Official Match Thread Southend United 1-1 Leeds United

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Cant believe some of the criticism on here. Its pre season FFS. Leeds are a decent championship side and we got a creditable draw from the games. Hopper and Cox have hardly played together so will take a little time to strike up a partnership. Kightly and Macca are good players at this level as proven last season. So they missed a few 50/50 challenges and maybe didnt beat their men as often aas they should, but, but lets judge them at 4.45 on the 4th August or after 10 games or 20 games, not after a meaningless friendly. Its about fitness at this stage, getting minutes under their belts, not getting injured and lets all remember how bloody hot it was yesterday and the amount of running and chasing our boys did.

I think you kind of misunderstood the purpose of my post - which I assume is the one you're mainly referring to as it mentions specifically the points about Kightly/Macca that I indicated.

I didn't do a match report and there was no judgement. I made no reference to the fact that it was a creditable draw against Championship opponents.

It was only designed to just give my opinion about the players in this "meaningless friendly" - which is what the match absolutely was.

Friendly results are completely irrelevant and I absolutely agree with you that it's about fitness, not being injured and getting minutes under their belt, a task made harder yesterday by the heat. Spot on.

But when you are paying to watch a semi competitive game, you at least expect players to be semi competitive. Everyone was, except Macca, in my opinion. You pretty much agreed with me as well concerning both Kightly and Macca, stating that it didn't really matter about their performance or commitment.

So - if you were watching for the first time and how no idea who was who and there were no pre-existing reputations you were aware of, who would you select as the wide men for the first match? Kightly and Macca? Or Barrett and A.N. Other? Because the newcomer really did shine in his cameo and you can see it wasn't so meaningless to him.

And if Kightly and Macca want to start v Doncaster, then they need to match that enthusiasm and commitment in the remaining friendlies in my opinion.

It's not about criticism, but if everyone had the attitude of those two yesterday and we had lost 8-0, would it still not matter because it was a meaningless friendly?

Just saying, like.