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Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-4 Harrogate town

I watched on ifollow, with regret.

£10 I could have spent on Brewdog
90 minutes I could have spent digging my pond

Apart from a 10 minute spell at the start of the 2nd half we were 2nd best in every department.

This season fills me with dread, as other teams will either be;

i) Technically superior to us,
ii) Tactically better than us,
iii) Physically stronger than us

or maybe all 3

Taking Stevenage, who survived by the skin of their teeth last season. I remember them in the play offs when we came up from L2 last time.

They were animals, but we had warriors like Timlin, AB and BBBC in the side. What do we have now? Weedy Hutch, Little Charlie and Young Taylor.

Even against the worst surviving team (Stevenage) from last season we’ll get ripped to pieces.

Oxley today looked devoid of confidence, the back 4 were a bag of nerves, midfield totally devoid of any guile or creativity, except for the odd run from Green, who always chose the wrong pass and never shot when that was the easiest option. Goodship was sunk before KO and Kelman was positionally nowhere.

Tactically MM got it completely wrong, we don’t have the skills to play out from the back and neat little one touch football is not going to cut it in L2 - even if we had anyone who could pass a ball !

We can’t even consider ‘Wycombe’ hoof-ball too as our technically bereft side don’t even have the muscle to carry it off, other sides will kick our little boys up in the air if we try that.

What happens now?

6 decent / L2 seasoned pro signings! If not we will be watching National League football next season.
 
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I never expected that, though in hindsight I'm not sure why. If this Southend team is allowed to find it's level they will be in the National League South in two years no doubt about it. Anyway, hyperbole over, there is plenty of time to improve and turn it around, they can, and I am very hopeful they will. Hopefully you are able to make the journey up north later in the season in a much better position than today. I'll certainly be back to cheering for/getting exasperated by Southend till then.
 
The cracks can't be papered over with this result, maybe if it had stayed at 2 nil then excuses could have been made but today's debacle needs watching and rewatching by MM and all the squad.
The sense of the limited contract to JW is shown
The absence of the two Ds (Demi and Dieng) when they have been off work keeping fit since L1 got stopped needs some thought. How can they be injured?
Our playing out from GK didn't work under Bond, it WILL NOT WORK now.
Throw ins are pitiful.
Hutch taking free kicks quickly and short passing backwards to less technical players is bizarre.
NO MIDFIELD
Goodship and Kelman can't play together, new No 9 eeded asap.
 
Putting aside that most on here thought Shaughnessy was dire, I don't think the limited changes in personnel explains the difference in today's team performance from a 0-4 home loss in league 2 to a 3-1 home win in L1.

First we did pass it around in our own box.
Second either though Bwomono isn't a CB he played there to provide experience and Mitchell-Nelson was pushed out wide.
Third the weakness in midfield was addressed by playing the 5 in midfield

Gunnarsson
Mitchell-Nelson Bwomono Shaughnessy Clifford
Egbri Kinali Demetriou Gard McLaughlin
Kelman

Given who we had available and in hindsight a similar set up would probably have worked better today..

interesting -
 
When Molesley was appointed manager we all said 'Yep, Good shout'. He will know exactly what we now need to help our current squad compete. Maybe the crunch time is on us early but Ron must now cough up for debts and new players, it's as simple as that. Otherwise it's wrong end of the pineapple up the bottom time for us all.
 
Our goalkeeper hasn’t had a good game for 3 years.

Our defence plays like it has an average age of 12 because it nearly does.

We don’t have a midfield.

Goodship is out of his depth and we rely entirely on a teenager with a handful of goals.

Unless there’s a drastic change in the next few weeks, it’s going to be a long last season in the league.
 
Anybody but Brown, the football simply couldn’t be worse.... He sets up not to lose. It doesn’t matter if they score 4 we will score 5.
 
The cracks can't be papered over with this result, maybe if it had stayed at 2 nil then excuses could have been made but today's debacle needs watching and rewatching by MM and all the squad.
The sense of the limited contract to JW is shown
The absence of the two Ds (Demi and Dieng) when they have been off work keeping fit since L1 got stopped needs some thought. How can they be injured?
Our playing out from GK didn't work under Bond, it WILL NOT WORK now.
Throw ins are pitiful.
Hutch taking free kicks quickly and short passing backwards to less technical players is bizarre.
NO MIDFIELD
Goodship and Kelman can't play together, new No 9 eeded asap.
Great points made.....
A massive part of it is furloughed players whilst staying fit do not have match practice or access to medical physio etc - just running and gym is not the same as getting match fit.
Pre season organisation was non existent late and disorganised. Certain players even though furloughed even offered to get the squad together training While a manager was not in place but RM refused the offer of help and was still not paying properly.
A very short Pre season and straight into 4 or 5 games too quickly, even with limited playing time , was always going to lead to strains twangs etc...
we can blame the virus or RM or just everyone but it is what it is.
Teams that are professionally run do not get run how southend was being run. Hoping things will change as per the early signs under MM, but it's going be a while. And it's going to be painful!!!
 
Great points made.....
A massive part of it is furloughed players whilst staying fit do not have match practice or access to medical physio etc - just running and gym is not the same as getting match fit.
Pre season organisation was non existent late and disorganised. Certain players even though furloughed even offered to get the squad together training While a manager was not in place but RM refused the offer of help and was still not paying properly.
A very short Pre season and straight into 4 or 5 games too quickly, even with limited playing time , was always going to lead to strains twangs etc...
we can blame the virus or RM or just everyone but it is what it is.
Teams that are professionally run do not get run how southend was being run. Hoping things will change as per the early signs under MM, but it's going be a while. And it's going to be painful!!!
Im sure that didnt help. But even with a full pre season we would have been crap playing that way and getting so many things wrong.
 
Im sure that didnt help. But even with a full pre season we would have been crap playing that way and getting so many things wrong.
I can't argue with that at all. It's league 2 and we were rubbish for sure
 
I watched on I Follow until the second goal...then I am afraid I left the sinking ship as I knew what was coming. I switched off and did other things which seems to have been a good decision.
From what I saw we were outplayed, and, at times, it did look like men against boys.
They could keep possession while we could not. Our players looked hurried and never seemed to have time on the ball. Our inability to keep the ball and be rushed into mistakes suggested that the brutal truth might be that some of our players are just not good enough for the level they are being asked to play in. Perhaps it could have been just a bad day at the office but any way you look at it the signs are not good.
I hope I am wrong.
MM certainly has a mess to deal with.
Today (and I only watched until the second goal went it) everyone was pretty much dire although I thought Green did not look totally out of his depth, and, that Hobson and Taylor both did some good things at times.
In the last twelve months I have been a fan of both Gard and Hutchison but they were just over run today. As a midfield pairing they did not look good enough and they could make no impact on the game.
We did have a number of players (all experienced) missing from injury ie Lennon Clifford Dieng JD and JW. It seems ever since Hopper suffered that knee injury in October 2018 we have always had players out injured. Injuries are part of sport and their frequency and seriousness cannot be predicted. They are usually just a matter of bad luck although perhaps some players are genetically tougher than others. But they really do impact a small club with limited resources like us. Our luck needs to change but perhaps in the past we have not been diligent enough in considering a player's injury history before signing him.
MM does not strike me as the type of manager who will indulge shirkers, and, we have to trust that he will recruit the right kind of player. Player recruitment has not been the club's strength in the past three years. I am assuming, of course, that the money to pay off our tax debt will be forthcoming and that not only can we see the embargo lifted but also we have sufficient resources to sign players who are half decent.
We desperately needs strengthening. The West Ham game indicated that the players who played today are some way ahead of the others. I do not think anyone on here believes we have players on our books who did not play today that would be able to seriously improve the side.
We are not a badly supported club and it really should have never come to this. Where did we lose our way? I suspect if Ron looks back he may regret bringing in Phil Brown for Paul Sturrock. I am not saying Brown was necessarily a bad or hopeless manager. He gained us a promotion after all. I just think he was the wrong sort of manager for a small club like ours as some of his signings were not cheap and ultimately achieved little for us.
Perhaps today was the nadir and things will improve from here. After all, in recent seasons some of our better seasons all begun with a defeat. At the moment that is the only straw I am clinging to!
 
Some massive over reactions on here tonight.
Yes, it was a horrible defeat, but without Dieng and White it was always going to be a rough ride today.
With 2/3 new signings plus the experienced players back in the side things will suddenly look very different.
However difficult it may seem tonight, keep the faith. The tide will turn soon enough. In Molesley we must trust.
 
I was at the game today, firstly I was impressed with M M and his assistant who encouraged and coached as best they could throughout the game. Their passion when that joke of a 3rd goal was allowed to stand was evident, I heard the refs reasoning and if I heard correctly, he needs assessment.
We were incredibly quiet, no shouts of man on, no encouragement to each other, no excuses, the basics coached from an early age.
They were 2nd to every ball, allowed a big physical side to bully them.
When I saw the team sheet I was worried, midfield looked weak, no steel and I have never been a fan of goalkeepers as captain, he was vocal but from a distance.
I won’t score anyone, and I won’t get disheartened, 1st game, they were up for it, we were missing experience through injuries.
Onwards and upwards will make a fuller judgment 6-8 games in.
 
Some massive over reactions on here tonight.
Yes, it was a horrible defeat, but without Dieng and White it was always going to be a rough ride today.
With 2/3 new signings plus the experienced players back in the side things will suddenly look very different.
However difficult it may seem tonight, keep the faith. The tide will turn soon enough. In Molesley we must trust.
I like the spirit; not sure about the sentiment.
Even with three 'senior' players back and three new signings, that's still five players short of a half-decent team.
I'm not talking about one challenging for honours, I'm talking about one staying in the division.
None of those 'kids' are ready, and I'm willing to have a wager, four of them never will be as established Football League players.
 
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