Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-2 Cheltenham Town

[wiggy]

Oxley 2 puts us behind every week like no other keeper i have ever seen before......get rid now and put a bloke that wants too be here and get involved....we cannot afford to let his mistakes cost us every week.....pathetic effort at stopping the penalty.....no confidence in anything he does.
Elvis 5....shadow of his former self, if he's not going to go forward then get a decent defender in
Lennon 7 well good enough for this division
Ralph 7 too good for us....shame about the deadwood around him
Hobson 6....good and bad, never know what is going to happen
Taylor 7....love him, could play two leagues higher
Demi 6....good enough for
Sterling 5.....waiting for him to do something....at the moment not a good addition
Aqua 4....oh please, lethargic, rubbish in the air and a sure fire way not to score in a game.
Goodship 5 terrible control at times, some glimpses of good stuff, overall not good enough.
Dieng 7 Still a decent enough player for us
Egbri 6 usual effort and running into blind alleys
N. George 6 signs of potential

Wowww..........at least 6 of them just ain't good enough to ever get another win, have never said that before!

 

[Tinks]

I was quite looking forward to the game today after last weeks performance.
Oh dear! There are no more words one can say

 

[Sussexshrimper]

Totally inept... I really fear we are a walking dead club.... How on earth can we improve... I started watching in 1977.... But fear my beloved club is dead.. Can anyone administer a kiss of life

 

[RHB]

After the last two games of improvement and points we went backward again today. The players won't need telling by us that they collectively had a bad game, they will know it, as will Moseley and his team. The big question is how will they respond away at Salford on Tuesday night?

Today I thought the idea of three across the back just invited pressure in the wide areas and Cheltenham duly obliged. The fact that we never got into gear is largely due to Cheltenham's tactics. They hunted in packs when they didn't have the ball and pressured us at every opportunity when we tried to play our passing game. On that performance I reckon they will be in the mix at the end of the season (if we get there!) There were one or two periods when I thought 'well done lads' after a play, but by and large we didn't have the guile, experience or skill to open them up. I think Ox will very disappointed not to have kept the penalty out and on another day it would have hit his knee and gone out, but he still made some decent saves and came for highballs (sometimes). Pick of the bunch for me today were Lennon, Ralph and Goodship. The trouble is that we need far more than that, on top of their game, to make progress in this game.

Next up Salford on a cold wet Tuesday night. A daunting thought, I hope I see a better overall performance from the team.

PS - just a thought, before the game it might be worth checking your studs for the conditions lads, it will help!

 

[jaffa1]

The first half was stop-start, during which we conceded a soft penalty, and the second was downright depressing. They were a big, if unspectacular side, who liked going to ground and kicking the ball away (completely ignored by the young referee). That said Sercombe navigated his way round the pitch well. I suspect some of ours were playing with injuries, for the second game running we were slipping all over the place, and their keeper had just one dolly of a shot to save the whole match. There was quite simply little, or no, belief.
Oxley - Same ol same ol, one good save (decent height) looks shaky at corners and one poor kick.
Elvis - A least he looked like he had a bit of urgency about him.
Hobson - Apart from an early scare, when he took his eye of the ball, not bad.
Dieng - Maybe too nonchalant on couple of occasions, but ok.
Lennon - One rash foul, one superb clearance on the goal-line from under his own crossbar.
Ralph - Good technique but can't recall him getting forward once to put a cross in.
Demi - Had a difficult afternoon and berated the (admittedly poor) official throughout. Could have easily have been awarded more than the one yellow.
Taylor - Just not involved and withdrawn (one injury suspect).
Goodship - Looked frustrated, had our only 'shot' and mis-controlled a few times.
Acqua - Yes he can hold the ball up, but what else is there? One-paced and even fell over slowly. Withdrawn.
Sterling - Ball got stuck under his feet too often, did show some fight and was seemingly more comfortable up top than he was out wide.
(* Egbri should have seen a straight red for an over the top tackle in the corner near the end).

 

[GBJ]

Why did elvis play? Hes out of form and was poor again today we got positive results whilst he was not in the side,i have rated elvis but hes not been the same player and looks like another who wants a move.

Ah a new scapegoat for you.

Clearly Humphrys, Hutch & Kelman wasn’t enough.

 

[Rayleigh boy]

we surrendered this game before a ball was kicked ..

tactically ridiculous - absurd - a sort of 5 2 3 mess.

3 forwards doing nothing .. Goodie, EA, Premloanee -

Demi and Taylor overun in the middle and 5 backs falling over one another.

All our who players who looked like they could play were out of position - and WTF drop Egbri when at least he can pass and win freekicks and gives width.

this looked like exercise in mangerial ego - not a realistic attempt to win a game of professional football ...

Oxley - a keeper of limited abilty .. remeber he was kept out f the team by a 20 year old - you can see why

Elvis - played well - no midfield wide man for hom to play off

Hobson - played well

Lennon - played - his mobility looks restricted

Dieng - played well -

Ralph - no midfield wide man in front of him

Demetriou - played well when system changed to 44

Taylor - outnumbered

Goodship - not a midfielder - great effort but a squad player at this level - missed a sitter.

Sterling - can he play ? Dunno ... seems to have no confidence at all - inefffectve for 95 mins.

Acquah - needs players around him -


The ref was the usual lge 2 idiot and was useless - not a penalty

I completely put this one down to the manager and his 12 assistants. Dreadful



I

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Who agrees with me that acquah is one of the worst players in sufc history? How he ever made it as a pro is beyond me! Hes slow,he cant pass,he cant dribble,he cant control the ball,cant shoot,just poor all round football ability and would be lucky to get in a sunday league side.Why on earth we wanted to resign him after he even admitted he wasnt sure about his future? The only thing he does is work hard and trys to hold up the ball,the quicker the elusive akinola gets back the better.

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Ah a new scapegoat for you.

Clearly Humphrys, Hutch & Kelman wasn’t enough.

No they was all crap too.U cant honestly stick up for these players? Have u seen where we are in the table? Did u see where we finished last season? All the players i mentioned contributed to where we are now and they quite simply wasnt good enough,like most we have now! Im speakin the truth and the truth hurts sometimes.

 

[LBBlue]

Possibly the most tedious, clueless, abysmal performance in 60 years of watching.
Lacking in nous, pace, strength technical ability, desire. No one knew what their job was - not surprising. Two shots- one on target.

Cheltenham didn't have to get out of first gear. They just let us bump into them and fell over to win 18 free kicks.

We're not going to win a game if we don't get into the opposition half.

 

[GBJ]

Bored now. No more excuses, can't play the "youth" card as only one youth player started today.

MM has had a pre season, been allowed to bring in 6 of his backroom staff, been allowed to make his own signings. I really don't want to hear his soft spoken niceties about how we're still learning. Or how he spends a few extra hours watching training back.

He got it fundamentally wrong today, changing the whole system off the back of 2 draws? Lol, would love CP or someone to ask him about that.

MM needs a result sooner rather than later, and yes, I really mean that. I seriously do worry that he is a bit too much of a nice guy.

You’re absolutely right, MM is not beyond criticism... and the fact that we started with a formation that we hadn’t worked on at all over the last couple of months should speak volumes.

But let’s not pretend he had a proper pre-season. He had four weeks to prepare a team that hadn’t kicked a ball in five months.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

Pathetic formation. We started to play well under 4-4-2 so why change it!!

Handed the game to Cheltenham on a plate. Should have changed it at half time, but waited until we were 2 down

 

[Shrimper]

I don't know why people are worried, Ron said we'll be challenging for promotion.

 

[BluePartridge]

To quote the famous Scrappy Doo:

"Let me at em! Let me at em!"

 

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United’s winless start to the season stretched to a ninth game after Cheltenham Town recorded a comfortable 2-0 triumph at Roots Hall this afternoon.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[MisterStubbs]

Is your space key broken?

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Is your space key broken?

Yes

 

[GBJ]

No they was all crap too.U cant honestly stick up for these players? Have u seen where we are in the table? Did u see where we finished last season? All the players i mentioned contributed to where we are and they quite simply wasnt good enough,like a most we have now! Im speakin the truth and the truth hurts sometimes.

Amazing that they’ve left and yet our woes continue.

It’s almost as if they weren’t the root cause of our downfall, and the problems we have are somewhat more complex than just simply blaming X, Y or Z for playing badly.

 

[geoffmundo]

Inexperienced team led by an inexperienced Managerial team.............

 

[Austin the Shrimper]

Pathetic display. No urgency, quality, imagination, guile, passion, fight. Hopeless, utterly hopeless.

Oxley. 4 - useless. Get rid.
Elvis 5 - been off form for some time.
Hobson 6- actually thought he looked better and more confident at times
Lennon 6 our best defender, great clearance off line- few misplaced passes though/ injury catching up with him.
Ralph 7. Better this year, shame about rest of team
Taylor 6- worst game for us, would have kept him on though
Demi 5 - Off day, looked like he wanted to get sent off
Sterling 4- offered nothing.
Aqua 4- slow, laboured, falls over a lot. Poor
Goodship 5 - shame, thought he was gonna come good. Had a decent effort deflected wide. can’t control the ball. Not up to it.
Dieng 6- nothing good or bad - average
Egbri 6- headless chicken today.
ANG 6 - Didn’t notice him tbh

MM- poor team selection, team
Looked unmotivated, poor changes. Bad day at the office.