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Funny old game, we were so on top first half, then so under the cosh most of the second before a late flourish. Why is it always so obvious an opposition goal is coming? You can usually predict it a few minutes before it arrives. Anyway I won't go through the whole team but the following stood out for me, one way or another;

Wright. I really like him. Keeps it simple and keeps everything ticking along. Can't be many players who touched the ball more than him. Very rarely gives possession away. The sort of player managers love. Not surprised he was Gills player of the year.

Yearwood. Huge talent, quick feet, tricky, gets a tackle in too & isn't afraid to shoot. If he developes an end product he'll go a lot higher than L1.

Oxley. Dan who? Brilliant tonight, saved us a point.

Ranger. Still a long way short of match sharpness but you can tell he worries the opposition just being on the pitch.

Macca. Obviously off form but we all know there's a good player in there.

All in all we didn't play badly, some nice inter-passing, but not enough goal threat. When we finally get close to our best starting 11 (or even a proper defence) we'll do ok.
 
my overall feel is frustration. Some quick notes before bed
Oxley has made some class saves to keep us in the game.
Leonard played well at the back but we missed him in midfield. We were so open after their goal and couldn't have complained if he had conceded a load more. If he'd been in midfield I am sure we would have been more solid.
Wright impressed me. i liked the way he sat at the bottom of the diamond and covered the defence and looked to win the ball by his positioning rather than flying in to tackles. Clearly a lovely touch and some quality passing.
Wordsworth let the game pass him by.
Yearwood looked a real prospect but I'd have subbed him for Hendrie as Yearwood was a but worried after his booking and Timlin was poor at left back plus his tackling was needed in midfield.

We were crap in the final third. So many passes nearly made it but didn't. We play some nice intricate stuff but we're not good enough to pull it off consistently. We maybe need to simply things at the moment but that does not mean hoofing it.

That was a patched up team, and the game was enthralling. Not great on quality but edge of the seat and entertaining.

Frustration, but a point gained
 
Well what a game. Absolute Shakespeare football; a Comedy of Errors.

The first 10 minutes consisted of both teams trying to do their utmost to see who could make the biggest defensive **** up. In the end Peterborough won and Fortune scored with a good finish into the corner.

Generally I though we controlled the first half without really testing their keeper. Oxley was being put more under pressure by some weird back passes but Posh always looked capable of breaking quickly. The lack of height was exposed on one occasion when they had 3 people lining up to head the ball in but contrived to put it well over the bar. 1-0 at half time was about right.

In the second half it was fast, frenetic and both sides had good periods but they definitely took control and we - as usual - defended too deep. Fortune seemed unable to hang onto the ball and was looking tired. Timlin was frankly appalling. I love the bloke but he is NOT a left back. McLaughlin kept tripping over his own feet. Choices by almost all the strikers in the last third were 100% wrong.

Their goal was not a surprise. In fact, the only shock was that they didn't go on to win it. Oxley made 3 or 4 very good saves and they contrived to miss two open goals when it seemed easier to hit the target. It could have been carnage.

But we brought on Ranger and Robinson and it gave us another option. Ranger was a handful and as the last 10 minutes approached and they clearly settled for the point, we upped our game and Yearwood, Wright and Wordsworth had decent efforts. Wright had a golden chance in injury time but curled the ball over; just before, Cox had somehow decided to pass sideways rather than shoot when on the edge of the box. You're an ex-international striker man! Put your foot through the bloody thing and aim at the onion bag!

Frustrating beyond belief really.

Ratings -

Oxley - 9 - MOM - best performance by him since joining and possibly by any Southend keeper for some time.

Demetriou - 7 - Did ok. Needless booking for a cynical and unnecessary trip.
Timlin - 5 - No, no, no, no, no. I've marked him higher than I would do if he was a left back, BUT HE IS NOT THE BLOODY LEFT BACK! Ok, he can fill in if necessary but our reserve left back is on the bench. If he is good enough for the bench, he is good enough for the team. Tims is a whole hearted player who has spilt blood for the club, but this is not his position and every team targets him. It's not fair on him. PB - PLEASE PLAY HENDRIE IN THIS POSITION! No more square pegs in round holes!
White - 8 - Usual JW performance. Committed, honest and as solid as he can be in a makeshift defence.
Leonard - 7 - His speed gets him out of trouble. Did as well as could be expected. Miss him in the midfield.

Wright - 7 - Decent game, unlucky not to score.
Yearwood - 8 - Cracking at times, looked a bit tired late on. Some sublime skill and hit the bar with a rocket shot. He's a prospect.
Wordsworth - 6 - Didn't impose himself as he should have done.

McLaughlin - 5 - Not good enough. Poor crossing. Kept tripping over his own feet. Wrong pass choices. Can do a lot better.
Fortune - 7.5 - Seemed to struggle holding the ball up, which is normally his strength. Good goal though.
Cox - 6 - Worked hard but again, wrong choices and poor shooting.


Subs -

Ranger - 8 - Best he's played since last season.
Robinson - 7 - Much better coming off the bench than starting.

Ref - 7 - Got most stuff pretty much right. There was some controversy around the throw in that led to their goal, originally given to us by the ref but the linesman went the other way. he let the game flow well I thought and all the bookings, apart from maybe Yearwood's, were about right.
i have never read a report which I agreed with so much on every player. I would only add that regardless of injuries we HAVE to be winning that type of game, they were shocking and we had almost a full strength forward line. Ranger, fortune, cox, Wordsworth and their keeper still had FA to do
 
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Off to bed, so I'll do the ratings in the morning, but I'm genuinely surprised at some of the things I've read, so far.

That said, I've only skim read and caught a few player ratings.

I actually thought we played really well and were unfortunate not to win, personally.
 
Oxley MOM at home against a team who had lost their last three games with one win in 7, says it all
An entertaining game, but largely due to the fact that neither team could defend
as others have said, love Timo, but enough is enough. Give Hendrie a run in the side.
Don't want to see it but bring back AF Saturday and get Lenny back in CM
our fralaties at both ends are costing us, a lack of goals one end and conceding soft goals the other
4 strikers, all of whom appear to not get the fact that shooting at the goal helps
spoke to kiernan before the game, really nice guy. Gutted to not be playing, but if all goes to plan he will be back in time for xmas period. Had one knee operation that went well, other knee being done in a few weeks. Said he was frustrated that it had taken so long to get to this point, didn't know why either

so two points lost or a point gained tonight, hard to say, but based on The Ox winning MOM, you gave to say that it's a point gained.

On to Saturday and we must be looking at 3 points. PB said that the next two games will define our season, well the first one didn't go to plan, so a big few days for him I sense. No win Saturday and the pressure will be on him big time.
 
Off to bed, so I'll do the ratings in the morning, but I'm genuinely surprised at some of the things I've read, so far.

That said, I've only skim read and caught a few player ratings.

I actually thought we played really well and were unfortunate not to win, personally.

Unfortunate not to win?? Oxley was our MOM, fortunate not to lose more accurate
 
On to Saturday and we must be looking at 3 points. PB said that the next two games will define our season, well the first one didn't go to plan, so a big few days for him I sense. No win Saturday and the pressure will be on him big time.

I hope not too much... me and a few mates have a private dinner planned with him (a charity auction prize) in mid November so he'd better still be the manager then!
 
Off to bed, so I'll do the ratings in the morning, but I'm genuinely surprised at some of the things I've read, so far.

That said, I've only skim read and caught a few player ratings.

I actually thought we played really well and were unfortunate not to win, personally.

I must admit, I normally agree with most of what you say Andy T, but we really didn't play well and could have been absolutely demolished by a team who knew where the goal was.
 
We were the better side and certainly had more play and opportunities in their third of the pitch.

Hit the bar and the keeper pulled off a fingertip save from Josh Wright.

Oxley had a good game, fair enough, but just because our keeper pulled off a couple of good saves, doesn't mean the opposition deserved to win.
 
I must admit, I normally agree with most of what you say Andy T, but we really didn't play well and could have been absolutely demolished by a team who knew where the goal was.

I'm genuinely surprised that people felt we didn't play well.

I've seen hundreds of performances worse than that.

Some elements of it were frustrating, I grant you, particularly players needing an extra touch around the box.
 
MATCH REPORT :

I normally write my match report without reading everyone else’s, as we all see things differently, but I did have a skim through last night and felt the general theme was that we weren’t overly good.

I had a think on this and kind of relived the game again for a bit and still come to my own and slightly different conclusion.

After back-to-back defeats and many questions being asked by fans and coaching/managerial staff alike, I was expecting to see a patched-up side struggle through a tough game last night, playing with a lack of conviction and belief and, having seen the goals conceded recently, a bit of a lack of heart.

What I saw was a real wholehearted performance from everyone.

I don’t ask much, as a supporter of the club, but I do expect players to give their all and try to play football. On both counts, I gave the team a standing round of applause at the end, as did quite a few around me.

At times, we played some really high quality passing football. Fortune’s inclusion was a good call and after some nervy stuff at the beginning, we started taking control of the game and the goal was a reward for our early endeavours.

Peterborough hit the channels early, using Jack Marriott and Marcus Maddison when they could, but I felt we were more than a match for this and in that regard the defence played well.

Second half, they had to come at us a bit, but I thought we had just as many chances as them.

We do seem to have to take one too many touches at times, or want to tee up the perfect angle, so that’s something that needs to be continually worked on, but with the break of the ball a little more in our favour, we could easily have bagged the winner.

I was proud of that performance, if I’m honest. Hard working against a side that were flying a couple of weeks back.

Terrific match, as well. 37 pots at goal on the official stats.

So, we are still unbeaten at home and I really fancy us on Saturday.

Onwards!

RATINGS :

Oxley 8 – Two superb saves in the second half and being in the South Upper last night, you can hear how well he marshals the defence in front of him. Really been a revelation this season.

Demetriou 7 – Had a good all-round match. Peterborough tested both flanks quite a bit, so he had his work cut out to cover this and get forward when he could, but he coped ably with both.

Leonard 7 – Given he isn’t a centre-half, I thought he had a good game, too. Does read the game extremely well and yes, a couple of misplaced headers and passes that are risky from a centre-half position, but overall no complaints.

White 7.5 – I’m not overly convinced by JW, but I watched him closely at times last night and his positional play was good and he did the simple things well. I can’t think of a mistake he made and he did plenty of no nonsense defending, which is important in this modern trend of trying to play too much from the back.

Timlin 6.5 – Right. I know I’m going to get crucified for this, but he did fine last night. He is not a left-back. He knows it and most people on here do, but he is playing there and did what was asked. He does fly in at times, but mixed in with that were some good moments, as well. Lenny’s hospital ball in the first couple of minutes produced a superb sliding block tackle, otherwise their guy was through. I’d prefer to see Hendrie at left-back and obviously Coker, in truth, but that wasn’t a poor performance last night for me.

Yearwood 7.5 – This fella can play. Lovely feet and works hard. That run at the start of the second-half would have been goal of the season, if he had managed to get a shot away, instead of taking the extra touch in the box. Stands off his man a little bit too much, but that’s something he’ll improve on. He really is another Keith Jones and I actually think has a little bit more about him.

Wright 8 MOM – Just shaded it for me. I thought he was excellent. Seemed to be everywhere last night. Linking up play superbly and his movement is really good, as well. Not frightened to have a shot and get into goal-scoring positions, as well. Yep, starting to be an impressive signing.

Wordsworth 7 – A typical Wordy performance. A little bit in and out, but for every slightly irritating thing that he did, there was a touch of class with a first time pass. Tries to make things happen, whenever he can.

McLaughlin 6.5 – Thought he had a decent game. Granted, things don’t come off for him, often, but he gave his all and was in the game a lot in the first-half. Did some great covering for Tims, at times, as well. Needs the confidence of a goal, I think. Just a little shot shy, but caused them problems down the left. Given he was one that people felt needed to put in a performance, he did that, in my view.

Cox 7.5 – Quality player. Just his movement and vision is a class above this level. He gave everything. Chasing back like a sprinter to help out towards the end and always wanted the ball and pulling the strings. Just needs to shoot a bit more, but he laid in a couple of golden chances with superbly weighted passes that on another day would have been buried.

Fortune 7.5 – Did really well. Him and Coxy do link up well and did so last season. Has a few more tricks on the deck than Nile and it was great to see us move the ball around at pace on the floor in the first half. Took his goal really well.

SUBS :

Robinson 7 – Yep, much improved. You can see he desperately needs a goal. Had a couple of gilt-edged chances but just took way too long. His movement wasn’t great, at times, but he did a decent job and did cause them problems.

Ranger 7 – Another one to come off the bench and really throw himself into it. By then, we were throwing the kitchen sink at it and working off knock downs and scraps a bit, so he mixed it well with them. Shame that run didn’t end in a goal. He was like a bulldozer charging through a wall.

REFEREE :

Yep, he was fine. Think he booked one or two people more than he needed to, but did try to let the game flow. The lino may well have got that throw-in wrong, but otherwise the officials did well.

PETERBOROUGH UNITED :

They were alright. Nothing special. You can see they score a lot of goals by hitting the channels early. I think of Jack Marriott’s 10 goals, he has probably run on to a through ball on at least half of them.

They possibly deserved a point. Not sure, in truth.

OVERALL :

That was a great response. Wholehearted. The team spirit looks strong. Nothing to worry about with this group of players. Just more shooting practise and taking one less touch before pulling the trigger. One for the training ground.

Yep 7.5/10.
 
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For those that were there, what were your thoughts re the absence of Ferdinand? Thanks

Who?

we would have lost that game without Leonard in there!

Oxley is quickly becoming a serious contender for player of the year already.

Peterborough were there for the taking in the first half hour, their defence was in bits, assisting MAF with the goal. However, as usual we could not take advantage and then let them get back into the game.

Brown moaning about another 2 points dropped and inexperience!! We have an old team and only Yearwood would be classed as inexperienced surely?

Saturday is another defining moment for our season I guess?
 
For those that were there, what were your thoughts re the absence of Ferdinand? Thanks

Definitely prefer him there 'Tampa'

Just that little bit more experience, that makes up for his lack of pace.

Needs a quicker/younger guy alongside him, so him and JW on Saturday would be a concern.

For that reason, it wouldn't surprise me if he was on the bench on Saturday and JW/Lenny started.

Now sure that's right, but it wouldn't be a shock if it did happen.
 
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Wright 8 MOM – Just shaded it for me. I thought he was excellent. Seemed to be everywhere last night. Linking up play superbly and his movement is really good, as well. Not frightened to have a shot and get into goal-scoring positions, as well. Yep, starting to be an impressive signing..

Interesting that you made him MoM Andy. Some of the comments on this thread thought he was absent, but I agree with you and Oxley only just shaded it ahead of Wright for MoM for me. Previously I had mixed feelings about his battling ability when things got tough, but last night he was involved from start to finish. Can't win headers for toffee but I'll forgive him that as he thinks about what he's going to do with the ball before he plays it.
 
Interesting that you made him MoM Andy. Some of the comments on this thread thought he was absent, but I agree with you and Oxley only just shaded it ahead of Wright for MoM for me. Previously I had mixed feelings about his battling ability when things got tough, but last night he was involved from start to finish. Can't win headers for toffee but I'll forgive him that as he thinks about what he's going to do with the ball before he plays it.

I thought Wright had a better effect on the game by being played in his natural central role and has a touch of quality about him. Here’s a question for you :-

Who would you want to partner Lenny in the centre a) Woody who can scores goals but cannot defend or run for toffee or b) Wright who covers and defends better, has goals in him but yet to score

Both have a touch of class about them. Probably difficult to judge unless Wright gets more game time in the centre?
 
Wright looks a good and better replacement for Will Atkinson I think 'Taters', so there's possibly room to play him and Lenny, together.

Then Wordy and Kightly would be the obvious other two players. That works slightly better with Lenny playing deep, Wright linking up and Kightly and Wordy more advanced. This should allow us to move the ball around at pace on the floor, utilizing Coxy better.

When Cokes is fit or Hendrie is given a run, there would be attacking options from full-back as well.

That said, Dru is playing well, so it would be a tough call.
 
MATCH REPORT :

I normally write my match report without reading everyone else’s, as we all see things differently, but I did have a skim through last night and felt the general theme was that we weren’t overly good.

I had a think on this and kind of relived the game again for a bit and still come to my own and slightly different conclusion.

After back-to-back defeats and many questions being asked by fans and coaching/managerial staff alike, I was expecting to see a patched-up side struggle through a tough game last night, playing with a lack of conviction and belief and, having seen the goals conceded recently, a bit of a lack of heart.

What I saw was a real wholehearted performance from everyone.

I don’t ask much, as a supporter of the club, but I do expect players to give their all and try to play football. On both counts, I gave the team a standing round of applause at the end, as did quite a few around me.

At times, we played some really high quality passing football. Fortune’s inclusion was a good call and after some nervy stuff at the beginning, we started taking control of the game and the goal was a reward for our early endeavours.

Peterborough hit the channels early, using Jack Marriott and Marcus Maddison when they could, but I felt we were more than a match for this and in that regard the defence played well.

Second half, they had to come at us a bit, but I thought we had just as many chances as them.

We do seem to have to take one too many touches at times, or want to tee up the perfect angle, so that’s something that needs to be continually worked on, but with the break of the ball a little more in our favour, we could easily have bagged the winner.

I was proud of that performance, if I’m honest. Hard working against a side that were flying a couple of weeks back.

Terrific match, as well. 37 pots at goal on the official stats.

So, we are still unbeaten at home and I really fancy us on Saturday.

Onwards!

RATINGS :

Oxley 8 – Two superb saves in the second half and being in the South Upper last night, you can hear how well he marshals the defence in front of him. Really been a revelation this season.

Demetriou 7 – Had a good all-round match. Peterborough tested both flanks quite a bit, so he had his work cut out to cover this and get forward when he could, but he coped ably with both.

Leonard 7 – Given he isn’t a centre-half, I thought he had a good game, too. Does read the game extremely well and yes, a couple of misplaced headers and passes that are risky from a centre-half position, but overall no complaints.

White 7.5 – I’m not overly convinced by JW, but I watched him closely at times last night and his positional play was good and he did the simple things well. I can’t think of a mistake he made and he did plenty of no nonsense defending, which is important in this modern trend of trying to play too much from the back.

Timlin 6.5 – Right. I know I’m going to get crucified for this, but he did fine last night. He is not a left-back. He knows it and most people on here do, but he is playing there and did what was asked. He does fly in at times, but mixed in with that were some good moments, as well. Lenny’s hospital ball in the first couple of minutes produced a superb sliding block tackle, otherwise their guy was through. I’d prefer to see Hendrie at left-back and obviously Coker, in truth, but that wasn’t a poor performance last night for me.

Yearwood 7.5 – This fella can play. Lovely feet and works hard. That run at the start of the second-half would have been goal of the season, if he had managed to get a shot away, instead of taking the extra touch in the box. Stands off his man a little bit too much, but that’s something he’ll improve on. He really is another Keith Jones and I actually think has a little bit more about him.

Wright 8 MOM – Just shaded it for me. I thought he was excellent. Seemed to be everywhere last night. Linking up play superbly and his movement is really good, as well. Not frightened to have a shot and get into goal-scoring positions, as well. Yep, starting to be an impressive signing.

Wordsworth 7 – A typical Wordy performance. A little bit in and out, but for every slightly irritating thing that he did, there was a touch of class with a first time pass. Tries to make things happen, whenever he can.

McLaughlin 6.5 – Thought he had a decent game. Granted, things don’t come off for him, often, but he gave his all and was in the game a lot in the first-half. Did some great covering for Tims, at times, as well. Needs the confidence of a goal, I think. Just a little shot shy, but caused them problems down the left. Given he was one that people felt needed to put in a performance, he did that, in my view.

Cox 7.5 – Quality player. Just his movement and vision is a class above this level. He gave everything. Chasing back like a sprinter to help out towards the end and always wanted the ball and pulling the strings. Just needs to shoot a bit more, but he laid in a couple of golden chances with superbly weighted passes that on another day would have been buried.

Fortune 7.5 – Did really well. Him and Coxy do link up well and did so last season. Has a few more tricks on the deck than Nile and it was great to see us move the ball around at pace on the floor in the first half. Took his goal really well.

SUBS :

Robinson 7 – Yep, much improved. You can see he desperately needs a goal. Had a couple of gilt-edged chances but just took way too long. His movement wasn’t great, at times, but he did a decent job and did cause them problems.

Ranger 7 – Another one to come off the bench and really throw himself into it. By then, we were throwing the kitchen sink at it and working off knock downs and scraps a bit, so he mixed it well with them. Shame that run didn’t end in a goal. He was like a bulldozer charging through a wall.

REFEREE :

Yep, he was fine. Think he booked one or two people more than he needed to, but did try to let the game flow. The lino may well have got that throw-in wrong, but otherwise the officials did well.

PETERBOROUGH UNITED :

They were alright. Nothing special. You can see they score a lot of goals by hitting the channels early. I think of Jack Marriott’s 10 goals, he has probably run on to a through ball on at least half of them.

They possibly deserved a point. Not sure, in truth.

OVERALL :

That was a great response. Wholehearted. The team spirit looks strong. Nothing to worry about with this group of players. Just more shooting practise and taking one less touch before pulling the trigger. One for the training ground.

Yep 7.5/10.
You make some fair points Andy ( I also was very impressed with wright), where we differ is in the conclusion. You mention that FOUR Different players had opportunities to shoot and didn't and one player shouldn't have been on a he pitch. I agree, and that's why we didn't win

. Additionally oxley was by far more he busier keeper and pulled of some excellent saves. It doesn't matter how good our build up play if if we keep making the same bad decisions in front of goal game after game after game. At least by our standards we didn't totally gift them their goal, they had to work a little bit ( now a lot) for it.
 
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