Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 2-2 Huddersfield Town

[GBJ]

Thought there were a lot of positives today which outweighed the negatives.

IMO it was 2 points dropped (which is bitterly dissapointing) but considering we were playing a highly rated team, i think we performed very well and controlled/dominated proceedings for large portions of the game

Mildy 7 fumbled 1 in 1st half, but made some decent saves

Francis 7 looked solid, but should play simple ball more often

Heath 7 looked solid

Barrett 7 solid again

White 7 caught out once or twice, but recovered very well

Moussa 9 unstoppable

Macca 8 very sharp

JFC 6 ok/average performance

Grant 8 first 10 mins was shocking, but totally changed after the 1st goal

Barnard 7 held the ball up well,

Laurent 7 Unlucky with the injury, started very well

Subs;
Walker 7, impacted brilliantly
Freedman 4 no time to impact
Betsy4 no time to impact

 

[class]

I thought JFC had a shocker today...

 

[Kenny]

great match report from the BBC :doh:

Two late goals from Anthony Pilkington and Jordan Rhodes rescued a point for 10-man Huddersfield at Southend.

Lee Barnard gave Southend the lead from the penalty spot after Robbie Williams had brought down Anthony Grant.

Moussa doubled their lead firing Alan McCormack's pass past Steve Mildenhall with a low drive from inside the area.

Pilkington volleyed Gary Roberts' cross to pull one back before Rhodes headed home Pilkington's pass to level while Michael Collins was later sent off.

 

[TBV_Dan]

Thought there were a lot of positives today which outweighed the negatives.

IMO it was 2 points dropped (which is bitterly dissapointing) but considering we were playing a highly rated team, i think we performed very well and controlled/dominated proceedings for large portions of the game

Mildy 7 fumbled 1 in 1st half, but made some decent saves

Francis 7 looked solid, but should play simple ball more often

Heath 7 looked solid

Barrett 7 solid again

White 7 caught out once or twice, but recovered very well

Moussa 9 unstoppable

Macca 8 very sharp

JFC 6 ok/average performance

Grant 8 first 10 mins was shocking, but totally changed after the 1st goal

Barnard 7 held the ball up well,

Laurent 7 Unlucky with the injury, started very well

Subs;
Walker 7, impacted brilliantly
Freedman 4 no time to impact
Betsy4 no time to impact

Absalutely agree, he had some brilliant runs on the wing today, thought he was brilliant. Year of the mousse? I think it could well be! Brilliant player, real threat to opposing defenses imo.

 

[GBJ]

Absalutely agree, he had some brilliant runs on the wing today, thought he was brilliant. Year of the mousse? I think it could well be! Brilliant player, real threat to opposing defenses imo.

I still think he should play in the middle. Him and sawyer through the middle, grant on the right and ......... on the left.

But, like you said, he was a real threat today and played brilliantly. Especially his main attribute, the capability of delivering that final killer ball

 

[chapperzUK]

After the goal, I thought we played some decent football and as the game went on we got complacent and could have scored 1 or 2 before their first. Moussa was superb and this could be his season to really shine. It is nice to see Walker with some confidence.

 

[cockles is back]

quick set of views from me,


certainly not as bad as I thought, could do with a winger fox in the box Barnard is exactly that, the midfield totally out bossed and outplayed huddersfields, which was a bit of posotive, thought we were all lost at see defending, two of the softest goals I have ever seen, Im just glad they didnt have 3 chances in the game, ooooh they did didnt they, cleared off the line, so hopefully given half a chance to play with each other for more than a week they might get a little more organised or I can see any team thats at the races tear us to peaces, so not so bad, 2-0 would have been great shame about Laurent as he is probably one of the players that can change a game abit, walker for a striker looks like a dog that doesnt know were its bollox are 6700 blues fans at the game for a family day, lucky huddersfield brought 1400, crowd very noisey which was good, francis looked good, I think the first day of the season is a massive leveller for teams (without mentioning Col U) I dont fancy the return match at udders too much but there you go I may be pleasantly surprised

 

[manor15]

Mildy 7.5 Did what he had to
Francis 7 Made the odd mistake but did ok
Heath 8 Solid and not much got past him
Barrett 8 Same as Heath
White 6 Wasn't impressed, left it late to tackle, beaten too often, reminded me of Che Wilson
Grant 6.5 Not his best game but was out of position
JFC 7.5 Did what he had to
Macca 8 Good going forward
Moussa 9 Fantastic performance
Barney 8 Didn't stop running and got a lot of the ball
Laurent 7.5 Wasn't on for long but did well
Subs
Walker 7.5 Did well and threatened
Dougie 7 Not on long enough
Betsy 7 Not on long enough

 

[GBJ]

Mildy 7.5 Did what he had to
Francis 7 Made the odd mistake but did ok
Heath 8 Solid and not much got past him
Barrett 8 Same as Heath
White 6 Wasn't impressed, left it late to tackle, beaten too often, reminded me of Che Wilson
Grant 6.5 Not his best game but was out of position
JFC 7.5 Did what he had to
Macca 8 Good going forward
Moussa 9 Fantastic performance
Barney 8 Didn't stop running and got a lot of the ball
Laurent 7.5 Wasn't on for long but did well
Subs
Walker 7.5 Did well and threatened
Dougie 7 Not on long enough
Betsy 7 Not on long enough

You seriously reckon Freedman and Betsy did better than Grant?!?! LOL

he stuggled in the first 10 mins to get into the rhythm, but did very well and thought he was one of the best players today

 

[manor15]

You seriously reckon Freedman and Betsy did better than Grant?!?! LOL

I don't think they had long enough to get their rating up or down and I think it was more to do with where Grant was playing, he isn't a right winger, he doesn't get forward enough, he doesn't cross, he doesn't get in the space enough, that's why I gave him a lower rating because he didn't do what he had to do.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

I thought Grant one was on of the best players on the pitch today, He has a little bit of Bailey about him in the sense that he reads the game extremely well and drops back to cover the defence well.

I thought everyone had a reasonable game today so I'm not going to do ratings for everyone, I've already said in another thread about Moussa but I thought John White & Matt Heath looked very reasonable defenders for a L1 team, White got caught a couple of times but recovered well.

Laurent was looking a threat until he was taken off which is a big shame for him but his misfortune could be Jimmy Walkers gain, He looked a different player today, very strong on the ball, needed to run at there CB who had been booked at bit more because any little touch and he's getting a second yellow.

All in all I was pleased with the performance.

 

[chapperzUK]

I think Grant's job was to back-up Francis when we were defending.

 

[Skyblue]

You seriously reckon Freedman and Betsy did better than Grant?!?! LOL

he stuggled in the first 10 mins to get into the rhythm, but did very well and thought he was one of the best players today

Totally agree, I thought Grant had one of the best games I've seen from him and a real contender for the motm. The contribution Of Grant and Moussa were the real plus points for me today. Thought Heath at centre back was more than good enough and kept Theo Robinson in his pocket all the time he was on. If Theo had stayed on I couldn't see the game changing, it started going pear shape for us after the substitution.

 

[Kenny]

Although Moussa is essentially a square peg in a round hole on the left wing he's getting rounder with every game. I'm slowly getting sold on the Year of the Moose!

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

I was pleasantly surprised today. Thought it was a very good performance overall, we were the better team and I was gutted we didn't get the 3 points. 1st half we attacked well and limited Huddersfield to a couple of chances. We bossed the midfield. They have a lot of new players and you could tell. I still think they'll be up there at the end of the season. 2nd half Huddersfield played better and after their 1st you could sense the equaliser coming. Thought Tilson could've acted quicker. A few players were looking tired, maybe M'voto could've come on. But overall a good start to the season, I would've been satisfied with a draw beforehand and plenty of positives. Good atmosphere over with the Blue Voice, although I don't like the "we're sh*t and we're beating you" chant, I doubt that inspires the players. We're obviously not sh*t if we're beating Huddersfield 2-0. Nice to see Clarke get a good reception bar a few idiots and he didn't respond when we were chanting "clarkey what's the score". My player ratings:

Mildenhall 7 - Didn't have a lot to do, raced over to the West Stand jumping and shouting when the 2nd goal went in but maybe could've done better on the goals.

Francis 7 - Good, solid. Didn't do much wrong. Made one superb goalmouth tackle to deny what looked a certain goal.

Heath 7 - Strong, good in the air, definitely capable of grabbing a few goals from set-pieces, bit on the slow side though. Saying that, as skyblue said, he dealt with Robinson well, did worse against the sub.

Barrett 7 - Solid, don't know if he can be faulted for the goals will have to watch tomorrow.

White 6 - Generally ok and got a decent cross on him, but clearly prefers his right-foot and committed too early sometimes which left us in danger.

Grant 6 - Not a right winger but did alright. Showed a few bits of nice skill. Got tired towards the end.

Christophe 6 - Our quietest player, hardly noticed him but did nothing wrong.

McCormack 7 - Bossed the midfield, got his teeth into Kay and had a few decent long range efforts. A vintage Macca performance.

Moussa 8 - MoTM. If today's anything to go by he could be a star this season. Looked like a left winger today, running at the Huddersfield defence and getting balls in. Took his goal well. Should've scored a winner at the end though, and sometimes tries to take on too much.

Barnard 7 - Worked his socks off, gave Clarke a tough time and opened his acount for the season. Bit greedy at times and seemed reluctant to pass to Walker.

Walker 7 - Sad to see Laurent go off injured and I thought Revell or Doug would've come on but James did well. Linked the play well and his persistence and determination created the 2nd goal.

Ref was quite good, gave us a penalty and sent off one of theirs so can't complain. Huddersfield were quite dirty.

 

[Pubey]

Grant, Francis and moussa were superb today. I thought both col ewe players were decent but along with Barrett went missing for the goals. Macca looked fit and fired up, still had the passing range of an epileptic stevie wonder, but was great to see him back to his best when surging forward.

Mildenhall - 6.5
Francis - 8
Heath - 6.5
Barrett - 6
White - 7
Grant - 8
Macca - 7.5
Christophe - 6
Moussa - 8.5
Barnard - 8
Laurent - 6.5 (Walker - 7)

betsy - 6.5
dougie - 6

 

[GBJ]

Moussa 8 - MoTM. If today's anything to go by he could be a star this season. Looked like a left winger today, running at the Huddersfield defence and getting balls in. Took his goal well. Should've scored a winner at the end though.

That was quite poor i must admit, but i think it was a case of him and Freedman both goin for the same ball and putting each other off. But TBH to miss from 4 yards out in front of an OPEN goal was shocking!

 

[Eddy Melito]

i think the combined lack of game time from the back 4 both individually and as a unit was the main reason they were able to get back into it. the defence were starting to look tired (understandable in the heat) and to then be faced with the pace of theo and then rhodes on top of that was always going to be a tough ask.

 

[Hooly]

I thought we tired badly in the last quarter of the game.

Unfortunately, from my view which is at odds with most, Grant got crocked just before half time after a very good performance & that made him far less effective in the 2nd period and IMO a passenger for the last 20 mins when he could barely run.

Again opposite to most, Barnard needs to make more of his opportunities. We had at least 3 chances before they scored where he got the ball on the right. A decent ball or cross-shot would have probably converted one of them as we had men over on all occasions, but the balls he played were just poor & didn't make the Udders defence work. At the time we were well in control & a 3rd would've sealed it.

All in all disappointing, although I'd have taken a point at the start, as they were there for the taking. Clarke & the other centre half (Collins?) went for the same ball so many times he must have thought he was playing alongside AB.

 

[Mick]

Ref was quite good, gave us a penalty and sent off one of theirs so can't complain. Huddersfield were quiet dirty.

To be fair, the AR gave the penalty (the ref didn't look like he was going to) and the sending off was incredibly soft.