Post-Match Thread and Ratings Swindon Town 4-2 Southend United

[Tangled up in Blue]

Interview released now on bbc essex (not sure if it can be listened to from abroad though?)

Anyway.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03f14kq

No problem.Thanks for posting (I think).:'(

 

[fbm]

Entertaining match, very disappointing result but definitely some positives to be taken away. Swindon exposed the soft underbelly of the team. The first half hour was a joy. Swindon are a slick passing team with some forward players with great feet. They weren't given a second on the ball and look rattled throughout. Barnett took his time for the first but it was a great finish. Thompson rose well for the second and it looked sure to be followed by more. The whole team seemed on the money early on and Swindon didn't have an inch to play with. When they did get a chance, Bentley always looked unbeatable. The defence should have been following up the rebound for the first - Bentley was not at fault and his reaction at conceding (gesticulating and kicking the post) showed how much he wanted a clean sheet. The next goal was a stinker - if only we'd have gone in ahead at the break, I think the game would have been ours.

Totally different after the break - it was islands of Southend skill in an ocean of Swindon dominance. They deserved the win and we deserved nothing. For some reason, we gave them space all over the park and as time went on frustration led to silly fouls and a lack of composure up front. The defending for the second two goals was abysmal, but the fourth could be forgiven as everyone was being thrown forward. Whatever Brown said at half time, it had the wrong effect. Also putting Atkinson on when you're chasing a game and leaving Payne on the bench is indefensible. I'm a big fan of Atko but that was the wrong time for him. 33 shots in the match according to the BBC. As usual the Blue Voice outsung the home fans with consummate ease.
Bentley 8 - Sounds unlikely to score highly conceding 4 but it could have been more. Couple of dodgy punches but the conditions were terrible.
O'Neill 7 - Excellent in the first half, quick, great tackles and a couple of good crosses. Faded badly in the second.
Prosser 6 - Looked a bit off the pace
Thompson 8 MOM - showed passion and fight throughout. Great goal and still hassling (at the cost of a booking) post 90 mins.
Coker 6.5 - Not quite himself - didn't shine
Worrall 7 - Some good crosses, some v poor. A few great runs but gave people so much space when defending. Tough job being the only winger.
Leonard 7.5 - Worked really hard, chased lost causes and showed occasional class.
Deegan 7 - Customary booking - could have had a few but showed fight and nearly scored
Timlin 7 - Typical Tims - battled hard and won some ball in the middle, but needs a bit more time to get to his best.
Hunt 6.5 - Moments of class, especially a header that came close, but didn't get a lot of service and looked short of energy
Barnett 7 - Took his goal well and made life difficult for defenders but looked a bit off the pace, and understandably had little rapport with the players.
Subs
Hurst 5.5 - poor
Mooney 6 - didn't do a lot, but chased some lost causes.
Atkinson 6 - not on long enough
TBV 8.5 - Great effort and 600+ away fans is a great effort
PB 5 - something went wrong at half time.

Whilst I don't disagree overly with your comments (not sure about the "islands of Southend skill"; love the phrase but it's a massive untruth!) the ratings are way, way in excess of what the performance in the last 2/3rds of the game merits. We were woeful.

 

[rigsby]

The scene was set; they had lost 5 influential loan players and Martin Ling had suddenly retired on health grounds.

Brown had made changes, most of which I'm sure we were all demanding. I in fact predicted the exact team he chose and took that as a good omen.

It was a very good time to be playing Swindon.

What happened next can probably be called the most weird football match I have ever attended.

We started like a train; hungry and dominant. Before we scored however, Swindon did get the ball in our half and we commented on the amount of space they had coming forward. However, that was forgotten as they messed around at the back with it, Lenny won the ball and fed it to Barnett who made a dream start by firing into the bottom corner.

Swindon were on the floor and we absolutely were walking all over them. More messing around at the back resulted in Worrall nearly doubling the lead with a long shot and the a free kick from Coker was headed in by Thompson from around 4 yards out with the keeper rooted to his line for a ball which I and several around me thought he would just come and claim.

So 2-0 up and cruising. Swindon bizarrely continued to mess around at the back with it despite it putting them in trouble almost every time. The crowd were on their backs, booing the keeper and defenders.

But we still weren't defending very well and always allowed them a lot of space.

After around 2 minutes we stopped doing all the good things we had done, such as the high pressing and break up play and simply sat back, letting them have the ball. They created chance after chance and we knew that a 3rd goal was needed, at which point I think Swindon would have disintegrated.

That opportunity came about 5 minutes before the break. In a now rare attack, Timlin was released in the box on a 1 v 1 but hit the keepers legs.

Within a minute, Swindon had pulled a goal back, the striker being given far too much time to get a shot away, forcing Dan into a good save, and not one Southend player reacted as the striker picked himself up off the floor and fired home.

If I'm honest, deep down I knew what was coming but hoped we'd get to half time at 2-1 so Brown could sort it out. There seemed to be no danger from a throw in in the right hand corner but a comedy "piggy in the middle" set saw the throw over the head of one player, lobbed over another and flicked into the corner.

With about 10 minutes left of the half I said I'd like to hear the boo's that would be ringing out but probably wouldn't be able to because of our cheers; now it was them cheering whilst we were sat silent in disbelief at what we had just witnessed.

This was either going to provoke a reaction from us or them to go and win. We started positively again, Deegan firing just wide a few minutes in but in truth, that was it. We played so little football in the second half. Admittedly the conditions were awful but Swindon seemed to cope and our forward play consisted of lumping the ball down the line for someone to chase. It wasn't a surprise when they went 3-2 up - what was surprising is that Prosser backed off from pretty much the half way line to allow the player a clear run into the box. He got a bit of luck with a touch but finished well in the corner.

The fourth was a break away as we were trying to equalise, Atkinson not being strong enough and the striker running unchallenged half the length of the pitch to slot past Bentley.

Something is seriously wrong here. The trouble is, can Brown fix it? In fact, does he even know what it is to fix?

This game warrants two sets of ratings; one for the first 25 minutes and one for the rest of the game.

First 25 mins

Bentley - 8 - Barely touched the ball, decent distribution in challenging conditions.

O'Neill - 7 - Stopped the crosses and made a few good challenges
Coker - 7 - Looked a little exposed at times but an assist for the 2nd.
Thompson - 8 - Another goal for the lad, fairly solid at the back.
Prosser - 6 - Positionally not great but barely tested to be fair

Deegan - 8 - Everywhere. Broke play up and always wanted the ball. Deegan at his best.
Worrall - 7 - A thorn in their side, nearly scored with a great effort
Leonard - 6 - Set up the first but otherwise anonymous
Timlin - 6 - Was meant to be out wide left but was rarely there, leaving Coker exposed

Hunt - 6 - Struggled in difficult conditions
Barnett - 8 - Dream start, fine finish.



The rest of the game

Bentley - 6 - Can't be faulted for the goals but made some "interesting" punching decisions

O'Neill - 3 - Where did he go? He may as well have not been on the pitch
Coker - 5 - Doesn't look fit to me
Thompson - 6 - The pick of the defence and suffered for not having an experienced defender alongside.
Prosser - 2 - Awful, awful, awful. An absolute liability. In my opinion he is only up to L2 level on his good days and I really don't think he has it for L1. Shp him out Phil and get someone else in please.



Deegan - 3 - Petulant, the usual booking, went AWOL at times. Deegan at his worst.
Worrall - 3 - Showed zero signs of the David Worrall from last year
Leonard - 2 - Worst I've seen him play
Timlin - 3 - Anonymous and clearly not fit

Hunt - 6 - Battled away but with no service or support
Barnett - 7 - The only one who looked like he could influence anything at all

Subs -

Hurst - 4 - May as well not have bothered
Mooney - 3 - Can't remember him touching the ball
Atkinson - 2 - Not the substitution needed at all, clearly not fit and instrumental in their 4th

At last a match report worth reading would just like to add a few points. I thought we had them under pressure for about 40 minutes, remember Hunt robbing their keeper outside the box ( similar to the Mooney goal at Col U).

Your right about Deegan first 20. He pinned them in their own half. When we scored the second he had won 5 out of 5 lose balls in the air and on he floor. The best one started the move in which Worrall forced the tip over from their keeper.

You have been a bit harsh on him second half. He won a bouncing 50/50 in the first half in front of the bench and their lad of course went down in faked agony. The Ref was going to book him but our players did a really good job in protecting him. However, from my seat near the half way line I could see their bench in the fourth officials ear for the next ten minutes.

Second half the ref definitely changed. He was looking for the first opportunity to book Deegan, which of course he did for a minor incident as soon as he could. On at least two occasions after a tackle the ref came to a stand-still and put his whistle to his mouth, only to suddenly decide to play on when both sets of players had continued without any premiership type diving. Remember the ridiculous free kicks given against Hunt and Timlin for winning the ball cleanly in a tackle.

Yes Deegan was then ineffective and it was the right call to sub him off. Got to say how poor was Hurst, he never provided one ball in the box and although I don't slag players on ability I wont stand for his work rate. He allowed Swindon to skip past him with ease just outside their own box and he barely jogged back and had not even made the half-way line when Bentley was making a save.

For the vast majority of you who have all been bemused by the decision to bring on Atkinson, I'll probably be the only one who agreed with the decision. Now before you lot try and get me sectioned let me explain. JP was in fact doing a full warm up so PB obviously had him down as first choice. Yes we were 3-2 down but we could barley mount an attack because they were on a complete high and we could not win the ball back. Timlin was finished (understandable) Hurst non existent and ineffective Worrall was now struggling. PB was right when he said it would have opened up even more.

Yes we can all point the finger at Atkinson but we had dug ourselves a hole already by then in a game that looked totally unlosable after 30 minutes. We committed both our CB's in to the penalty area and Will had actually done his job and collected the ball and passed to Worrall. His delivery was poor as it had been all day and we can all watch what happened after that.

Barnett won 6 out of ten headers, it was actually 6/2 but he tired towards the end. Crucially he did not have a single ball in the box that he could attack. This is the main area we have to address. Look at Peterborough's second goal yesterday and note how deep the cross came from. We absolutely refuse to deliver from that sort of area. I suggest PB sits down with the F*** about brothers (Coker and Worrall) and shows them the sort of service Barnett will require. Otherwise we will have the equivalent of Nigel Mansell doing a milk round.

 

[Ricey]

They are some seriously generous ratings. Great report from Fbm, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Prosser was pony the first ratings in the thread made me doubt myself a little. Claiming that Prosser had a better game than Thompson!

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

..... what was surprising is that Prosser backed off from pretty much the half way line to allow the player a clear run into the box.

Prosser - 2 - Awful, awful, awful. An absolute liability. In my opinion he is only up to L2 level on his good days and I really don't think he has it for L1. Ship him out Phil and get someone else in please.

It seems Prosser has continued to develop ......... he normally just backs away from outside the box until the opponent is in the penalty box and it's then too late to risk a challenge ............:omg: :omg: :omg:




Sorry - I just couldn't resist the dig - just my way of letting off a "little steam" ........... we all need a scapegoat at times like this. :thumbsup: I feel better now.

 

[CyrilSneer]

The positive im clingling to at the moment is that under Brown when we have had our poor runs, we have recovered well. In his first season we went ages without a win, 13 games I think, before winning 6 out of our last 8 games to clinch a play off place. Last season we had that dreadful October and the series of 0-0 draws at Christmas. Didnt look like a promotion team at all, but we came back strongly and made it in to league one. This of course will be tougher. A better league with better opposition, especially the next two games. I mentioned on another thread, that is it worrying that the three thumpings we have had have come from teams we have now played twice. Maybe they know how to exploit our weaknesses. I guess we have to trust that Brown can turn it around though, if we judge him on the previous two seasons.

 

[les@donr]

I'm sorry your team seems to be on a losing run. When DF took over at Rovers we were 23rd in the league, certs for relegation, the whole club was in the doldrums. DF restored the confidence in the players that they could play as a unit and win games, he also had winning game plans that worked for our team, and exploited the weaknesses of the opposition. Our team is still a work in progress, I believe DF wants to make more personnel changes to start shaping it as his team and not the leftovers of a former manager's team. Your team is 8th, you can afford a bad run and recover and not face relegation, when DF took over at Rovers he could not afford continuing a bad run as it would have meant certain relegation. The point I'm trying to make is that PB has got you in a great position and despite the defeats you are still in with a shout of the playoffs. Try and see the positives, and believe you have a manager with the experience to raise the confidence of his players to go out and win games. One win will make all the difference, and will put your season back on track. Best wishes for the rest of the season.

 

[jaffa1]

Nice words - cheers Les - based on your performance at the Hall last week I lumped on you not to lose v Stoke yesterday - sounded like you were unlucky not to get a draw (?)

 

[wakes123]

You'll get used to it my friend - in the last 20 years, most of the football has been utter dross, interspersed with periods of well overdue elation (2004 - 2006, 2015)

Oh yeah I've witnessed a lot of that, I meant I can't remember getting smashed like this 3 games in a row.

I wasn't even born (just) in the Dick Bate era of 1987 I'm hearing about so don't remember that :smile:

 

[RHB]

Oh yeah I've witnessed a lot of that, I meant I can't remember getting smashed like this 3 games in a row.

I wasn't even born (just) in the Dick Bate era of 1987 I'm hearing about so don't remember that :smile:

Yeah, thanks for the reminder. I'd been married 12 years by then.

 

[wally4pm]

Do we know who was responsible for finding the key to the away dressing room that allowed our players out?

 

[rayleigh dan]

At last a match report worth reading would just like to add a few points. I thought we had them under pressure for about 40 minutes, remember Hunt robbing their keeper outside the box ( similar to the Mooney goal at Col U).

Your right about Deegan first 20. He pinned them in their own half. When we scored the second he had won 5 out of 5 lose balls in the air and on he floor. The best one started the move in which Worrall forced the tip over from their keeper.

You have been a bit harsh on him second half. He won a bouncing 50/50 in the first half in front of the bench and their lad of course went down in faked agony. The Ref was going to book him but our players did a really good job in protecting him. However, from my seat near the half way line I could see their bench in the fourth officials ear for the next ten minutes.

Second half the ref definitely changed. He was looking for the first opportunity to book Deegan, which of course he did for a minor incident as soon as he could. On at least two occasions after a tackle the ref came to a stand-still and put his whistle to his mouth, only to suddenly decide to play on when both sets of players had continued without any premiership type diving. Remember the ridiculous free kicks given against Hunt and Timlin for winning the ball cleanly in a tackle.

Yes Deegan was then ineffective and it was the right call to sub him off. Got to say how poor was Hurst, he never provided one ball in the box and although I don't slag players on ability I wont stand for his work rate. He allowed Swindon to skip past him with ease just outside their own box and he barely jogged back and had not even made the half-way line when Bentley was making a save.

For the vast majority of you who have all been bemused by the decision to bring on Atkinson, I'll probably be the only one who agreed with the decision. Now before you lot try and get me sectioned let me explain. JP was in fact doing a full warm up so PB obviously had him down as first choice. Yes we were 3-2 down but we could barley mount an attack because they were on a complete high and we could not win the ball back. Timlin was finished (understandable) Hurst non existent and ineffective Worrall was now struggling. PB was right when he said it would have opened up even more.

Yes we can all point the finger at Atkinson but we had dug ourselves a hole already by then in a game that looked totally unlosable after 30 minutes. We committed both our CB's in to the penalty area and Will had actually done his job and collected the ball and passed to Worrall. His delivery was poor as it had been all day and we can all watch what happened after that.

Barnett won 6 out of ten headers, it was actually 6/2 but he tired towards the end. Crucially he did not have a single ball in the box that he could attack. This is the main area we have to address. Look at Peterborough's second goal yesterday and note how deep the cross came from. We absolutely refuse to deliver from that sort of area. I suggest PB sits down with the F*** about brothers (Coker and Worrall) and shows them the sort of service Barnett will require. Otherwise we will have the equivalent of Nigel Mansell doing a milk round.

I'm than happy with that, if he wins about 50/50 overall I'd say that's good. Certainly better than Mooney's success rate which I'd guess is less than one in ten.

 

[bazzashrimper]

I'm than happy with that, if he wins about 50/50 overall I'd say that's good. Certainly better than Mooney's success rate which I'd guess is less than one in ten.

Mooney's headers don't matter as he's offside anyway

 

[les@donr]

Nice words - cheers Les - based on your performance at the Hall last week I lumped on you not to lose v Stoke yesterday - sounded like you were unlucky not to get a draw (?)

Rovers were very unlucky not to get a replay, missed two sitters in added time. Anyway a good performance to build upon in the League, next up the Gills at weekend, a good test of how far we've come. Lost to wigan, be good if we can do the same.

I think to many of your fans are being harsh on the manager and team at Southend, promoted last season, now eighth, that is good going, only Burton of the promoted sides have done better. Keep the faith, you'll come good again when you least expect it. Sometimes building a team from L2 to L1 to Champ. takes time, clearly PB is reshaping Southend for L1, next season he will do it with the Championship in mind (that is if you don't go up this season).

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

ok, time to stop this thread for mental health reasons

go to the Liverpool thread instead - something positive happened there

 

[RHB]

ok, time to stop this thread for mental health reasons

go to the Liverpool thread instead - something positive happened there

Don't think you're allowed to say that. This is ShrimperZone and folks just need to get it out of their systems. Least ways that's what I was told some posts ago. Wibble.