Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-4 Swindon Town

[Evening Echo]

DODGY defending saw Southend United suffer a 4-1 defeat to promotion rivals Swindon Town at Roots Hall tonight.

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[silentshrimper]

Now this I am looking forward to.

 

[Boreham Shrimper]

Now this I am looking forward to.

You masochist

 

[Jam_Man]

7's all round, just were unlucky.

Although in the real world that was absolutely woeful. We did nothing first half, defence was terrible and we created nothing. Swindon look leagues above us.

Second half started very well, Mohsni did more in first 5 minutes anyone else did in the first half. Then they scored and other than corners we again looked awful. Couldnt past, defence couldnt deal with anything convincingly.

The postives.

Hall looked lively and Mohsni did all he could.
Sampson looked far better in second half, he should start and hope we keep him the rest of the season.
Martin made a good few runs.
We dont have to play them again.
Jedward. (you had to be there)

The negatives :

Everything else.
Dont want to single anyone out as the rest of them were terrible but Baldwin really disappointed me, he was terrible first half. Not the player he was last time, but very rusty no doubt.

 

[Semi-Spanish Shrimper]

Summary from all of us there:

We were were showed up to be what we have been for a lot of the season, average and were beaten by a team with more quality and the best in the league by miles.

Mohsni did well when he came on and was unlucky not to score, but the defending was shocking. Missed Phillips sorely and Morris was shaky.

Morris - 5.5
Clohessey - 6
Gilbert - 5.5
Baldwin - 5.5
Gilbert - 5.5

Hall - 6.5
Timlin - 6
Kalala - 5.5
Feridnand - 6 (played well whilst he was on)

Sampson - 6.5
Dickinson - 5.5

SUBS:

Martin - 6
Mohsni - 7

Atmosphere started well but died down unsurprisingly in the second half. Didn't like the cheering when Dickinson was brought off though, not the way to support your team.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Woeful, truly woeful.

No cohesion, no passing ability. Hall thinks he can take the world on and he can't. Morris punting ball straight to their keeper. Awful marking, no inventiveness.

Then there is Mohsni. Has more passion in his little finger than the whole team put together. Intelligent play, good runs, good passes and very unlucky not to score.


Swindon were far superior to us, moved for each other, passed the ball quickly and directly and wanted this win.

 

[southendkid]

I don't think its time to panic yet Swindon looked a different class to eveyone else we've played this season. Saying that we were terrible.
Sturrock got it wrong with his team selection, timlin looked clueless on the wing, and left one of the most dangerous players on the pitch in space the whole half, I have no idea why he was placed there. Wouldn't be too harsh on Baldwin he only just arrived, lets see how we do against Plymouth before we start to panic.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Given a footballing lesson tonight.
Team selection depressingly negative. Why pay so much respect to Swindon. They play two wingers, we should play two wingers. Instead we had 2 crabs in the middle (well 1 as Kane was completely anonymous) and our best centre mid out wide.

Is the problem in fact that we now have too many players? If Baldwin hadnt signed, surely Mohsni wouldve played at the back and done far better, especially with the set pieces? Is it going to do Martin and Benyon any good being dropped after 3 or 4 games? We cannot sustain this squad size, we havent shipped any out yet the likes of Prosser and Blair not even on the bench yet both arguably couldve done better than some of the others tonight.

Give Swindon some credit, their midfield in particualr were excellent, Benson played the targetman role extremely well. Sad to say Alan McCormack was probably the best defender on the pitch tonight. Remarkable transformation. Will be a very good team that finishes above them.

Have to get back to basics, Coughlan needs to work with that back 4, hopefully Phillips can play next game as we really missed him tonight. Basic set pieces and crosses in the box not dealt with, simply not good enough.

Mohsni did well when he came on but the game was lost. One of those games when you are desperately waiting for the final whistle, not for the right reason.

 

[Pak Power]

Now this was a good time to play Swindon, exhausted from a tough cup fixture on Saturday. Their centre half injured, and disruption from all the talk about Ritchie and a bid from Bournemouth.

Well here goes;
Morris 3. Just for turning up. Can we have Daniels back please. Doesn't command his area, blocked off too easily for corners. Dropped their 4th goal in front of Bodin.
Gilbert 5. Actually not the worst of the defenders on display, but still not good. That accolade goes to...
Barker 2. Toilet. Can't head a ball only upwards, or in the wrong direction completely. Too slow on the turn, beaten to everything. Finished at 29 or he is carrying an injury, and shouldn't be playing.
Baldwin 4. Not quite as bad as Barker, but struggled in his first game back for us. Baptism of fire, and struggled against
Benson all night.
Clohessey 6. Pick of the defense, tried hard to keep ther ball.
Hall 5. It's all left foot or nothing. Get shown inside and let him shoot from 40 yards all day long.
Ferdinand. 4 not his game at all. Men against boys, and he was one of the boys.
Kalala 4. gets a mark for the goal. ( don't know whether he actually meant it ) Booked, and got frustrated.
Timlin. 4. You can see why Swindon let him go, they have much better. He did have a shot though.
Dickinson 5. First touch was poor tonight, and didn't seem to show the fight or, up for the challenge.
Sampson 4. Not the game for an 18 year old with inexperience, and it showed. Did play a little better second half when Mohnsi was pushed up though, and should have done better with an effort at 1-3


Subs. Mohnsi 6. MOM and did more in the first 10 mins of second half than everyone else.
Martin.5. gave a bit of balance when he came on too, but the game was gone by then.

Sturrock 2. Sorry Luggy but the best motivation you can give a team, is to say they are not the best in the league. On this showing I think Swindon are the best in the league and will take some stopping.

Summary men against boys. The good news is we don't have to play Swindon again, and we are not able to beat the top sides. Swindon, by far the best team in the league that I have seen, kept going, Oh and Luggy were not settling for four, but were trying for more goals.

I think we should have been trying to sign defenders in the window, as we are so full of strikers who don't score, and getting whipped four goals at home shows you where the weakness is! Missed Phillips big time, more than I thought we would.

 

[Smiffy]

Total dog****. Defence was a disgrace. Only ones to come out of it with credibility were Sampson and the crowd. In particular W Block, who upped their game tonight. Shame the players didnt. Oh well another defeat to a top 7 side. We're a long way off as it stands.

 

[Austin the Shrimper]

Well that was utterly depressing. yeah Swindon are a decent side, but we were woeful. Absolutely Clueless, did not look like a team at all, Moshni is the only player to come away with any credit tonight. The Defence looked shaky as hell, Hoofball hoofball hoofball to no one most of the time, Dicko in particular was poor but with that kind of service what do you expect. Sturrock got it badly wrong tonight, wonder what will be his excuse this time????
Probably one of the worst performance's i've seen southend ever play ...and i've seen some bad ones.
I just hope this is the kick up the arse we need, cause continuing like this we wont even make the play offs

 

[southendkid]

Given a footballing lesson tonight.
Team selection depressingly negative. Why pay so much respect to Swindon. They play two wingers, we should play two wingers. Instead we had 2 crabs in the middle (well 1 as Kane was completely anonymous) and our best centre mid out wide.

Is the problem in fact that we now have too many players? If Baldwin hadnt signed, surely Mohsni wouldve played at the back and done far better, especially with the set pieces? Is it going to do Martin and Benyon any good being dropped after 3 or 4 games? We cannot sustain this squad size, we havent shipped any out yet the likes of Prosser and Blair not even on the bench yet both arguably couldve done better than some of the others tonight.

Give Swindon some credit, their midfield in particualr were excellent, Benson played the targetman role extremely well. Sad to say Alan McCormack was probably the best defender on the pitch tonight. Remarkable transformation. Will be a very good team that finishes above them.

Have to get back to basics, Coughlan needs to work with that back 4, hopefully Phillips can play next game as we really missed him tonight. Basic set pieces and crosses in the box not dealt with, simply not good enough.

Mohsni did well when he came on but the game was lost. One of those games when you are desperately waiting for the final whistle, not for the right reason.

As **** as our defence is, I still don't think Mohsni should play at the back. Whenever he does he drifts out of position so wouldn't be any better than any of the other defenders on offer. His strength is defending set pieces, playing him on the wing gives him attacking threat while being able to do the portion of defending he does best when the opposition get a corner/free kick

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Sturrock got it totally wrong again tonight.

Why play Timlin out wide? Why put in Ferdinand for his first start in weeks against possibly the best side in the division?

Why put Sampson up front for his first start in professional football?

Ferdinand is just pants and should be nowhere near the first team at the moment.

Martin should of played wide left and given Swindon's defence something to think about rather than go all defensive.

3 points on Saturday or we could start a slide down the table.

 

[Mighty Shrimper]

Smiffy, spill the beans! In what way are things about to get worse? PM me if you don't want to make it public.

 

[Skyblue]

Sadly enough I wasn't surprised or really upset by this result. Swindon are going up as Champions and its between us creepy and Cheltenham who joins them. Our cup final is with Crawley in March which could decide the out come. Swindon never really had to get out of third gear and the only time they stepped up was when we pulled it back to 2.1 and should have been throwing the kitchen sink at them, but poor marking from a corner gave them their two goal cushion back to them within minutes. For their forth we gave the most dangerous player on the pitch, Ritchie so much room on his own out on our left to put the ball into our box whereas when Hall had the ball out wide there was always at least two sometimes three guys on him. We have truly been sussed as to our only real provider and sides know that if they stop him then there's very little other creativity to worry about. Baldwin looked soo rusty and on another planet to Barker most the first half, very impressed with Sampson, but too similar to Dickinson to play them both.

 

[Richard_Cadette]

I think people are giving Swindon way too much credit this evening - The reason we lost this game, IMO, is all down to Luggy I'm afraid.

I don't think I have ever found a cause to bemoan anything he has done during his tenure, but tonight, he got it so wrong it was untrue. Granted, the players let themselves down completely, but right from the get go, our team selection and tactics were awry.

Firstly, bringing in Baldwin to the back four when he has barely played was a massive mistake. We're up against one of the best players at this level in Matt Ritchie, and a proven scorer in Benson, and he was completely at sea all night. Not only that, the entire back four were out of sorts, and looked completely bereft of organisation. Surely, surely, surely Mohsni had to be in alongside Barks? They know how to play alongside each other and have an understanding - Yes, Mohsni can be a risk at times, but I struggle to imagine how even a ropey Mohsni could have been any worse!

Secondly, the midfield was completely wrong. We have 2 out and out wingers in Martin and Hall, we're at home in a 6 pointer. and what do we do? Play 3 central midfielders with Timlin on the left!! I'm sorry, but Timlin had to be in the centre with JPK and Martin on the left to give us balance, creativity and a threat. The midfield was far too negative for this type of game, and if the idea was to negate the passing game of Swindon, it could not have back fired more!

Lastly, why was Benyon dropped? He's starting to find his feet, looked lively at Northampton and Shrewsbury, and tonight, he's on the bench - Nothing against Samson, but there was simply no mobility up top this evening, and having two tall strikers and then dropping one of your wingers makes no sense to me.

I really believe we were beaten before we started tonight. Swindon are a decent team, but how decent we will never know as they didn't have to work for any of their goals. We need Phillips back, and quick!

Lastly, biggest disappointment for me this evening - the shameful reaction of the crowd towards Dickinson AGAIN!. I really am struggling to comprehend some people at Roots Hall - No, he's not got the best touch, no, he'll never be Lionel Messi, but by God does he work his socks off for this team, and he scores goals - he is, after all, our top goalscorer! There was someone quite close to me whose only contribution vocally was to shout 'Get him off, he's f***in useless' on countless occasions. I had a similar idiot sitting next to me at Northampton the other week - Only to be chanting his name with delight later on during the game! If I was him, I'd find it difficult to find any reason to put in the effort he does when he gets that treatment from his own fans.

 

[leeblue]

as mr cadette states above luggy got it wrong big time, if baldwin is better than mohsni at CB then i am giving up on football all together, can anyone explain what kane ferdinand has done to deserve being called up tonite and displacing our best CM to the wing. Martin and mohsni should have started tonite simple as that, Pat baldwin?????? more like pat butcher

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

as mr cadette states above luggy got it wrong big time, if baldwin is better than mohsni at CB then i am giving up on football all together, can anyone explain what kane ferdinand has done to deserve being called up tonite and displacing our best CM to the wing. Martin and mohsni should have started tonite simple as that, Pat baldwin?????? more like pat butcher

Or Mike Baldwin?

 

[sky240286]

Odd selection by Sturrock, too negative. I rate Ferdinand, but Martin should've started.
Morris was poor (bring Daniels back, please!) defence all over the place, in particular Barker. Could let Baldwin off for being short of match fitness.
Up front, thought Sampson did well, Dickinson needs to up his work rate to stay in the team for my liking. Not as if we don't have other strikers to come in.
Like mentioned already, only real positives were Mohsni, and not having to play Swindon again this season.
Automatic promotion? ha! will struggle to make play-offs if we keep getting spanked by the teams around us.

 

[shrimpled]

That was one of the worst performances i have seen from us, and certainly the worst of the Sturrock era.

It was totally shambolic and bar 5 minutes mid way through the first half and 5 minutes after half-time we were totally outplayed, out fought and thought out. Full credit to Swindon. They oozed class for this level and were obviously so well drilled. The look like a Di Canio side, not afraid to try things, inventive and free. They also weren't afraid of a little play acting when they wanted to but they're the best side in this league and i''ll think they'll win it with games to spare. I just pray we can get sorted again and struggle into the top 3. It can't get any worse than tonight.

Morris - 4
Clohessy - 5
Barker -4
Baldwin - 4
Gilbert - 5
Hall - 5
Timlin - 5
Kalala - 6
Ferdinand - 6
Sampson - 7
Dickinson - 6

Moshni - 6
Martin - 5