Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1 Leeds United 0

[Southend_Lady]

Superb performance by the boys in blue last night, Revell & Laurent looked like a great partnership. To beat the second placed team and keep a clean sheet against two quality strikers like beckford & becchio was excellent.

Federici - 8 - A couple of quality saves, and strong and commanding in the air, other than that didn't have too much to do.
Francis - 6 - Still not at his best, especially defensively but an improvement.
Harding - 8.5 - showed what we've been missing excellent game and great goal.
Barrett - 8 - some great last ditch tackles
Clarke - 7.5 - decent performance.
Christophe - 8 - Another good showing, kept the dangerous Delph quiet.
Sawyer - 8 - Full of running, looking to get forward.
Kanu - 6 - Good first half, faded badly second half.
Betsy - 7.5 - Took on players and beat them, got crosses in. Looked a thorn in Leeds side.
Revell - 8.5 - Great performance by Revs, his best yet, first half he won every header, and 9 times out of 10 found a blues player with a flick on or pass. Superb. Just a shame he panicked when through on goal in the 2nd half.
Laurent - 9 MOM - Awesome. He looks so awkward but the ball sticks to him, he kept turning the Leeds defence inside out, the only thing missing was a goal. Only on a 1 year deal? Quick sign him up for longer before January rolls around!

Agree with everything there. Laurent is a great shout for man of the match. Although if it weren't him then it would be without a doubt Federici. He pulled off some blinding saves last night. Special praise too for Revell worked his nuts off and while he isn't banging them in he is certainly worthy of a place in the starting 11.

 

[toellandback]

Around the 70 minute mark maybe?

A total tosser of course and a stain on football

The fan, not Federici!

I am sorry

I honestly didn't see the incident, i am ashamed sometimes of idiot individuals that claim to follow my club

 

[Smiffy]

Yeah I saw this incident.

The coin was handed to the ref by Federici, so I expect some sort of punishment will be handed to the club.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Right where do i start.

I am not going to write a match report as there are enough about. I thought you deserved to win. I can't say you outplayed us as such but you outfought us. You were quicker to every ball and were more hungry for last night. That said i couldn't give you a name or number of any outstanding player for yourself, i think the game was won by a better team unit. Each of your players worked for each other, the amount of high fives and chatting between your team reveals your biggest strength last night. Team work.
I think that is one of the worst performances from a side in a Leeds shirt that i have seen. We were awful and sadly alot of the blame lies with the manager. Howson, Kilkenny and Delph are quality ball players but my 87yr old nan is tougher in the challenge than them.
The only thing better than this league is us,the fans. I have mentioned the poor defending and what i would give to have a captain like Barrett, Richardson confirmed last night he is not good enough to follow the tradition held by Bremner, Strachan et all.
I could go home happy if they play there hearts out, fight for every ball and things don't go for you but last night i felt let down again by the team i love.

Interesting comments there, two important things for me - the first being your highlighting of that whole team spirit ethos as that's something that's been advocated by some on here from the beginning of the season while being ridiculed by others (I'm particularly thinking about attitudes to Rev) and the second being that for the second successive year, when we think we've played very well against Leeds, we get told that they've not played very well! Are we not allowed to feel rightly proud of a fantastic performance against a Leeds team, rather than them having to be below par?
:support:

 

[toellandback]

and the second being that for the second successive year, when we think we've played very well against Leeds, we get told that they've not played very well! Are we not allowed to feel rightly proud of a fantastic performance against a Leeds team, rather than them having to be below par?
:support:

I didn't mean it as a slight on you at all. We can and have played alot better than our two performances at Roots hall have shown, its becoming something of a bogey ground. You deserved both wins but that wasn't a team playing as well as it can and as confidently as they should be bearing in mind they were second in the league going into it.

 

[Shrimper]

Didn't Federici have a coin thrown at him from the Leeds Fans.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I didn't mean it as a slight on you at all. We can and have played alot better than our two performances at Roots hall have shown, its becoming something of a bogey ground. You deserved both wins but that wasn't a team playing as well as it can and as confidently as they should be bearing in mind they were second in the league going into it.

Wasn't a "dig", others have been saying Leeds were way off form elsewhere as well - just seems kind of typical of our luck that when we think we've done really, really well that's the kind of thing you hear.

 

[Csboy]

Yeah I saw this incident.

The coin was handed to the ref by Federici, so I expect some sort of punishment will be handed to the club.

Relegation to the conference if I had my way. They got away with that disgraceful pitch invasion a few years ago and then had the nerve to complain about being deducted 15 points!!!

 

[Shrimper]

http://footiefan.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/southend-united-1-0-leeds-united/

Match report now on Footiefan:

 

[adam3811]

too right, last night we really deserved that!

a few top quality saves to make, and some good defending.. but we really did stick at it the whole game especially in the midfeild

It was a fantastic effort and it needed to be!

Few things to note:

adam barret snuffing out what seemed to be beckford ( i think) through on goal - brilliant!

fed's save - amazing

(sorry, but have to mention it) offside, from a corner, again! what the hell blues? that's starting to get real annoying

all around, great fight and effort was top class

well done blues!! :)

 

[Andy_S]

Yeah I saw this incident.

The coin was handed to the ref by Federici, so I expect some sort of punishment will be handed to the club.

It was actually a lighter that was handed to the ref by Federici and then passed on to the stewards.

I can't quite understand what prompted it considering Federici had not exactly done anything to wind them up. Other than play well I suppose!

 

[toellandback]

Relegation to the conference if I had my way. They got away with that disgraceful pitch invasion a few years ago and then had the nerve to complain about being deducted 15 points!!!

I have made my feelings clear on this. However do you stop one individual throwing something? Also are Villa going to be playing in the conference with us after last week, oh and Sunderland and...
Whoever did it is a disgrace but it is something nearly impossible to stop sadly.

 

[seany t]

A few things I noted:

Laurent played very well, but Revs played very very very very well. Who else saw him sprint the length of the pitch when Leeds were counter attacking, push the player out wide and do a superb intercepting slide tackle on the touchline? Summed up the whole game for me, that moment.

Couldn't see who it was, but in the second half right in front of the South Lower, the ref gave a free kick to SUFC so it ultimately didn't matter, but either Clarke or Barrett did a superb block when Leeds looked destined to score.

We lost our shape totally after Tilly's subs. I agree with his assessment that our forward line was knackered, but felt that packing the midfield with 7 players just confused our structure and gave us more problems than we needed for those last 10. And we're hardly the best side ever for running down the clock.

Harding was great to have back in the side, but whereas Francis and Betsy worked well covering each other when one ventured forward, Harding either seemingly had little help on this front or else got caught out of position a fair few times. We got away with this last night, but might not be so lucky another day.

But these are little things, and probably an inevitable side effect for not being a Premier league side. Best performance I've seen for a good while, with everyone on the field deserving at least a 7 or 8, and with a few 9's out there too...

 

[Andy_S]

A few things I noted:

Laurent played very well, but Revs played very very very very well. Who else saw him sprint the length of the pitch when Leeds were counter attacking, push the player out wide and do a superb intercepting slide tackle on the touchline? Summed up the whole game for me, that moment.

Revs did that several times. I lost count the amount of times Leeds counter attacked and it was Revs chasing back into the left wing spot to help out, because quite simply Robson-Kanu is for whatever reason not up to helping out the midfield when we're on the defensive.

 

[canveyshrimper]

I have made my feelings clear on this. However do you stop one individual throwing something? Also are Villa going to be playing in the conference with us after last week, oh and Sunderland and...
Whoever did it is a disgrace but it is something nearly impossible to stop sadly.

Well said, and to answer your question you can't stop the action of a few moronic individuals.

Back to the game I thought Leeds looked a more than decent side and will definitely be top 6 at worst come May. McAllister has got them playing some good stuuf, although they may possibly be a bit lightweight in some areas. They are much easier on the eye than the ugly style they played under the poison dwarf. I was disappointed (not too much;)) in the much vaunted and thus far prolific front two of Becchio & Beckford, who IMO did not have a good night.

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

I was disappointed (not too much;)) in the much vaunted and thus far prolific front two of Becchio & Beckford, who IMO did not have a good night.

Personally, I couldn't understand why Beckford spent 80 mins of the game stuck out on the left wing. Not knocking it, as I think it was a huge factor in our win, but it seemed rather strange.

 

[fbm]

Right where do i start.


I think that is one of the worst performances from a side in a Leeds shirt that i have seen. We were awful and sadly alot of the blame lies with the manager. Howson, Kilkenny and Delph are quality ball players but my 87yr old nan is tougher in the challenge than them. Too often we jumped out of tackles or refused to track back. They expected to play there way to victory and again we saw that in this league it's not going to happen. They may be playing for a big club but that does not make them better. Too often people come to us presuming that they have made it just by pulling on that white shirt, thats not the case. They are the same players, in the same league. The only thing better than this league is us,the fans. I have mentioned the poor defending and what i would give to have a captain like Barrett, Richardson confirmed last night he is not good enough to follow the tradition held by Bremner, Strachan et all.
I could go home happy if they play there hearts out, fight for every ball and things don't go for you but last night i felt let down again by the team i love.

I think rather than bemoaning how badly your team played, you sometimes have to accept that the opposition didn't let you play. Playing better isn't always about free flowing, attacking football that ends with spectacular goals; sometimes playing well means "doing a job" and countering every offensive move the opposition makes.

I'm not having a dig either, and you have obviously been gracious enough to accept that we were the better and more hard working team. But it doesn't mean that you were awful. Part of our game was to stop you playing - that is good play by us rather than bad play by you.

FWIW I thought that in the last 15 of the first half you played some fantastic football - but lacked the end product to go with it.

 

[toellandback]

I think rather than bemoaning how badly your team played, you sometimes have to accept that the opposition didn't let you play. Playing better isn't always about free flowing, attacking football that ends with spectacular goals; sometimes playing well means "doing a job" and countering every offensive move the opposition makes.

I'm not having a dig either, and you have obviously been gracious enough to accept that we were the better and more hard working team. But it doesn't mean that you were awful. Part of our game was to stop you playing - that is good play by us rather than bad play by you.

FWIW I thought that in the last 15 of the first half you played some fantastic football - but lacked the end product to go with it.

I didn't want it to seem like i was taking anything away. The way i looked at it. Casper was poor, there wasn't a defender that did well, the midfield didn't get close to imposing themselves or even fight for the right to play, the strikers looked isolated and lazy at times. For me we were poor. You did play us well but you did nothing more than Peterborough or Millwall. We don't do well when people get in our faces and harrass us.

The second part is great to hear but we seem to be suffering from a problem common to footballing sides. Sometimes you have to just put a cross in first time or shoot instead of passing it all round the box only to lose it at the end. What you did really well was getting wide and putting the ball in the box. It is far more dangerous there than it is on the flanks. Everytime we beat someone we wasted it.

 

[Cricko]

So the end result is we played better than you,quite simple really.


:support:

 

[toellandback]

So the end result is we played better than you,quite simple really.


:support:

Yeah. Thats about it mate :D