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

[Up the Shrimpers]

I’d imagine this must be our heaviest first day defeat in our history!

We lost 6-2 At Plymouth 1925/6
Lost 5-1 At Swindon the next season as well
Lost 4-0 at home to Crystal Palace 1933/4
Lost 6-0 At Bristol City 1947/8

So just to cheer us up a little bit..... It's not our worst start to a season.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

From my understanding, Hobson stopped because an opposition player was in the penalty area when the goal kick was taken. The ref should have stopped the game and made Oxley take the goal kick again, but at the same time, you always play to the whistle

 

[D1versity]

Evening All,

On a day which was supposed to be enjoyed & live up to an expectation of new hope and promise, went rather sour very quickly. However I must say first off im glad to be bringing back the "vlogs" which made my channel where it is today & hope to entertain you lot with my sometimes questionable and surprising correct content, & im glad to see that we can still actually watch our team week in and out play the beautiful game whether its a positive result or not. Today I did a live reaction video to the game and how it all played out from the 1st-90th, If you have a spare few minutes head over to the channel and show your support in the comment section, If you enjoy leave a like and Subscribe!

 

[fbm]

From my understanding, Hobson stopped because an opposition player was in the penalty area when the goal kick was taken. The ref should have stopped the game and made Oxley take the goal kick again, but at the same time, you always play to the whistle

The rules are I understand that if the keeper takes it quickly, the game continues.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

From my understanding, Hobson stopped because an opposition player was in the penalty area when the goal kick was taken. The ref should have stopped the game and made Oxley take the goal kick again, but at the same time, you always play to the whistle

Was it even a goal kick though? It doesn't look like the ball goes out of play and we can't see the lino in the replay so not sure if he flagged or not?
It sure does look like Oxley takes it as a goal kick though so maybe it did go out?

 

[stewart]

Read 2 pages cant read anymore ,sorry.

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

Decided to invest in ifollow and watch from australia. 12am kick off. First 5 mins was ok. Green looked good. Hobson looked ok. Maybe some talent in there. Perhaps Taylor , maybe kelman , maybe Hutchinson.

Terrible next 40 mins. Abysmal.

Never been a leaver of a game but strangely after that first half and it being 1245am I closed my laptop. Good night.

Oh and I owe my Harrogate mate lots of beers.

First half:

Oxley - 3 - looks poor, appears defence have little confidence in him.

Elvis - 4 - mistakes, appears to be slower. Didn't see anything to show he's going to be a stand out

Taylor - 3 - big guy but so many micro mistakes and naivety

Hobson - 5- seems to have some talent and a strong player. I now see why we need a strong experienced defender alongside. More games will definitely improve

Ralph - 4 - ok not really much. Got stuck a fair few times and passes were inconsistent

Egbiri - 2 - too young not ready for this level. I'm sure there is talent but not at this level.

Hutchinson - 5 - tried to be available find the next pass , make things happen around the box. Reminds me of a younger Wordsworth

Green - 6 - quick direct tricky tracks back - tried hard to find openings. Remember his YouTube reel - not much end product but good to have a player like this

Goodship - 2 - awful non existent no skill no pace nothing to prove that he has anything to offer.

Kelman - 4 - tried. Really needs a support player that can make the most of his talent . More a fox in the box.

Oh and nealry forgot and for good reason

Gard - 1 - anonymous.

 

[MisterStubbs]

Where do I even begin after a performance like that? I feel firstly I have to get the "they are young players so we can't be to hard on them" out of the way. It by no means their fault that we are having to rely on the so heavily early on in their careers. Today shows a lot of them still have a lot to learn, all we can hope for is that they learn bloody quickly otherwise it's going to be yet another long, hard season. That said, where I do have a problem with the "young players" excuse is this. They are all professional footballers who spend all week on the training ground and yet the majority of them still can't get the basics of football right. They can't get themselves organised. They can't track runs. It's basic things that today we poor at. Take nothing away from Harrogate, this was their first ever game at this level and to be honest, they won't ever have an easier one but again, in truth they weren't anything special.. the disappointing thing is is that at no point did they need to be. They were a well drilled outfit, a fit outfit. A team that could clearly play to their managers instructions and today they absolutely showed our young lads quite simply how to perform on a football pitch. Best of luck to them for the rest of the season.

Oxley- 0, Yes that's a zero. One of the worst "captains" performance I've ever seen. Constantly put the back four under pressure. Should have saved the second goal. Honestly wouldn't be sad if he never played for us again.
Elvis- 3, What's happened to the Elvis that broke in to the first team so promisingly? No threat going forward, not much better when defending. Needs to seriously up his game.
Hobson- 6, Highest rated player and even a 6 seems generous. Horrible mistake that lead to the fourth but did show some glimpses of promise.
Taylor- 3, Possible lucky to finish the game in truth. He seems desperate to make tackles at times despite being on a booking, needs to learn how to stay on his feet.
Ralph-4, Not the worst player on the pitch, not much else to say.
Egbri- 3, Clearly not ready to be a first team regular, gave the ball away far to often when it was easier to find a teammate. Has ability but shouldn't have the pressure of being first choice on his young shoulders.
Gard- 2, What is he good at? Genuine question. He doesn't pass the ball particularly well, he isn't a box to box midfielder and he doesn't have the physicality to be a that man in the middle to win you back the ball. Shouldn't be anywhere near the first team.
Hutchinson- 3, Tried to hard at times, needs to take far less touches and release the ball quicker.
Green- 6, Joint best player on the day. Showed some good pace at times and some neat foot work but felt a couple of times he should have taken the shot himself rather than trying to find a teammate.
Kelman- 4, First half completely anonymous. Second half perked up a bit but nowhere near enough effort of quality from a player who clubs in higher leagues are keeping an eye on.
Goodship- 2, Unlike the argument for the young players, their simply isn't one for Brandon I'm afraid. He just isn't a football league player. Ball bounces of him far to often. He doesn't get in to threaten positions often enough.

The subs hard little to no impact on the game enough to rate them to be honest.

Today is a new low for the club, it really is. The bright side, it can't get any worse surely?

Final note, this is a message to Ron himself. We are tired of the bull****. We are tired of hearing the excuses. You now need to pay the HMRC, you need to get this embargo lifted and you need to give the manager that you seeked out the tools in which to build something here otherwise our club.. YOUR CLUB will be heading out of the football league and quite possibly out of business. I have no doubt unlike all of us you are hurting but unlike the rest of us, only you can do something about it to make our situation better. We as fans will stay loyal, we will stand by the club regardless but I fear if things don't turn around then we are heading the same way as Bury. Please Ron, I beg you to do what's right by the club now.

 

[bluesfansince1952]

Yes we were missing some experienced players, and, we should be better when they return but my concern is when they return how long will it be for? As players age it is easier for them to pick up injuries and they also take longer to recover. Injury proneness is seldom a condition which improves with age. At present we are missing:
(1) JD: has a chronic knee condition which seems to require constant monitoring and treatment. He looks willing enough but with the best will in the world it is difficult to see him playing forty plus games this season and even thirty may be a stretch;
(2) John White: a totally committed gamer but whose body maybe is feeling the rigours of the game. Has an arm issue having broken it twice in the same place within a year, Have no idea what is present injury is, and, I do not doubt he will return as soon as his body allows, but, again forty plus appearances from him seems unlikely;
(3) Dieng: seems to have an ongoing calf issue and logic suggests this is unlikely to improve with age. Thirty plus games might be the most we can expect from him;
(4) Lennon: he has been plagued by injury ever since signing with us. Without going into the whys and/or wherefores based on previous seasons how many games can we realistically expect from him? Forty? In our dreams maybe! Thirty? That would be good but based on his previous record less than thirty would hardly be a surprise;
(5) Tom Clifford: no idea what is keeping him out but he is young and hopefully there is nothing long term about it.
On top of that Oxley missed games last season because of a back complaint. When professional sportsmen have back issues they are invariably re-coccuring. As are shoulder problems and Ralph has just come back after missing months recovering from dislocating his shoulder.
We need players and preferably good ones, but, at the moment even reliable bodies would be welcome!

 

[brigg blue]

That was exactly the performance needed to give Ron a wake up call, our kids aren't good enough and I have doubts that many of them ever will be. He needs to get the embargo lifted and back MM to bring in some journeymen to give us some guile.

The real turning point in the game came after 6 minutes when Taylor got booked, Harrogate knew they had us beat then, they knew they were too good for us. Having said that the Ref did us no favours for the 3rd and 4th goals but you play to the whistle

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

That midfield would get slapped about on a Sunday morning in the Sceptre League

 

[GBJ]

I think many of us (well, me!) probably had forgotten that. But you are spot on.

Yes, I was fearing that many people had forgotten just how bad our off-season was, when the first talk of flirting with the play-offs, reared it’s head.

As a brief reminder, I wrote this post below, just 38 days ago.

This has turned farcical now.

- Campbell has been gone for 37 days & still we have no replacement

- We are 37 days away from the start of the new season

- We have a grand total of zero pre-season friendlies lined up

- We have several first team players trying to get out of the club, and have a handful of clubs circling our better players

- We have no manager to identify new targets, mould the team in his image or instill his way of playing.

- No news on the season ticket side of things, meaning desperately needed cashflow isn’t coming into the club, further making it difficult to plan for much needed signings

Currie, Fagan, Tilson, Maher, Barrett, this geezer from Weymouth... who cares at this point?

They’re all in the same boat. They all have limited experience. They all want to prove themselves. Whoever gets the nod, will be seen as the wrong choice by some, and will inevitably lose the patience of some fans when we start losing a few games.

And worse still, some of our fans are actually expecting us to be chasing promotion this season. They will be the first people calling for the head of <insert ANY name of potential manager here> when we get rolled over 2-0 at home to Harrogate. Whoever we appoint is already fighting a losing battle in essence.

The job should have been given to Fagan weeks ago, which would have given us some kind of continuity, and more importantly, a solid footing for moving the club forward.

As it stands, we are bang in trouble. If someone offered me 22nd place in Lg2 right now, I’d rip their arm off.

 

[Ricey]

I didn’t watch the game on iFollow. Out of interest before they kicked off did they take a knee? I notice they’re still doing it in the Prem.

 

[CaptainSmudger]

I can,t explain in words how I feel. Ron please give us your take on all this And what you are doing about it!

 

[overseas shrimper]

I can,t explain in words how I feel. Ron please give us your take on all this And what you are doing about it!

What's the point? Do we really believe what he says? If it helps, here are his points in bullet form:

- MM will be backed
- 4 or 5 players coming in
- due diligence on new recruits
- we won't go down
- new stadium progressing well

There you go.

 

[The Big Shrimp]

I think the the size of our problem has finally hit home yesterday and I didn’t see any “in Ron we trust” comments after the game. If we’re relying on Dieng, White and Dover Boy to keep us up, then they are deluded!! There were players out there yesterday that a few years ago would have been released without ever playing for the club. Taylor, Egbri and Gard spring to mind. Hutchinson is only slightly better. As much as I love Elvis’ enthusiasm and attacking abilities, he’s often AWOL in defence. I know we are in different times, but we are doomed if the experienced players don’t play 40 games this season.

 

[Barling Magna]

OK. The morning after. Remember that nobody realistically thought we were going to be pulling up trees this season. Most thought survival was the first priority with a lower mid table finish perhaps the best we could hope for. Maybe some under-estimated the real threat that an opening fixture against a newly promoted team playing for the first time ever in the EFL would pose. It will be interesting to see how Harrogate perform next week against a seasoned team of lower league players in Walsall, but it was pretty obvious that they were going to play out of their skins yesterday and, as it happened, they didn't need to! Why? Because somebody had watched our performance against Gillingham and realised that we were trying to play pretty traingles from the back a la Crewe Alexandra but without the skills that the young Alex players always show (and the tough physical older player(s) they always have in support of the talented youngsters). So Harrogate got their tactics exactly right - don't allow these eager but largely underskilled Southend kids to pass the ball out from the back, instead keep up near or in their penalty area and prevent them from passing to each other. A simple but highly effective tactic well executed which left our youngsters bemused and panicky. Add a striker like Muldoon who knows when and how to shoot and the result was inevitable.

Looking for shreds of comfort I think Hobson and Green have been good signings and will do well for us provided they don't lose all confidence. This will be an important test for Moseley in how he reacts. Carlisle are a team of journeymen that have had a terrible start to the season conceding three goals in all three games. Provided our team isn't all shagged out by the long journey north we should have a good chance against them before having to face our bogey team Morecambe in the following match......

 

[NZamba Legend]

A lot of people saying Harrogate were not all that but I bet they are in the mix for play offs at least. We will play worse teams. Got to find hope somewhere!

 

[rigsby]

Exactly what i was thinking......About this post......Where are those moderators when you really need them

 

[OldBlueLady]

Alan McCormack and Anthony Wordsworth both still without a club......just saying, like, because midfield for me was the area we were most lacking in (goal keeper apart!).

Gard and Hutch didn't work together, Hutch was playing too deep. The midfield needed to be able to stop opposition advancing and to link together from our defence to the starved forwards, and it simply didn't.

I thought Nathan Ralph showed some flashes of a positive performance after his injury, and am confident he'll improve with more game time.

Jordan Green reminded me a lot of Jermaine McGlashan, a lot of running and showed promise but ran into trouble.

Goodship was trying to be Simon Cox. He's not.

Kelman looked bored.

I can't even bring myself to mention Oxley, most embarrassing captain's performance since he was last captain.

Where Harrogate dominated us it was because the team knew each other so very well. They played as a unit rather than a bunch of strangers, until our players can anticipate and read the game better, we will continue to churn out poor results.