Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-2 Aldershot Town

[Cricko]

We were awful, probably the worst we have played all season and Aldershot were much better than us in every department.

Bye bye play-offs.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Season over. NL clubs are worth a bit less than EFL ones Ron. Just saying.

 

[onceknownasrab]

Disgraceful. Time to find people with more than one idea.

 

[Murkey_Mouse]

We must play with 4-4-2 formations as virtually all NL, NLN & NLS clubs play that formation. Maher need to stop being stubborn and change it.

 

[Floval Flyer]

The Absolute Sh*t show, part 5

Can’t wait for part 6

 

[GBJ]

Well that, was ****ing ****

 

[LBBlue]

We were awful, probably the worst we have played all season and Aldershot were much better than us in every department.

And there was me bemoaning the RMT as I don’t want get stuck in a 1 hr plus queue to get through the tunnel.

Whats worse though is listening to Neil Kelly as Col U scored in 89 and 92 to draw at Orient.

Really though, even if we struggled to 7th we would have no chance against any of the top 6 in the play offs.

Give up now and try Benton and recall some loanees to see if they might be good enough in the first team.

Fonguck, Taylor, Powell are never going to be good enough.

 

[MisterStubbs]

Five defeats in a row now and this is by far the worst. It’s of course always disappointing to lose at home but at least that was against teams in and around the play offs and the two away defeats we can at least say we more than held our own and possibly deserved a lot more than what we got, again against teams in top 7. Today though, that was against a team who hadn’t won in 8 and our probably still looking over their shoulder in the fight for relegation. Simply not good enough.

We’ve all back these players over the last few months and what they were doing in the toughest of circumstances deserve nothing but our praise but performances like today will quickly evaporate all that good will towards them. They owe us a performance and a few results now.

Also, can we end the 5 at the back nonsense now? It’s been found out. At least with Lopata in the team it worked, without him we’ve lost every game. We haven’t the players to make it work at the moment.

 

[Evening Echo]

AN EVENTFUL week ended with Southend United suffering a 2-1 defeat against Aldershot Town at Roots Hall this afternoon.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[SS9_Shrimper]

Stubbornness or cluelessness; we can’t keep sticking to this system because it worked for a while. Frankly, the players signed are not good enough. They’re okay technical footballers, but none take a risk on getting forward.

 

[JB Shrimper]

Disfraceful, didn't bother turning up. Clueless!

 

[JAL]

Unfortunately Ron Martin doesn’t stop the players passing forward, we’ve been truly pathetic in the past few weeks.

 

[hlane17]

Worst SUFC performance I’ve seen since Kev took over.

We have absolutely no plan B. Same patterns of play every single time we get the ball. Makes us so predictable that even mediocre teams can keep up.

I personally hate watching teams with five at the back at the best of times, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt as we had it working for a bit.

At this point I’d rather poke my eyes out with hot needles than watch us play the ball across our defence for the millionth time to no real effect before hoofing it. It is not attractive to watch and totally ineffective.

 

[gatecrasher]

Crab Fc, side back side side back. The only time we went forward with purpose and speed we scored.



The pressing and Energy from the non paid period seems like a distant memory. I actually think apart from the weak forward line we have a decent squad, but it seems to fall apart when we don't have the backs to the wall mentality. My fear is kev doesn't know anything away from his current system. Well at least we can't go down and maybe it proves just how important Lopata was to the team after all.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Embarrassing

 

[manor15]

Crap. Didn’t deserve to be 1-0 up and can’t complain about losing 2-1. Almost no attacking incision or threat other than the one move for the goal until we were 2-1 down. When we did it was too slow, too predictable (give the ball to Bridge and watch him run, cut back, try and cross into Cardwell who was up against two defenders who were just as big).

Throwing Taylor and Powell on was supposed to shore things up and that lasted two minutes. Mooney looked bright early on but was KO after 60 minutes. Murphy stopped running after 15. That’s without going into the drop in quality that we have on the bench. Kev will always have his hands tied with that.

Arnold 6 Hospital pass to him for the penalty and can’t blame him.
Scott-Morriss 7 One of our best players, actually capable of delivering a ball into the box.
Hobson 5.5 They caught him out time and time again first half with runs in behind.
Kensdale 6 Has to be the one to organise things at the back and there’s just no leadership there. His distribution can improve too, but he was defensively solid at least.
Ralph 5 Can’t believe we signed him in League 1. He kept trying, to his credit, but his first touch and passing are abismal.
Bridge 6.5 Quiet early on, but our only real outlet in the second half.
Miley 7 Bossed the midfield almost single-handedly. Shows he’s a class above.
Fongnuck 6 Preferred him to Taylor and he did offer something different to Husin. Just not really offensive or defensive,
Mooney 6.5 Possibly our best player first half and really chased every ball and got stuck in like he had a point to prove, but then vanished completely second half.
Murphy 6 Nicely taken goal, did he do anything else?
Cardwell 6.5 At times he was the man drifting wide to cross and the man who was supposed to get on the end of the same cross. A hard battle for him and can’t fault him.

Subs
Taylor 4 Genuinely at a loss as to what he adds. Not very good at defending, and he’s terrible on the ball.
Powell 6 No wonder defences have figured him out. He gets into some good areas at times, completely gets in the way of his team mates on others.
Wreh - Brief cameo and felt like it could’ve happened earlier.

So our season is over, and it’s certainly been better than the last, but it looked like a group of players who have been playing two games a week for a while and who just look mentally exhausted. Kev’s got a job on his hand to keep this squad going to the end of the season.

 

[leeblue]

Lots of blame can of course be apportioned to Ron and the shambles he oversees. However that dire performance today is about football.
Woeful.
Teams stop us easily.
Bridge can't cross his legs let alone a ball.
Midfield was non existent today, somehow made worse with Taylor coming on.
4 4 2 would have been nice today, something different from the turgid, toothless set up of late that may have produced something. Mooney in the middle has been tried and failed before, yes he done well for the goal but that was it, had his customary air shot in the box.
My little girl quipped on the way out...they've been rubbish since they got paid....

 

[Medway Blue]

Thought that was pathetic to be honest. We were poor and deservedly beaten.

Will always be grateful and in awe of what was achieved in the face of adversity earlier in the season but it's catching up now. The embargo has rinsed us and we're seeing every week how being able to add to the squad has helped everyone else. We look mentally and physically shot whilst Aldershot looked fresh, fit and up for it. They had everything we didn't- passion, pride, strength and aggression.

Too many players seem to have mentally checked-out and stopped playing for the shirt, and the spirit seems to have gone. We don't have a plan B either.

We remain powderpuff in the final third, too. Completely lacking in quality movement, incision, vision - apart from our goal. We don't have the ability or footballing brains to consistently create clear-cut chances and on the odd occasion that we do, we don't have the ability to finish them off. The poor quality of final pass, cross and shot is so frustrating.

Subs a bit late for me. 60 mins is actually quite early for Kev, but could see we'd lost control of the midfield inside the first 5 mins of the second half. Taylor on 5 mins earlier might have saved us conceding the first goal. Think Fonguck was the wrong man to bring off for him too. Mooney is great in the midfield three when we're in the ascendancy but if we lose the midfield and go onto the back foot then we're carrying him in the middle. Wreh needed to be on 10 mins earlier.

Season over, imo.

Arnold 5
Hobson 5
Kensdale 4
Ralph 6
GSM 5
Bridge 4
Miley 4
Mooney 6
Fonguck 5
Cardwell 4
Murphy 6 MOM

Subs:
Powell 6
Taylor 6
Wreh 5

Tell you what as well, I ****ing hate Aldershot. Bottles of Coke (half full!), inflatables and chairs all being thrown onto the pitch. They were being tits on their way through main car park before the game too. Just a bunch of bindipping, coke-snorting, Stone Island-clad teenage hard nuts on their big day out. Embarrassing, and a 10/10 argument for Government-enforced sterilisation.

 

[Murkey_Mouse]

And there was me bemoaning the RMT as I don’t want get stuck in a 1 hr plus queue to get through the tunnel.

Whats worse though is listening to Neil Kelly as Col U scored in 89 and 92 to draw at Orient.

Really though, even if we struggled to 7th we would have no chance against any of the top 6 in the play offs.

Give up now and try Benton and recall some loanees to see if they might be good enough in the first team.

Fonguck, Taylor, Powell are never going to be good enough.

While our season is over, I will keep an eyes on Col Ewes matches, they still got Crawley away, their fixtures look tough, if Hartlepool & Crawley start winning, I can see Col Ewes get dragged down, just in time to play us next season.

Chelmsford look on course for play off, I hope they finish 3rd, or 2nd if Dartford keep dropping points, fingers crossed they come up with Ebbsfleet.

More derbies for us, the better.

 

[Born In A Blue Shirt]

As much as it hurts me to say it, if you are losing at home to Aldershot, you probably don’t deserve to be in the play-offs.

Take nothing away from the management and players who have been brilliant in adversity, but ultimately the league table isn’t sympathetic to semantics and unfortunately life goes on whatever your plight. The fact is we have lost too many games we shouldn’t have and we are currently a top 10 NL side, not a top 7 one.

This management team and the nucleus of this side can get us back into League 2 with 4 or 5 additions. My fear however, is that the nucleus will be broken up over the summer should we fail to make the play offs.

We have a number of winnable games coming up, there can be no further slip ups. Go and prove me wrong Kev and Co. I’ll be a very happy man if you do!