Southend - Sat 13h August (h)

[King Crimson]

With five minutes to go, and a bit of Southend pressure building and Goater on, I said to the person next to me that it was time for a meaningless substitution to kill a minute or so, and break the flow of the game. We had a sub left, so why not use it to effect, in the way other clubs do?

I remember saying the same the season before last when the ball went out in stoppage time against Cardiff, who were 1-0 down but all over us. Then, in the 93rd minute... :(

[Neil Ravenscroft]

I was expecting Larossa on for Leitao or Fryatt for exactly the same reason!

[King Crimson]

Great minds..., Neil. :)

You didn't answer my Zhang Yimou query on the favourite films thread. If you haven't seen it, 'Ju Dou' is a must, but there's no martial arts in it for you, I'm afraid. :(

[MrC]

Whats going on with Ossie. People were qeuing up to slaughter him last season, now after o couple of okaish games hes suddenly the savoir of WFC. Get a grip.

What is going on with Ozzy is that he was been our best player by a country mile during our unbeaten run.

[ucow]

its very easy to pick out one player for critisisum but inho the whole back line were poor yesterday and oaks looked suspect from balls put back across him when he should have done a lot better with his positioning for both goals! westwood was no worse or better than the rest of the defensive unit!

to sugest playing two teenagers as the prefered center half paring is just ridiculous as anyone who went to rotherham would be able to see htat any decent attack would just pile ont he pressure and watch the mistakes happen as was the case during the match against rotherham it was only poor finishing by rotherham and the good fortune at the other end in the last minite that saw us win that game!

as for smith playing in midfield yesterday what was merson thinking of? smith looked a good stone over weight and painfully short of match fitness well to be truthfull painfully short of any fitness!

but its a good sign when we are playing poorly and can still pick up points! thats 4 from 6 when we have looked poor so thats a major positive to take from the first 3 games of the season things can surly only get better! and merse should be on the look out for a left sided wide player to take wrack out of a position he isnt looking go at!

[LancsSaddler]

Match report is now on line on the front page.

in the match report it says that fryatt set up leitaos goal,wasnt it wrack?
staunton passed it to the byline and wrack volleyed it across to leitao.

[Ian Gittins]

It's interesting that before this season started, the consensus on here was that we would be defensively hard to breach but might find goals hard to come by. Now, after 3 games, we sit on top of the table as top scorers and one of the biggest conceders. It really is a funny old game, as that bald chap with the 'tache used to say.

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Match report is now on line on the front page.

in the match report it says that fryatt set up leitaos goal,wasnt it wrack?
staunton passed it to the byline and wrack volleyed it across to leitao.

Seen it on the box since and it was, indeed, Wrack, with the outside of the wrong foot!

[toffo]

Whats going on with Ossie. People were qeuing up to slaughter him last season, now after o couple of okaish games hes suddenly the savoir of WFC. Get a grip.

And there would be the flaw in your last comment. I can only presume yesterday was you first game, and you missed the other two and pre-season. Yes a lot of people slaughtered him, but he has been playing well, hence the reason Neil said that he was cheered when he came onto replace Smith. Therefore I would suggest you get a grip.

Yep Yesterday was my first game and another six games in Smith will be the regular starter, If Ossie was doing so well why did merson put him on the bench.He should have started him and then taken him off later in the game (60 min) if his old legs cannot hack it anymore.

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Yep Yesterday was my first game and another six games in Smith will be the regular starter, If Ossie was doing so well why did merson put him on the bench.He should have started him and then taken him off later in the game (60 min) if his old legs cannot hack it anymore.

I wish someone would answer that, especially Merson, who described him afterwards as the best passer in the Division, something Smith, for all his qualities, will never be described as!

[We-ARE-Walsall]

I have been the first to have a moan about Osborn in the past, but it is ok to change your mind isn't it, or not even change it. You see i have no hidden agenda, because he played for wolves, it's quite simple to me, if i think he played poorly i will say.

What i have seen of him in the first 3 games this season, i have been really impressed.

Even more so yesterday, not because it was his best performance, because we just looked a much better side with him playing. Weather that is because smith is not fit, or not , not sure.

[ShropSaddler]

Agree with the comments above re Wrack - we really might as well play with 10 men. At least then the other players would know that they have to mark the player coming forward on the opposition right. As mentioned above, 2 goals came from the same area, one of the goals against Forest came from a cross from the same area. I don't blame Fox at all, I think he's had a very useful start to the season. The problem is our "left winger" who goes missing when we need to pass to him and goes missing when we need him to mark and close down the crosser of the ball from that side.

Why can't Merson see it? What exactly does he see that means that Wrack seems to be the one player exempt from criticism or being dropped? All this talk about the "young players" needing to learn to kill the game, I'd much rather hear him say that one of our "senior" players needs to learn not to give away stupid free kicks and learn to mark the man he's assigned to.

[Stu]

He does only need a kick up the backside in my opinion. No doubt at all that the talent is there.

I mean, in all honesty, that ball he put across the box for our 2nd goal was absolutely sublime and I'd potentially say that he was possibly the only player on the pitch that could have controlled that ball so beautifully in one touch, whilst knocking it across the face of the box.

[YGA Saddler]

soon as the game finished I went to London so couldnt say what I thought of the game, but after my hangover I'd say im pretty disappointed. You might ask why, afterall we are top of the league? But havent we signed all these defenders that are supposed to stop the goals going in?, so why after 3 games we have conceeded 5. Only Oldham in the top half have conceeded more than us. This is quite worrying.

Positives, must be the performance of Fox and the rise from the dead of the old Jorge. He looks so much fitter and able to take defenders on like he once did.

[London Saddler]

Poor result against a poor team. I thought Southend wud struggle this season and nothing i saw yesterday made me change my opinion. Interesting that a lot of people(including me) thought we wud b strong defensively this season. But we have been shambles so far and like last season every team is having no problems scoring against us. Conversely, i thought we might struggle up front but we have had no problems scoring against whoever we have played so far

Defensively we were crap. Oakes didnt drop any clangers nor did he look like remotely saving virtually the only 2 efforts they had on goal. Thought Pead was impressive and MOM for me. Bennett and Fox were ok. Westwood was not poor but he wasn't any good either. The best description for him is overrated. He was crap in the air and also on the ground with 2 instances in the 2nd half where he was easily turned and the first of those sud have been a goal but luckily their striker missed a sitter and put the ball wide when they were leading 1-0. The goals they scored were not from amazing play or crosses, they were simply balls floated into the mass of bodies at the far post and we wernt able to defend them. Bread and butter 1st division defending

As everyone has aleady said, biggest problem was midfield. Wright was the only one who looked remotely threatening but he was overworked as there was nothing from the LHS. If teams wise up to this and shut our RHS we will b in trouble. Wrack was Wrack, i.e. crap again. Taylor was poor but as one of the only left footed midfield players we have got, at the moment he brings some balance to midfield. As for Smith, he looked like a pub player on his testimonial game. His first game back but he sud never have been playing

Up front i felt we were very impressive. Matty looked threatening every time he got the ball although he sud realise he does not have to beat 3-4 players every time he has the ball. Jorge is looking increasingly like the Jorge of old. Winning balls, running tirelessly and scoring goals. Considering out strikers have had service for only 20 mins per game so far this season i think they have done very well

So dropped points but a lot learnt from todays game. First formation was right but Osbourne sud have played. And if dropped why on earth was Smith chosen ahead of Kinsella? Also i have seen some people think that Ropes is 3rd choice centre half. I totally disagree. For me Ropes is no 1 and then u can chose one out of the others. At this level of football, u need to b able to defend against crosses, set pieces and ale house balls and a top no nonesense big defender and a great header like Ropes is essential

[toffo]

[quote="London Saddler"]Poor result against a poor team. I thought Southend wud struggle this season and nothing i saw yesterday made me change my opinion.

London Saddler, I do not agree that Southend were a poor team. In fact I thoiught they looked quite strong and gave us plenty of problems.
On reflection although i'm still a little dissapointed, a draw was a fair result and will be good for the team because it will give them a little kick up the backside and make us work a little harder on closing teams down.
I'm sure that there will be plenty of defensive drills in training this week.

[toffo]

[quote="London Saddler"]Poor result against a poor team. I thought Southend wud struggle this season and nothing i saw yesterday made me change my opinion.

London Saddler, I do not agree that Southend were a poor team. In fact I thoiught they looked quite strong and gave us plenty of problems.
On reflection although i'm still a little dissapointed, a draw was a fair result and will be good for the team because it will give them a little kick up the backside and make us work a little harder on closing teams down.
I'm sure that there will be plenty of defensive drills in training this week.

[toffo]

Apologies for the double post.

[derbysaddler]

even though it was annoying to concede so late on, at least we havent lost yet. I was impressed with Fox's play on saturday, he's looking like a good little player. Stuanton's passing when he came on was effective and Osborn was playing well. Upfront I think we are looking very sharp when we play the ball with some urgency.

Im not sure what Wright's up to sometime. I do like his aggresive running but he piss's about with the ball to much sometimes when the simple layoff would be more effective.

[derbysaddler]

even though it was annoying to concede so late on, at least we havent lost yet. I was impressed with Fox's play on saturday, he's looking like a good little player. Stuanton's passing when he came on was effective and Osborn was playing well. Upfront I think we are looking very sharp when we play the ball with some urgency.

Im not sure what Wright's up to sometime. I do like his aggresive running but he piss's about with the ball to much sometimes when the simple layoff would be more effective.