many on here were saying: "We're down, we might as well ship out the dead wood and play the youngsters for the rest of the season"

Well that's exactly what we're doing, and although we're still losing nearly every week it's not by as many goals as before and the team is playing some nice football. I'm actually enjoying watching us play and we're giving Sol a good insight as to where he needs to strengthen over the summer (assuming the embargo is lifted by then!).

My biggest gripe was not the efforts of those on the pitch, but the lack of a willingness to change things.

Evans made his subs early and the fresh legs and different ideas helped them - I think the lad that got the cross in for the goal was one of the subs.

Kyps was never going to last 90 minutes so the Clifford to LB and a different wide man was a no brainer and should have been pre-arranged and pre-briefed for those involved.

Egbri likewise was getting no joy in the second half so why not make the change early - Barratt offers more height and a long throw as well so it's another option.

I'm surprised Acquah was not on the bench tonight, he's very raw but he's a big unit and after his sending off at the Gills earlier this season may have had a point to prove. Kelman needs support and someone's flicks to feed off. Maybe he was being rested for Saturday.

I was surprised to see Shaughnessy back tonight, maybe he can step up for the rest of the season like Milligan has.

Oh, and I 100% agree with Rigsby, Gillingham and Evans are welcome to each other - I wouldn't want that odious cheat and his hoofball thuggery anywhere near our club.

 

[mfurok]

This is like asking why sides park the bus against Man City instead of playing attacking football. If you play openly against a side far better than you then you'll be punished for it. We're playing half our youth team, every side in the league is miles above us in terms of ability. Expressive football would cause us to return to the 4-0 thrashings we were getting earlier in the season.

Gillingham were not far better than us.

Every side in the league is not miles above us in terms of ability.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

Surprised by the generally positive comments so far - I’m pretty annoyed if I’m honest. Not with the players, but Campbell.
Yes, I know we are down, and yes, I know his hands are tied, but I still think he has a duty to at least try and win each game, otherwise why should we bother?
Baffling team selection and baffling tactics, especially after going 1-0 down, and this against a team we could just about compete with. It was if he couldn’t care less.

THIS!!!!!!!!! Spot on

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

We had three shots on target actually. Gillingham had one.

Our lads did well. We deserved at least a point. Most posters on here are being positive but there are some very negative posts which makes me wonder whether they are actually supporters of Southend United at all. By all means be critical but.... Jeez.....consider the context - a team largely composed of kids, a club without any money, a manager without any chance to strengthen his team and a chairman who is floundering as his dream still recedes into the distance.

Agreed.But 1.Why is the team largely composed of kids?
Because we let 8 players go in the window and didn't bring anyone in.

2.Why don't we have any money?
Because the Chairman won't /doesn't want to/can't bring anyone else in to develop FF

3.Why can't we strengthen the tam?
Because we're almost certainly under a transfer embargo which prevents us from signing two out of contract ex-Maccs. players and presumably an emergeny loan keeper too.

4.Why is the Chairman floundering and why is the FF dream receeding?
Because the Chairman lacks the ability to convince anyone of his vision and we lost the last decent director of football we had,SK, and haven't replaced him.

 

[Jai]

Gillingham were not far better than us.

Every side in the league is not miles above us in terms of ability.

They are I'm afraid. It's men against boys every week. Gillingham had an off day because they figured they'd only have to turn up to win. We will get a few games like that and we might cause a shock or two between now and the end of the season but it will need all of our players playing at an 8 or 9/10 and all of theirs playing at a 6 or below.

Even our senior professionals are not good enough for this level of football, with maybe one or two exceptions.

 

[Boreham Blue]

Was watching the game, and thought Milligan did OK.
But Mantom?
Please tell me any telling contribution he made. He didn't get his name mentioned because he didn't do anything. It's not rocket science.

That’s a different issue than the point I made. I don’t think Mantom had a good game but also didn’t think he was a disaster. People’s views on performances will depend on a range of factors such as where they sat, whether they were paying close attention at different times, how much they understand about football. E.g One man’s raving about last gasp sliding tackles are another man’s poor reading of the game and positioning. Those differences in opinion make football forums interesting. Judging games based on hearing someone else’s commentary doesn’t.

 

[Welly7]

Positives last night:

The kids are working hard and trying to maintain the defensive shape Campbell's asking them to do.

Other than that? Not a lot for me. Would love to share the optimism of some about the future the kids can give us, but I just can't see it. Some are doing a steady job, some are nowhere near ready and may never will be.

I don't apportion any blame to the youngsters currently charged with task of representing the club on the field. They're doing their level best and that is far more than what several of the 'professionals' gave us during the first half of the season.

And I would love to dish out 7s & 8s in the ratings, but they just aren't warranted. If we as fans are happy with recent performances to give out such ratings then the bar from us has been set very, very low in terms of going forwards.

From the very top to the very bottom, this club - our club - is the absolute laughing stock of the division. Jesus, Gillingham are bang bloody average, yet they're in touching distance of the play offs. All this does is reaffirm just how bad we are, how non-competitive we have been and how I despair at our imminent future. We're 33 points behind Evans' mob. In February. It's an absolute shambles.

 

[kentblues]

There seems to be a pattern of certain posters wanting to suggest some culpability to Sol Campbell for somehow "strange selections" or not wanting to win games. Don't get it at all TBH.

Given who he had available the selections were sensible even if you want to pretend they were not.

He went 4411 at home

Goalkeeper he had no choice- he made the one mistake that was unfortunate - but presumably Sol can't be criticised for picking him however hard we might try.

Back 4. Elvis RB- best and correct position. Dieng again as much as we might call him a MF he is probably our best CB. Miles M-N is a CB, logical to play him there rather than both he and Elvis out of position. Did well. LB - HK did a decent job on his return, is a LB and clearly Sol wanted to move Clifford forward into a 4 man MF see below,

If you play 4 across the midfield with a midfield 2 you need all 4 working their socks off. He had Mantom and Milligan in the middle (Demi injured). No realistic alternative to these two- Hutch would have left us wide open in a two.

Egbri is picked because his discipline and work rate is excellent. He covers back, doubles up with full back, does what you need from a RM in a 4 (Goodship and Hutch do not). Similarly Clifford- who actually had a good game and clearly in the future could be an option further forward (something specifically picked out by Paul Clark). The alternative to Clifford who can be relied on defensively would have been McL but see below.

He could have up front gone for Kelman with: 1. Rush. However, both a very similar and dont even offer competition aerially and holding the ball up is not a strength. 2. could have played Goodship but he is just not on it currently. 3. He went McL. Good decision IMHO- not least because he is our best available option in the air and actually he won more of his fair share in the air notably from goal kicks. He could have put Hutch in there at 10 instead but then we would have one nothing in the air- it would have just kept coming back and you lose again all the workrate.

He has taken very limited resources and half the team from U23 and academy got them organised and disciplined and they are competing. "Trying to win" I guess is code for playing more attacking selections and pushing forward. Well thats a fast track to getting hammered every week.

So whilst every selection can be disagreed with to continually call it strange or bizarre when its clearly not goes more to the desire to criticise for criticism's sake, than an acknowledgement of the situation we are in player wise.

If you want to believe next season we will continue with half the u23s and academy in the team week after week then I guess you can also expect a tough season. I think most will suspect that won't be the reality. But what is very good out of all this is that a number of the U23s/academy players are showing the can contribute a squad players if not starters. And if we can recruit in the right additional senior pros then we can and should be competitive.

We will not be able to judge Sol until next year. What we can see is that he can get a team organised and make the team more than the sum of its parts (rather than with previous managers the other way around).