Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-1 Plymouth Argyle

[manor15]

Got to be winning games like that. Very frustrating as first half was almost one way traffic only for our concentration to go after half time again. Poor defending and would have been a defeat if it weren't for Mark Oxley. Fortune was running on fumes yet PB took Cox off and that hugely limited us in attack. Should have won it but Plymouth made life difficult and on another day would certainly have won if Oxley hadn't been at it.

Oxley 8 Three superb saves, completely different player to his start last season
Demetriou 6 Vulnerable and really struggled in the air.
White 8 Solid and dependable, did very well in a physical battle.
Ferdinand 5 Clearly had last week on his mind, no composure and was rash rather than calm, struggled with the physicality
Hendrie 5 Poor, sucked into the middle too often, foul throws in injury time is amateur
McGlashan 7 Pace was a real threat, lacked the options and sometimes the end product
Timlin 7 Great defensively and some brilliant tackles, let down with his passing
Leonard 7 Like Timlin, drove forwards well and gave his all but didn't always come off
Kightly 8 All our attacking threat was through him, occasionally guilty of trying to do it all himself
Cox 6 No real impact but worked hard and dropped deep
Fortune 6 A 7 until the hour mark, battled well, a 5 after, he completely switched off

Subs
Robinson 5 Wrong decisions, his pace was a threat though
McLaughlin 6 Clearly uncomfortable on the left

Desperately lacking options off the bench to mix things up.

 

[SUFCStu]

Disappointing and should have built on the pressure.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Got to be winning games like that. Very frustrating as first half was almost one way traffic only for our concentration to go after half time again. Poor defending and would have been a defeat if it weren't for Mark Oxley.

Oxley certainly made a great second half save but we had chances at the other end too.

 

[Ex-Member1]

A point is a point for a struggling team. COYBB

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

A point is a point for a struggling team. COYBB

But we're not "a struggling team" though.It's still very early in the season.

 

[Sufc.2008]

Southend v Plymouth

I watched the game via iFollow - so will be interesting to see how I saw the game, compared to how people at Roots Hall saw the game.

I thought we were very poor again... and the only reason we escaped with a draw, is because Plymouth were even worse. Had we have played Rotherham again today, I don't think the result would have been much different from last week.

Oxley - 8 - Kept us in it with a superb save, and looked confident. He is certainly not our weak link anymore.

Demetriou - 6 - Tries to do tricks in positions where getting rid of the ball would be the safer option... Didn't offer a lot going forward today either.
Hendrie - 4 - Sorry but he is pretty hopeless. I haven't seen one good performance from him since signing... looks a bit of a liability down the left.
White - 7 - Pick of the defence again for me. Cleared his lines well.
Ferdinand - 5 - Looked slow again, nearly caused us a couple of goals where he gifted them chances from his lack of control in the box.

McGlashan - 8 - Looked lively and dangerous. Any chances came from him running at the full backs.
Kightly - 7 - He created some chances and done quite well... shame we don't have anyone to finish the chances!
Leonard - 5 - Pretty poor really... lots of misplaced passes and one of his trademark skied shots from a great chance.
Timlin - 5 - As per Leonard, didn't control anything in the middle.

Cox - 4 - Doesn't look anywhere near fit, and did pretty much nothing throughout the game... there's a theme developing across our first three games.
Fortune - 4 - Laboured and slow... Never ever looks like scoring, and his hold up play wasn't very good today either. Wasted a few good attacks.

Subs:

Robinson - 5 - Runs around, never looks like doing anything threatening.
McLaughlin - N/A - Wasn't on long enough to have any real impact.

Brown - 3 - Sticking with the same team as the 5-0 defeat makes that performance look acceptable. Late subs, including playing Robinson and Fortune up front together (again! never works) - really wasn't going to win us the game. Think he's relying on Ranger being fit soon to help him.

 

[Ex-Member1]

I meant Plymouth.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I meant Plymouth.

They did win away at Charlton the other week though,didn't they?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

As Paul Clark says "It was a fair result."

 

[manor15]

Oxley certainly made a great second half save but we had chances at the other end too.

We did but we should have killed the game by half time.

**Applies to most home games**

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

We did but we should have killed the game by half time.

**Applies to most home games**

Phil Brown would seem to agree with you.

 

[Taters123]

Oxley 8 - great saves
Demi 7 - did ok
Hendrie 7 - battled well
White 9 - carried Ferdinand the whole game
Ferdinand 3 - Assuming he is injured as no where near his man and struggled. Took ages to get back from corners we had
Lenny 7.5 - battled well
Timlin 7 - same as Lenny
Kightly 7.5 - very good first half, shame about the chance late on
Macglaslan 7 - needs to go at his man more often, but created the goal
Cox 6 - not on his game, think he needs Ranger back along side him as he will get more space then
MAF 6 - ok

Subs 6

Brown 4 - Why is Ferdinand playing if it is obvious something is not right. If injured, put him with the rest of our injured CB's and get a short term loan in. Thank god for John White. Unless the strikers start to look like they can score we will be mid table at best. Need more bodies in and a dominant CB and someone who can score

 

[Tinks]

After last week anything would be an improvement but we should be wining our home games. I think I counted about 15 corners for us today and pleased John White got MOM - who I think has so far has been solid. McGlashen had a much better day today.

 

[Floval Flyer]

Listened on BBC to most of the match (apart from when i was collecting the cat from the cattery). Sounded like we didn't take our chances, and let them get back into it in the 2nd half. What's going on with Cox? 4 games and another blank... And on that subject what the hell is going on with Anton?

Really need Wordsworth and Ranger back ASAP.

 

[Evening Echo]

Match report: Southend United 1, Plymouth Argyle 1

SOUTHEND United were forced to settle for a share of the spoils against Plymouth Argyle this afternoon after failing to make their first half dominance count.

More...

 

[Phippsy]

A few observations having just got home. Kiernon needs to get fit asap and White needs to slot back into his right back position, Demetriou in my opinion is dire and needs dropping for his own good to try and get out the spotlight for a few weekends. Also Ranger needs to get back out there working alongside Cox as Fortune was blowing out of his *** after 50 mins and is not the answer this season. Strange substitution taking Cox off also and replacing with another non-threatening striker.
Midfield looked quite solid today and you could tell Kightly is a class above with his vision and ability to beat a man.
A point today was not deserved as i think on another day we could/should have taken 3 easy points, Plymouth were giants and played to their strengths its just a shame we kept pumping our own balls high into their box to also help them out defensively.

All in all im a little dissapointed to only get a point as you will need to beat these teams at home to have any chance of being up the sharp end come May.

 

[Ironshrimper]

I could not give anyone a 9, John White looked better than most, but there was no stand out players for me, what a big team they are.

We had so many chances in the first half, I though we could have gone in maybe 2 or 3 nil up, we did not take them.

We won a fair few corners in the second, but again they are a very big team, why or why did we not mix it up and do short corners, there was not a chance of beating them in the air, but time and time we did the same.

Most of the squad are firing on 3 cylinders.

 

[southendkid]

White needs to slot back into his right back position

That would be a disaster, White has saved us numerous times at CB, I'm not convinced Kiernan has the experience to cover effectively for Ferdinand's recent displays. Plus White isn't exactly pacy, if he came up against a pacy McGlashan type winger he'd get destroyed, at CB pace isn't a deal breaker which suits White much better.

If we want to switch out a full back Timlin would probably be the way to go, although we lack options in midfield at the moment.

 

[South Bank Hank]

I watched the game via iFollow - so will be interesting to see how I saw the game, compared to how people at Roots Hall saw the game.

I thought we were very poor again... and the only reason we escaped with a draw, is because Plymouth were even worse. Had we have played Rotherham again today, I don't think the result would have been much different from last week.

Oxley - 8 - Kept us in it with a superb save, and looked confident. He is certainly not our weak link anymore.

Demetriou - 6 - Tries to do tricks in positions where getting rid of the ball would be the safer option... Didn't offer a lot going forward today either.
Hendrie - 4 - Sorry but he is pretty hopeless. I haven't seen one good performance from him since signing... looks a bit of a liability down the left.
White - 7 - Pick of the defence again for me. Cleared his lines well.
Ferdinand - 5 - Looked slow again, nearly caused us a couple of goals where he gifted them chances from his lack of control in the box.

McGlashan - 8 - Looked lively and dangerous. Any chances came from him running at the full backs.
Kightly - 7 - He created some chances and done quite well... shame we don't have anyone to finish the chances!
Leonard - 5 - Pretty poor really... lots of misplaced passes and one of his trademark skied shots from a great chance.
Timlin - 5 - As per Leonard, didn't control anything in the middle.

Cox - 4 - Doesn't look anywhere near fit, and did pretty much nothing throughout the game... there's a theme developing across our first three games.
Fortune - 4 - Laboured and slow... Never ever looks like scoring, and his hold up play wasn't very good today either. Wasted a few good attacks.

Subs:

Robinson - 5 - Runs around, never looks like doing anything threatening.
McLaughlin - N/A - Wasn't on long enough to have any real impact.

Brown - 3 - Sticking with the same team as the 5-0 defeat makes that performance look acceptable. Late subs, including playing Robinson and Fortune up front together (again! never works) - really wasn't going to win us the game. Think he's relying on Ranger being fit soon to help him.

Interesting indeed! I was at the game and it feels like we watched two different matches. We needed a reaction from last week and got one, totally dominating Plymouth in the first half yet frustratingly only coming away one goal to the good. Plymouth changed the game second half and we were thankful in the end to Oxley who had an incredible game but, for me, it was poor decision making and failure to execute in front of goal that cost us the game today. Our application was spot on as was the reaction from he players who let us down last week.

 

[BaileytheQuitter]

General observations: Demetriou is utterly useless: weak in the air, out-muscled every single time and very little skill going forward. The sooner we get another CB fit, the sooner we can move White to RB and do away with Jason.

We miss Ranger. Fortune can hold the ball up at his feet but offers little in the air. If our pitch is not improved we will end up playing more and more long balls, for which Ranger will be needed.

Kightly is a class above.

Ratings:

Oxley - 7 Couple of fantastic saves. Couldn't do much about the goal.
Demetriou - 3 Useless.
White - 7 Solid, once again.
Ferdinand - 6 Looks cumbersome.
Hendrie - 5 I miss Ben.
McGlashan - 7 Caused problems all afternoon, good display.
Leonard - 6 Did the basics right.
Timlin - 6 Couple of crucial tackles.
Kightly - 7 He is a cut above the rest.
Fortune - 6 Worked hard but doesn't look like scoring.
Cox - 5 Nowhere near his best at the moment.

Theo - 4 As threatening as a kitten cuddling a teddy bear.
McLaughlin - 6 Looked lively, little chance to impact the game.