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fbm

Blue tinted optimist⭐
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
10,024
Location
Cloud cuckoo land
SOUTHEND CRUMBLE TO THE CUMBRIANS


For the first time since the home game against Colchester on April 6th, Southend failed to score in a game (including pre season friendlies) as they went down 1-0 at home to Carlisle.

Blues missed the opportunity to go top of the table in a keenly contested match which saw Southend play some lovely passing football but fail to capitalise on their dominance. In the end they were perhaps fortunate that it was only 1-0 after a Carlisle player produced the miss of the century with 10 minutes left that would have sealed the points.

For the early part of the game however Southend played plenty of possession football but, in the first half especially, the moves usually broke down with Gower. He has not really performed this year as we know he can. The central midfield pairing of Bailey and McCormack looked as strong as ever and Maher is going to have to work very hard to get back in the side. But there is room for improvement out wide as neither Gower nor Black is currently performing to the level they need to.

Aside from them, it was probably Southend’s best performance of the season. However, as so often happens in football, things tend to kick you in the teeth when you least expect it.

Goalmouth action was at a premium in the first period, with the only efforts of note being when McCormack struck a drive that was saved by the excellent visiting keeper Keiren Westwood, who commanded his box superbly all afternoon, and an even better save from a Hammell free kick that was destined for the top corner before Westwood tipped it around the post.

The referee, who certainly let the game flow, stole the limelight by being amazingly pedantic about the placement of the ball for Hammells free kick and then by booking the same player for taking another free kick before he had blown his whistle. This made him immensely unpopular with the crowd (especially over the booking) but it was a correct decision according to the laws.

Carlisle had not really created anything in the first half but they had some pace up front and it always looked as though they could catch Blues on the break.

Southend started the stronger again and were stretching Carlisle all over the park but without ever finding the final pass or creating that clear opening. It was another set piece that came closest to breaking the deadlock when a training ground move set up Leon Clarke but his powerful drive was deflected just wide.

Hooper was having his best game in a Southend shirt so far and his workrate was much improved since the last home game but again he didn’t really have any chances.

Bailey thought he had won a penalty when he went down under a challenge in the box but the referee booked him for simulation. This sparked a period in the game where players seemed to be trying to get each other booked. Bailey was constantly involved and twice went down holding his face. As good a player as he is, I must admit to not liking that part of his game.

The deadlock was broken around the hour mark when Tommy Black lost the ball in the middle of the visiting half in front of the West stand. From that point on there was four occasions where the ball failed to run kindly for Southend and a lucky bounce or ricochet fell to a visiting player as the move progressed into Southends half. The bad luck continued in the penalty area as the ball just fell to the feet of Garner 8 yards out and in the centre of goal and he smashed it low past Collis who had no chance.

Southend looked ruffled and Carlisle nearly snatched a second when a shot was parried at the near post. Hooper made way for MacDonald and Harrold came on as a late replacement for Gower as Blues changed to a 3-4-3 formation with Hammell pushing into midfield. However, it was nearly the Cumbrians who added to the score when a swift counter attack led to the ball being squared across goal to Lumsdon 4 yards out and in the centre of an unguarded net. Unbelievably, he stroked it wide.

Southend failed to create a worthwhile effort in the last 20 minutes or so and it is the failure to beat sides near the top that is going to hamper progress this season. Still, there were plenty of positives in the way that the team played and a similar performance next week away at Northampton should bring some reward.


RATINGS –

Collis – 7 – Not much to do, no chance with the goal. Looked safe.

Hunt – 7 – A decent performance and made some fine tackles in the first half.
Hammell – 8 – Looks very good for this league. Fantastic free kick nearly opened the scoring.
Clarke P – 8 – Solid performance nearly marred by an error late on which nearly led to a Carlisle second.
Barrett – 7 – Is it just me or is he getting further and further up the pitch every week? There were times when he left us a little stretched at the back.

Gower – 6 – Better second half but not on song. Needs to be rested I think.
Bailey – 8 – Another fine midfield showing. If he stopped diving about I’d be even happier.
McCormack – 8.5 – MOM – A superb, disciplined performance. Really drove the midfield forward.
Black – 7 – Some of his crossing was not up to standard. It was good to see him get a whole game and he has undoubted class.

Clarke L – 7 – Linked well with Hooper but was rarely on the end of anything.
Hooper – 7.5 – Best game in a blue shirt. Improved work rate and made some fantastic lay offs and knock ons

Subs –

McDonald – 6 – Made no impact except get booked for a late challenge.
Harrold – 6 – Hardly touched the ball.


The Ref – Mr Whitestone – 7 – Possibly some of you will think this was high but I didn’t think he did a lot wrong. Making unpopular decisions doesn’t make him a bad referee. He played advantage extremely well and the game flowed as a result.
 
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Pretty acurate apart from giving Black a 7,thought he deseved a 6 about the same mark as Gower(both were dire).My MOM was Bailey by a mile.
 
Pretty acurate apart from giving Black a 7,thought he deseved a 6 about the same mark as Gower(both were dire).My MOM was Bailey by a mile.

To be honest, either Bailey, Hammell, P Clarke or McCormack could have got it today.

I thought Black was better than Gower in the first half. Not much in it in the second half.
 
very good report. but does it really say the ref let the game flow. that is far from correct.


I thought that it flowed well - however, when he did stop the game he maybe stopped it for too long. But he played advantage to both teams on many occasions and other refs would have been blowing up every 10 seconds. That is what I meant by that comment.

The major contentious decions I'm afraid were correct ones. He really didn't do much wrong. I've seen far, far worse.
 
Not sure if Hammell would be MOM however since his return we have looked a lot more balanced down the left.
Thought the ref was poor far to picky and very card happy,previous 8 games 38 cards hardly deseves a 7 do you mean -7.
 
In play the ref was ok but for the time when he held up play while the substitute walked around the pitch behind the goal, I would knock several marks off.

I don't know the laws of the game well enough to say whether he was right or wrong by the book but to hold the guy back for the duration of the set play was the only common sense thing to do there. Didn't Leicester have aplayer stretchered off behind the goal last season when McCormack scored?
 
Gower was poor. Black marginally better.

P Clarke, Macca or Bailey for MOM....

Ref was rubbish. Unpopular decisions or not...be consistent. He was a joke. 1 min "injury time" in the first half - do me a favour. That clown wasted atleast 5 mins faffing about making sure the ball was on the right blade of grass. Far too picky, couldnt get a wall back 10 yards....for love nor money. All he did most of the second half was point at his watch in an exaggerated fashion. Oooooh.....never worthy of a 7 rating.....

It was a pity that Black didnt catch him with his arm and break his nose (or atleast bloody it). It would have been no less than he deserved.

Only that muppet Kettle has been worse.
 
Really can't agree with you about the ref. Decisions were correct, but any ref that repeatedly spends a minute at a time talking to players then being so picky about the exact piece of grass that the ball has to be placed on is doing something wrong - and finally to make it just 1 minute of added time in the 1st half having done this over and over and over.....

4 at most - and I'm being generous with that.



Rest of the report/ratings were pretty spot on though :D
 
I thought that it flowed well - however, when he did stop the game he maybe stopped it for too long. But he played advantage to both teams on many occasions and other refs would have been blowing up every 10 seconds. That is what I meant by that comment.

The major contentious decions I'm afraid were correct ones. He really didn't do much wrong. I've seen far, far worse.

i actually thought the ref kept slowing down play. when we had those two free-kicks just outside their box it took it soooooo long just to let us take it. i just think he was trying to take centre stage. decisions werent too bad just kept making the most out of everything.
 
In play the ref was ok but for the time when he held up play while the substitute walked around the pitch behind the goal, I would knock several marks off.

I don't know the laws of the game well enough to say whether he was right or wrong by the book but to hold the guy back for the duration of the set play was the only common sense thing to do there. Didn't Leicester have aplayer stretchered off behind the goal last season when McCormack scored?

And the referee for the Leicester game was, I am sure, the self same idiot as today. He was booed off after that game too.

I have no doubt he will get on the Premiership list as he is exactly the picky type that makes it to the top. I thought he was terrible - if he wants to be so pedantic about free kicks he should ensure that the ball is in the right place to start with and I am sure when Hammell was booked, the ball was further back from the goal than it should have been.
 
Bailey was constantly involved and twice went down holding his face. As good a player as he is, I must admit to not liking that part of his game.

What part of his game? I couldn't see the second one well but the Carlisle player almost took Bailey's head off on the first one.
 
I have to take exception about your rating for Collis - I thought he was totally at fault for their goal. He got caught completely in no mans land, and had no need to challenge for the original ball, and was nowhere near his goal when the guy walloped into an empty net.

Perhaps he wouldnt have been able to stop the shot, but had no need to get involved when the ball got played in and after that happened, his confidence took a bit of a knock.

Another interesting issue is Hammell - nice to see him back playing, and nothing much wrong with his own performance, but i still think we look a more solid unit with Richards alongside Clarke with AB at left back - going to be interesting to see how we counter the aerial threat of Hubertz next week against Northampton, with our lack of height in the back four, it will be with a struggle!
 
Thought the ref was awful! didnt let the game flow at all. Gower was awful, apart from that we outclassed them and cant believe we lost, if they are top, then if we can perform as we know we can for 90mins theres no reason why we cant clinch promotion.

Roots hall was really quiet in the west we tried getting going but it was like flogging a dead horse.South were really quiet, east non exsistent, away support of couple of hundred totally out sung 8000.
 
Didn't think the ref was too bad, if a little power crazy with the amount of bookings. Quite how he got one minute stoppages for the first half i'll never know. We should have had a penalty when their centre back tried to swap shirts with P. Clarke on about 70 minutes.
 
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