Pre-Match Thread Southend United v Blackburn Rovers

[RHB]

Oxley

Demetriou Kiernan Ferdinand Hendrie

Kightley Leonard Timlin McLaughlin

Cox MAF

Subs: Smith, White, McGlashan, Robinson, Yearwood, Ba, Klass​

Just shows the lack of depth in the squad at the moment with a couple of injuries and one other notable absentee!

That's a bit premature isn't it? Mind you, if we do sign Kiernan, Hendrie finds his form and Demi remembers to defend, then that's as good a back 4 in FL1 as any out there I think.

 

[onceknownasrab]

I fear, as last season began too, we are less than prepared in defence. I can see the first number of games being very tough indeed.

 

[Jai]

That's a bit premature isn't it? Mind you, if we do sign Kiernan, Hendrie finds his form and Demi remembers to defend, then that's as good a back 4 in FL1 as any out there I think.

Not forgetting if Ferdinand stays fit. That is a lot of ifs around the back 4. I struggle to see how playing with two such offensive-minded full backs against such a strong side is going to end well unfortunately.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

3-5-2

Oxley
White
Kiernan
Toure
Ferdinand
Hendrie
Kightly
Larsson
Timlin
Lambert
Ba

 

[Leoblue]

I'm going for 1 - 1. I do worry about our injury list which seems to be getting worse every day. I also agree with what most are saying regarding depth in the squad. We certainly need a couple of players in before Saturday.

Tickets are selling well though :thumbsup:

 

[jaffa1]

I fear Danny Graham will get a hat-full at this level ;

" TONY Mowbray hopes Rovers will show their true colours at Southend United in their League One opener on Saturday after rounding off pre-season with a 3-1 defeat at Carlisle United.Rovers were beaten by the League Two side at Brunton Park. Without a number of key players they were less than secure in defence, with Mowbray believing his side were ‘too open and got exposed’.
The head coach is hoping to welcome back defensive pair Charlie Mulgrew and Darragh Lenihan, as well as midfielder Ben Gladwin, to his squad for Saturday’s trip to Roots Hall.


And with their expected return, he wants his side to be at their best as they look to start their League One campaign in positive fashion.
“Not conceding goals was the platform to pick up results at the end of last season and defensively we need to be more solid, as we have been throughout pre-season,” Mowbray said.
“There were a few disruptions, a few square pegs in round holes, but hopefully by the weekend we will have a full complement to choose from and go and show our true colours at Southend. It’s a tough ask at Southend, a long journey, against a team with an experienced manager who I am sure will have them wound up and ready for the challenge.
“It’s the first real challenge for us and let’s see how we get on.
“We’ve seen how tough these games can be against teams in a league lower than us.
“Southend will be stronger than Carlisle and we have to make sure we get our game plan spot on, have our best players on the pitch and hopefully we will have enough to get a positive performance and a good result.”
Danny Graham was once again on the scoresheet at Carlisle, making it five goals in six friendlies.
“He seems to just turn up and score,” Mowbray said.
“It’s good for us to have a player like Danny Graham because even on days when he doesn’t feature too much in the build-up, he seems to be the man on the spot who sticks the ball in the net.


“We gave him another 70 minutes, he did miss a couple of sessions early in pre-season and we’re just conscious of not trying to drive him to 90 minutes yet. We will build to that.”

 

[blueveined]

No mention of any new signings in Brown's latest interview, only that we're going into the start of the new season 'a little bare-boned'!!!!
https://www.southendunited.co.uk/news/2017/august/ben-coker-suffers-leg-break/

 

[Benfleet A1]

I fear Danny Graham will get a hat-full at this level ;

" TONY Mowbray hopes Rovers will show their true colours at Southend United in their League One opener on Saturday after rounding off pre-season with a 3-1 defeat at Carlisle United.Rovers were beaten by the League Two side at Brunton Park. Without a number of key players they were less than secure in defence, with Mowbray believing his side were ‘too open and got exposed’.
The head coach is hoping to welcome back defensive pair Charlie Mulgrew and Darragh Lenihan, as well as midfielder Ben Gladwin, to his squad for Saturday’s trip to Roots Hall.


And with their expected return, he wants his side to be at their best as they look to start their League One campaign in positive fashion.
“Not conceding goals was the platform to pick up results at the end of last season and defensively we need to be more solid, as we have been throughout pre-season,” Mowbray said.
“There were a few disruptions, a few square pegs in round holes, but hopefully by the weekend we will have a full complement to choose from and go and show our true colours at Southend. It’s a tough ask at Southend, a long journey, against a team with an experienced manager who I am sure will have them wound up and ready for the challenge.
“It’s the first real challenge for us and let’s see how we get on.
“We’ve seen how tough these games can be against teams in a league lower than us.
“Southend will be stronger than Carlisle and we have to make sure we get our game plan spot on, have our best players on the pitch and hopefully we will have enough to get a positive performance and a good result.”
Danny Graham was once again on the scoresheet at Carlisle, making it five goals in six friendlies.
“He seems to just turn up and score,” Mowbray said.
“It’s good for us to have a player like Danny Graham because even on days when he doesn’t feature too much in the build-up, he seems to be the man on the spot who sticks the ball in the net.


“We gave him another 70 minutes, he did miss a couple of sessions early in pre-season and we’re just conscious of not trying to drive him to 90 minutes yet. We will build to that.”

So flatten Danny Graham early seems to be the obvious approach.

 

[Leoblue]

I'm trying to work out our injury list, Turner and now Coker, who else?

Oh and NR still banged up.

 

[Tommy2holes]

I'm trying to work out our injury list, Turner and now Coker, who else?

Oh and NR still banged up.

Wordsworth is a huge miss for us given his goals tally last season.

 

[manor15]

I'm trying to work out our injury list, Turner and now Coker, who else?

Oh and NR still banged up.

Wordsworth, and McLaughlin's a doubt.

When your senior squad is only 21 players (including Bridge, Kyprianou and Dru to be generous), five players is almost a quarter of the squad!

 

[kentblues]

Wordsworth, and McLaughlin's a doubt.

When your senior squad is only 21 players (including Bridge, Kyprianou and Dru to be generous), five players is almost a quarter of the squad!

MacLaughlin is fine and available for Saturday.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Doesnt sound like we are getting any signings in from that statement by Brown. If thats the case, that is seriously pathetic to be in this situation again, the same as last year, and what if we can't pull off the Ferdinand signing this season.

I do hope they have plan B

 

[Beefy]

We're only a centre half short of a first choice XI. Not even that if Turner turns out to be first choice. It's different to last year when the first XI itself still needed to be put together.

 

[manor15]

We're only a centre half short of a first choice XI. Not even that if Turner turns out to be first choice. It's different to last year when the first XI itself still needed to be put together.

Agree we're in a much better position than last year.

HOWEVER, I'm still surprised that we've made the same mistakes of not having a starting eleven in place before the first game of the season.

That said, if we have a stronger side than last season and they start getting results before mid-October like last season, then who knows where we could end up.

My concern is that we lost two regular starters who barely had an injury last season (Thompson and Atkinson) and have replaced them with two injury prone players (Turner and Kightly) and have forked out on them, sacrificing the depth that we had with O'Neill, Nouble, Hines, etc.

 

[turkishm]

Quality over quantity is fine, if you pull it off, but if you dont, and have injuries on top off the quality guys you could not persuade to come here, we are left once again, with a very thin squad. Heres hoping we can get some lone players in.

 

[kentblues]

Just because PB has not mentioned the imminent signing does not mean anything has changed. I am sure we will have a CB in for the weekend (if not JW will do a decent job)

 

[Fish]

I fear Danny Graham will get a hat-full at this level ;

" TONY Mowbray hopes Rovers will show their true colours at Southend United in their League One opener on Saturday after rounding off pre-season with a 3-1 defeat at Carlisle United.Rovers were beaten by the League Two side at Brunton Park. Without a number of key players they were less than secure in defence, with Mowbray believing his side were ‘too open and got exposed’.
The head coach is hoping to welcome back defensive pair Charlie Mulgrew and Darragh Lenihan, as well as midfielder Ben Gladwin, to his squad for Saturday’s trip to Roots Hall.


And with their expected return, he wants his side to be at their best as they look to start their League One campaign in positive fashion.
“Not conceding goals was the platform to pick up results at the end of last season and defensively we need to be more solid, as we have been throughout pre-season,” Mowbray said.
“There were a few disruptions, a few square pegs in round holes, but hopefully by the weekend we will have a full complement to choose from and go and show our true colours at Southend. It’s a tough ask at Southend, a long journey, against a team with an experienced manager who I am sure will have them wound up and ready for the challenge.
“It’s the first real challenge for us and let’s see how we get on.
“We’ve seen how tough these games can be against teams in a league lower than us.
“Southend will be stronger than Carlisle and we have to make sure we get our game plan spot on, have our best players on the pitch and hopefully we will have enough to get a positive performance and a good result.”
Danny Graham was once again on the scoresheet at Carlisle, making it five goals in six friendlies.
“He seems to just turn up and score,” Mowbray said.
“It’s good for us to have a player like Danny Graham because even on days when he doesn’t feature too much in the build-up, he seems to be the man on the spot who sticks the ball in the net.


“We gave him another 70 minutes, he did miss a couple of sessions early in pre-season and we’re just conscious of not trying to drive him to 90 minutes yet. We will build to that.”

Just stick that up on the dressing room wall, along with a list of League 1 Clubs for 2017/18.

Sounds like DG won't get a full game.

 

[Beefy]

Anyone remember Danny Graham's open goal miss for Carlisle at Roots Hall back in probably 2007/08?

I've never been able to take him seriously since.

 

[Napster]

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.u...he_club____Blackburn_Rovers_set_to_axe_staff/