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Silencer

Director
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
2,349
Location
Southchurch Village
Ok here goes, it will be based purely on emotion and how I feel right now - I often try and wait '24 hours' for the dust to settle and allow myself to calm down but tonight I am ashamed to see me team conceed 5 goals at home to Dagenham and Redbridge who effectively are a non league club.

We were actually the better side for large periods of the match but we lack character when we go behind (in the main), defend set pieces like schoolboys the buck has to stop somewhere.

I am one of the Southend fans who has stuck up for Phil Brown last season, all pre season and up till tonight. I have given him a chance, I have looked at the cirucmstances, his contacts, his experience, his idea's and his professionalism but tonight was the straw that broke the camels back for me. Sometimes I feel for the gaffer and the embargo's, lack of funds and support from higher up but he does himself no favours.

Yes we have a team of average league two players who give 100% effort which I admire, we even try and play some nice football in the right way but what on earth is going on with some of Brown's decisions.

Set Pieces - now is it me or are we attempting to play Zonal marking. I may be wrong (which I actually hope I am) but what on earth is that all about, if we are then drop the idea now because it has cost us too many points already. All pre season we were weak at set pieces which cost us time and time again, earlier in the season it cost us but now it's the middle of October and nothing has been done about this. If were not zonal marking then Brown's management of his players is awful, why are they not picking up and man marking and putting everything on the line to defend!?!?!?

4-5-1 at home to mid table Dagenham and Redbridge...we were not playing Brazil. And the one poor sod upfront was an untried and unfit Read who is lacking match fitness (not his fault). How do you expect Read to perform alone up top, at times our midfield quintet were fully thirty yards away from the lone forward. So sticking to this 4-5-1 formation (lets not kid ourselves by calling it 4-3-3) and at 5-2 down with half an hour to go, Brown waits until the 88th minute to introduce another forward!!! WTF

Straker - what on earth is this player all about. He gives us nothing (pace aside) and is a liability yet Brown continues to pick him at every possible opportunity. Brown likened him to Gareth Bale after pre season displays agianst the likes of Wakering, Bishop Stortford and the mighty Braintree. Straker is dross and gives the team problems not options.

Leaders on the field - now don't get me wrong, I rate John White as a player and am pleased with him as a signing but he is not a skipper and not captain material for me. To give someone the club captaincy becuase "he was my first signing" is an egotistic catastrophe, Brown even admitted there was 4/5 other possibilities but wanted his captain to be a "Brown player".

Ego is losing respect - Brown has ruined our players in the local and national press, does he not realise that these are young and average lower league footballers giving their all, I can't see how this is doing the changing room any favours. His ego and fame hungry personality is wearing thin with me now. A work colleague (Fan of other team) was talking to a couple of Blues players at the weekend (3am Subway chat) and both Blues players (first team regulars) even said what a "C##t" the manager is". Respect is going for the gaffer and I don't blame the players if it does.

Red rep me, Green rep me - I just had to get this off my chest. I have backed the manager as much as I could but tonight, I have turned from team Brown to Brown the clown :'(
 
I agree with much of what you say Silencer and your reasons are linked to my dislike of Brown. I could add another 5 or 6 things to the list.

That said, I do think he has brought in some good footballers, and despite tonights result there are some youthful players who are exciting prospects. I think to overreact off the back of a poor result in the JPT would be unfair, the last league performance was good, so should get another few months to prove himself. That said - it was unfair to drop Leonard and pick Mohsni at Wembley!
 
Yep - I am buzzing from Payne, he just seems to get better and beter, as does Cauley Woodrow.

I am being emotional I guess but it's not the back of one JPT game, it's decisions as I mentioned. For me Straker shouldn't be near the side, the set pieces are a farce. As for that Mohsni at Wembley farce, well it ruined part of my Wembley day.

Hopefully Brown can get it right but I do worry. I have backed him to date and maybe being too emotional after tonight's farce but things need addressing before it's too late.
 
Just D'oh !!!
Embarrassing.... yes, bordering upon ****-poor in reality.

If there were any plus points???...blooding a few of the squad with pitch-time...balanced with the usual argument of small squad, umbargo, rotational issues.....feel a bit sorry for Reid..............solo up front with little/no support.....

Hey-ho Burton beckons !!!
 
Too soon for me to give up on him and especially not after a tinpot loss.

the reality is that we beat a strong Oxford team just days ago at their gaff and game for game he is level with Sturrocks effort last year thus far.

Xmas the yardstick for me.
 
Personally happy to go out the JPT but not in this manor.

It's a pain as every year our thread bare squad picks up injuries and suspensions as a result of this competition. Wembley last year was a massive distraction. Personally it's a waste of time as a first team competition.
 
Even I, who is not yet a fully converted Brown supporter, am not too bothered about this result.......repeated on Saturday, that may be a different matter. Good riddance to the JPT. PB can talk the talk about returning to Wembley for the Final again but I reckon he is not overly disappointed to have got this competition out of the way. With the tiny squad we possess, as do many other sides in League Two, you have to wonder the sense of adding the possibility of 7 further matches to an already gruelling football fixture list. No need to go over the effect it had on us last season but you can just look at last night. Clifford a booking, Prosser a booking and thus a suspension (OK, on his performance yesterday, perhaps a rest will do him good!).......but we can ill afford to miss any players. For Daggers it was more serious, with Hoyte picking up a 3 match ban and didn't Murphy go off injured? I have my doubts about whether we will challenge for promotion this season but if we do, continued progress in the JPT wouldn't help the cause.
 
Giving up on him is ridiculous, he has a small squad, has had no money and an embargo over his head since the summer, he has us playing great football. I bet he as thought about giving up on us!
I swear we must have the greediest fans in football.
He has a 2 year contract and as we don't have a pot to **** in I can't see him sacked any time soon. Give him your support, you never know, he might surprise you.
 
I've got to take the blame for last night's result. I don't get to as many games as I used to and this season I've been to Wycombe away, Scunthorpe and Northampton at home and of course last night. So Northampton aside I'm obviously a curse. Either that or we're just not that good.

Joking aside I really don't know who to blame after last night's defeat. It was the most catastrophic giving away of a football match I've ever seen. Whilst I completely disagree with Silencer's criticism of Anthony Straker, aside from that a lot of his criticisms are spot on.

As Brown himself admitted, in the first half we were shading the game but missing some potency up top. Why were we playing 4-5-1 at home to Dagenham in the first place? Craig Reid held the ball up the best he could last night but he really had no chance to impress with no support and I was astounded when we just swapped the strikers at half time. For me I would have brought Woodrow on to play off Reid. In the end it wouldn't have mattered as the real problems sat further back in the side.

After Woodrow came on, he gave us what we'd been missing in the first half, a striker with a sense of adventure and an eye for goal. There's only so much laying the ball off for an onrushing midfield can achieve and once Cauley came on we looked to go for the jugular and got ourselves 2 goals.

Next we decided to give the opposition 4 goals in 8 crazy second half minutes to kill the game off as a contest and sum up in one game what our season has been like so far. Toothless up front and alarmingly leaky at the back as soon as the opposition get a set piece. The issues up front I can't really fault Brown for. I think given our current predicament he has one of the toughest jobs in the Football League right now, but the defensive errors are alarmingly frequent and IMO totally avoidable. As Silencer said above, I wonder if we are trying to play a zonal system at set pieces coz it's the only logical explanation for why time and again opposition players have free headers at almost every set piece we concede. Even in the highlights of our fantastic win at Oxford I saw 2 free headers from corners or free kicks thankfully sail over the bar. Last night we weren't so lucky.

Again I don't think Brown can be the total fall guy for last night as 2 of the goals were from individual errors, Paul Smith also needs to hold his hands up for a shocking second half display but it was the set piece from which their Beast of a number 5 equalised that I found most frustrating as it was avoidable if the marking was correct.

The fans around me last night were saying that we desperately need a decent striker and a no nonsense center half. They are of course correct yet this is unlikely anytime soon. But our 2 centre backs are both former Sturrock players and I certainly don't think Ben Coker and John White are any worse defensively than Sean Clohessy, Anthony Straker or Peter Gilbert. Quite frankly something's not right in our defensive game and I'm struggling to believe its due to the personnel. One of our strengths under Sturrock was the way we defended set pieces and I can only assume these good habits have been coached out of our squad by the implementation of a zonal marking system which is shown up time and again in the Premier League let alone League Two.

As for Anthony Straker, I'm afraid I really think that's just a case of fans turning on their usual fall guys when things turn ugly. Last night Straker was no worse than anyone else out there IMO. He tries things which don't always come off but at least he is looking to beat his man, be positive, try and play the killer pass, rather than a safe 10 yard pass back to centre midfield. Yes there's something to be said for retaining possession but last night we had dozens of spells where we knocked about 5 or 6 passes and went all round the pitch apart from anywhere threatening. Sometimes you've got to take a risk and in the oppositions final third it's less risky to lose the ball there, although with our back 4 behind them maybe I'm not so sure!
 
I think Brown expects too much of lower league players and thinks he can still use tactics more suited to a higher level, he really doesn't have a clue at this level and i've defended him up until tonight but he has lost the plot and more importantly the dressing room by the sound of things.

For once I don't blame RM for this appointment, he took a gamble and it's backfiring. Let's get Nigel Clough in, proved he can perform at this level with Burton.
 
Not for one minute am I saying the result or defending was anything approaching acceptable, but describing Dagenham as a non-league team is harsh. They have a good forward line in Rhys Murphy and Zavon Hines and will surprise a lot of people this season.
 
and if you look at the table........I think you will find we are in the middle and they are in the top half
 
Not for one minute am I saying the result or defending was anything approaching acceptable, but describing Dagenham as a non-league team is harsh. They have a good forward line in Rhys Murphy and Zavon Hines and will surprise a lot of people this season.

Bit harsh...maybe it was, but I said that Dagenham are effectively a non league club Jai, no comment towards the team and manager who has worked wonders on a small budget.

Daggers are a very small and basic club, there are many bigger clubs in the Skrill leagues imho. I've played at Dagenham a couple of times in the past and the facilities are not great. A few years ago we were playing the likes of Sunderland, QPR and Norwich - now we are conceeding five goals at home to Dagenham and Redbridge :omg:

Back to the thread and I have slept on last night's horror show and still feel similar to how I did last night. The set pieces need sorting and quick, it puts pressure on the whole team knowing we are so weak at them.

Also, for me, some fans saying were better off out of the JPT doesn't wash with me, but I guess it's all opinions after all. But for me, the JPT has personally provided me with some of my greatest memories as a Southend fan down the years. As a fan I feel richer for it.
 
The problem was for 13 minutes in the 2nd half we didn't defend at all. Every attack they had led to a goal and pretty much every goalscorer had tons of space. Smith might have been at fault for a couple of them, but the marking is shocking.

It's all well and good playing nice football on the floor, but with no end product then it is going to be wasted.

The failure to replace Cresswell, wasting our limited squad spaces on players like Bennett and shocking marking at set-pieces and even on crosses will cost us big time this season.

I was never pleased to see Brown come in, but I'm still backing him because I love this club and want us to succeed!
 
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