Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend v Brighton

[GodblessArthurRowley]

A completly pointless waste of a lovely Saturday afternoon.

 

[DTS]

A completly pointless waste of a lovely Saturday afternoon.

I could name approx 20 others this season if you wanted....

 

[jamesmut2000]

Just to post a little spot of mine today, staring Mr Alan McCormack. Well, where do we start. I don't rate him as a player or a professional and today sums it up completely. The players all came out for the second half, went over to Laurence Bloom to carry out the second half warm up, with the exception of the drunken Irishman. He lumbered out of the tunnel, walked slowly past the rest of the team warming up and stuck two fingers up at his team mates. Literally. No, I'm not talking metaphorically, he actually stuck his two fingers up. You're a disrespectful ****.

I saw the incident, and while I agree with you for the most of that, this wasn't that serious. He was sticking his fingers up at Bloom, who did it right back, and it struck me as being purely "banter" or a joke between the two.

He did exactly the same on Tuesday night. Maybe it was just me but I wanted him to get booked today so I wouldn't have to watch him pretend to be a professional footballer again in a Blues shirt. Then again after that crap this afternoon I'm not sure how many of the others out there I'd want to see represent our club again.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Certainly sounds as if I made the right choice...........going to the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) this morning, rather than listening to commentary. Bye-bye League One
.............just hope I get back from New York before we're relegated to the Blue Square!

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

I had arranged my holiday to fly back into Heathrow this morning so I could go to the game. The volcano means I am now stuck in Florida, listened to the whole game on Blues World, sounds like the volcano saved me from post-holiday depression.

Ill still be there next season, but wouldn't be unhappy if Steve Tilson and most of the players are gone by then!

 

[bigmolt]

Ill still be there next season, but wouldn't be unhappy if Steve Tilson and most of the players are gone by then!

You will be sorry if he has gone!

 

[C C Csiders]

Mildenhall - mind elsewhere? A couple of Flaphardon style flaps. Distribution too slow and poor with it. 4

Francis - bits of this, bits of that. 5
Baldwin - good effort. 6
Mvoto - looks better without the bald bloke who's always on the floor. 6
Herd - worse game for the club. Consistently out of postion. His (and Moose's) poor defending led to the fisrt goal. 3

Grant - should be in the middle. At least showed some effort. 6
McCormack - best game for the club this season. 3
JFC - au revoir. 3
Moussa - not at his best. Poor defending as stated above led to Brighton's goal. 4

Vernon - less said the better. 2
Laurent - a couple of teasing crosses for Vernon to balls up, and worked a good position for himself to go close-ish. 6

Crawford - I hope he plays the last 3 games. Big lad for his age. Good header. 6
Paterson - should also play until the end of the season. However, I think he wishes he were elsewhere. 4

 

[TBV_Dan]

I couldn't believe just how poor we was out on that field yesterday. Only two players who showed that they cared, and they wanted to win the game, and they were Francis and Baldwin.

Team Ratings:

Mildenhall: 5 - Couldn't do much about the goal, but could have been much quicker with his distribution.

Defence: 6 - Without Francis and Baldwin, who looked like they really wanted the win, the defence was poor imo.

Midfield: 5 - Moussa didn't have the best game, he can do much better than that. How JFC is being played in the middle over Grant, is beyond me! JFC can take the next flight back to France, au revoir. Macca looked lively, but too much negative play, and poor shooting.

Forwards: 4 - Vernon was just totally and utterly useless. A couple of occasions he could have scored, but nothing. Francis Laurent is a player who frustrates me, he has the skill, but no end product. Did have a few decent crosses into the box, but otherwise nothing. Man of the match?! You having a laugh?!

 

[EastStandBlue]

Ok, having slept on the events of yesterday, my thoughts are as follows.

It was a woeful game of football played by two rather woeful teams in front of a sombre crowd that had all but given up. 15 minutes into the game and things looked promising, Brighton couldn't string three passes together and we were asking questions of them.

Then, as has been the case so frequently this season, a defensive error led to Hendrie approaching the box completely unmarked, hit it onto Barnes' foot and it deflected in. On the subject of Barnes, he's on loan from Plymouth and spent last season on loan at Eastbourne Borough where he scored something like 30 goals in a side largely lacking quality. I saw him play a handful of times and every time I thought he was a striker who could do a job further up the League spectrum and I thought he was probably the pick of the 22 out there yesterday... Showed great positional sense and work rate throughout.

That goal sealed it. The amount of fight in the team completely shattered and the players gave up. It's something of a quandary, because whereas I can understand the players emotions after a tempestuous season, there's nothing more in football that drives me insane than to watch eleven players who show no effort, passion or drive play through the motions.

Ratings wise, only Grant deserves a 6, with possibly Laurent and Baldwin shadowing him for that elusive rating.

Mildenhall - 5 - Distribution was woeful, but couldn't do anything for the goal.
Francis - 5 - Needed to drive forward more as they posed no threat from the wings.
M'voto - 5.5 - Defensively solid, but posed no threat from set pieces.
Baldwin - 5.5 - Same as above, although one suicidal call early on almost let Brighton in, M'voto saving face.
Herd - 4.5 - Pulled out of position, set pieces were poor. But he can throw it long so he's the next Ashley Cole.
Moussa - 5 - Ineffective for large parts and should have pressed forward more, but no service dictated his anonymity.
Grant - 6 - Tucked inside too much, but he toiled and worked towards getting team back in it. Lost on the wing though.
Macca - 4.5 - Ran around. Didn't do much else.
Christophe - 4 - Same as above, only he didn't run.
Laurent - 6 - Looked high on confidence and energy, possibly because his family were here, but it didn't come off for him working with -
Vernon - 3 - Less said the better.

Tactically, we were well off. It took them 80 minutes (coincidentally, when we went with 3 up top) to realise that Brighton's back line shared the average height of a collection of field mice. They had nothing on the wings, yet we concentrated on trying to play through the middle instead of using the width and brilliant delivery of Francis and Moussa to exploit our height advantage.

After 50 minutes of dire football, Vernon should have been hauled off for Paterson, Crawford on for Christophe with us adapting a 4-3-3 with Moussa and Grant tucking back inside, Moussa more aimed at breaking onto the wing and bringing Herd and Francis further forward.

Subs came far too late in the game to have any impact.

 

[sanchosser]

Message from Sanchosser Snr:

I have watched on and off since the 60s, and yesterday was the worse I have seen.

Billy Best, Garry Moore, Ron Pountney, Phil Chisnell, Eddie Clayton, Paul Clark. These players gave their all to Southend, unlike the present crop.

It would appear we have to start from scratch - from the manager down - next season.

The most important matter now, is to get the right guy in.

 

[OldBlueLady]

This thing about Lawrence Bloom's "fitness" warm up at the start of the 2nd, can I just point out that to me it has been pointless and futile and I really don't give a stuff if players choose not to do it. I also saw the gesture and the smiled response, it was obvious it was banter.

While Lawrence Bloom seemed to have done wonders with Barney's fitness levels over the summer, I can't say that the rest of his initiatives seem to have had any positive impact on the team in warm ups. Can we not go back to the old style warm ups with the manager overseeing it (or Brushy as it used to be on occasions), who can remember how innovative our shooting practice was? Bring back the old warm up routine I say, we seemed to have more success when that was the way we did things.

Mildy - 5, infuriating again with release and delivery
Franno - 7, one of two stars amongst the dross
M'voto - 7, the other one, well done JY
Baldwin - 6, tried some "stuff" a la Adam Barrett, good to see
Herd - 4, Johnny, sorry lad, this was very poor
Grant - 6, Anthony, please try and play in the 1st half as you do in the 2nd
Macca - 5, frustrations showed, some very good passing tho at times which obviously people fail to notice, but it was commented on by a neutral nearby
Jeff - 6, I actually thought he was unfortunate to be subbed as he was having a fair amount of success against Brighton
Moussa - 5, kept leaving poor Herd exposed again and Brighton were exploiting it time and time again
Laurent - 6, keep going Franny lad, you put in loads of effort unfortunately your partner couldn't finish
Vernon - 4, not good Scott, really not good

Subs:
Paterson for Christophe; Crawford for Vernon - both 5, this was a chance to shine but not taken. Not necessarily their fault, should have taken Herd off and gone 3 at the back and chased the win.

Officials - 6, did ok I suppose but the book should have been brought into play more than it was, and I really object to this stopping play cos one of the oppo players has decided to be a dying swan and then having to turn the ball back to them.

Crowd - 8, there were quiet periods but equally there were some very loud ones. There was also a great deal of humour amongst the chants and I greatly enjoyed it! I was NOT happy about the number of non regular kids in our section of the crowd who turned round every time I opened my mouth (and NOT to swear I hasten to add), very off putting.

 

[canveyshrimper]

The most important matter now, is to get the right guy in.

...and that would be?

 

[EastStandBlue]

This thing about Lawrence Bloom's "fitness" warm up at the start of the 2nd, can I just point out that to me it has been pointless and futile and I really don't give a stuff if players choose not to do it. I also saw the gesture and the smiled response, it was obvious it was banter.

While Lawrence Bloom seemed to have done wonders with Barney's fitness levels over the summer, I can't say that the rest of his initiatives seem to have had any positive impact on the team in warm ups. Can we not go back to the old style warm ups with the manager overseeing it (or Brushy as it used to be on occasions), who can remember how innovative our shooting practice was? Bring back the old warm up routine I say, we seemed to have more success when that was the way we did things.

Nonsense. Are you a Sports Science Graduate? No? Then you're not qualified to condemn the warm-up exercises.

It speaks volumes that Brighton were basically doing the same prior to the match and a number of Championship sides elect to do similar routines or have exercise bikes in the changing rooms to keep legs fresh from cramp.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Nonsense. Are you a Sports Science Graduate? No? Then you're not qualified to condemn the warm-up exercises.

It speaks volumes that Brighton were basically doing the same prior to the match and a number of Championship sides elect to do similar routines or have exercise bikes in the changing rooms to keep legs fresh from cramp.

No, I'm not, but very few people on here are qualified in any way shape or form to comment on anything in reality so therefore I feel perfectly at ease in mentioning that things haven't gone well since this "regime" was brought into play. I still say bring back the managers managing the warm ups.

 

[GNH]

No, I'm not, but very few people on here are qualified in any way shape or form to comment on anything in reality so therefore I feel perfectly at ease in mentioning that things haven't gone well since this "regime" was brought into play. I still say bring back the managers managing the warm ups.

The "warm up" is more of a mental thing with getting your minds on the game and mentally prepared for the battle that will follow. You can warm up your body by just jogging and stretching properly. They clearly have their minds elsewhere at the moment

 

[OldBlueLady]

The "warm up" is more of a mental thing with getting your minds on the game and mentally prepared for the battle that will follow. You can warm up your body by just jogging and stretching properly. They clearly have their minds elsewhere at the moment

Exactly, which is why I say the "physical" focusing thing is just not worth the effort right now.

 

[Cricko]

...and that would be?

Actually I don't care..we need a clean sweep now.....the damage is done...Of course I blame RM and I will deal with that on another post soon.....The best way I can describe this is to say it is like a marriage gone sour for whatever reasons the trust and respect has gone.....Between RM and Tilly it will never come back or be the same again..We have all been through high and low's with our club, none more so than Harry and myself...We now have to rebuild from scratch....RM is going to be at the helm for awhile as he has us all by the balls.

 

[OldBlueLady]

We now have to rebuild from scratch....RM is going to be at the helm for awhile as he has us all by the balls.

Speak for yourself!!! :O

 

[Cricko]

Speak for yourself!!! :O

In your case Kay he has you by the Jugs.

 

[GNH]

Exactly, which is why I say the "physical" focusing thing is just not worth the effort right now.

But you cant teach someone to be mentally prepared for a game or for the start of the second half, it's down to the individuals to do that themselves