Brewers 0 Shrimpers 1

Stat of the week very simple. 11 games in, this is the fifth time the second half has been played 10 v 11. (OK, I am bending the definition a little to include last week's game at Wycombe when they went a man down after 48 mins). My point is that when the red has been shown to the Brewers we have lost. When the red has been shown to an opponent we have won. Learning point - keep 11 men on the pitch!

Have to agree that Billy is to blame. When the ref produces yellow after 38 seconds and then again for a similar tackle on 20 minutes you know what you are in for.

But also agree that it was another poor showing, even with a full compliment. All of the positives I can conjure are from the second half and are centred on the contributions of just two individuals, already highlighted on this thread.

Matty Palmer really unlucky not to get his first goal with a strong and possibly the only run straight at the heart of Southend defence. Good save and a slice of luck for them that it came back off the post.

And Alex Macdonald looked like he would have run until midnight if it gave us a chance of getting a result and came second closest to achieving that ambition with a header just wide.

I agree with GR in that I thought we were the most likely to nick it in the last quarter and the nature of the winner, a big deflection and the woodwork favoring the attacker, served to make what had seemed inevitable at half time feel like a snatch and grab.

Hard to imagine that 11 v 11 would not have seen a better outcome.

League leaders away next. Let's see how good our away form really is.

Walked out of the ground as soon as Billy got sent off, in my opinion diabolical refereeing, you are not allowed to tackle these days, a quick word from the ref on both occasions would have sufficed. I'm fed up with attending games that are spoilt by the referee,which is the vast majority this season. Very disgruntled that even allowing for the poor standard of referreing we can't show any self discipline.

I think that you should write to the FA Mr Terrace. I did once after a Tuesday night game against Crewe. We won 1-0 and I think Calvin scored. It was a great game of football and the referee let everything go all night. There were some really tough tackles going in and it was a joy to watch.

Anyway, I put pen to paper when I got home and sent it to the FA and asked that my congratulations be passed on to the official in question. I praised his handling of the match - football being played as a contact sport and the sort of football match that the fans want to see.

To their credit the FA wrote back to me expressing their gratitude that I took the time to write and acknowledging how I think matches should be officiated. They also stated that my letter would be copied and forwarded to that official.

By communicating directly with the powers that be we might bring about some changes in the game.

Having said all of that, I have only seen the challenges once (live) and on this occasion I think the referee was right to send Billy off. I would have been writing to the FA if a Shrimpers player had executed those 2 tackles and NOT been sent off.

As an aside, I recall that Rochdale player was sent off very harshly earlier in the season against us.

I'm most concerned about discipline at the moment, Gary needs to sort it out. We were all so pleased to see Kee back and now (through his own fault) he's got to miss a match.

It didn't help that the ref was so inconsistent but that seems to be normal so far this season.

Yes, we did have a good spell in the second half and MacDonald and Palmer were great.

I don't know what to expect against Chesterfield.

I will be at Chesterfield , but it does make me wonder what to expect from the Brewers.
Maybe GR needs to take off a player before he picks up another booking and give another player on the bench a chance. It does seem to be part of football these days, that teams use the fact a player has been booked as a game plan to get a player sent off to give them a advantage. Not the type of football any true fan of football wants to see, but if you can't beat them the Brewers need to wake up to this style of football.

Most Refs these days seem so weak , sometimes when you see players crowd around the Ref, this is all part of the teams game plan, knowing the Ref may crumble and bottle it.
The brewers need to stop being such Gentlemen and toughen up.

To be fair JFW, we are just the same when it comes to rolling about, staying on the floor longer than necessary and crowding the referee. It is something that makes me feel embarrassed when I am watching.

Where is Rene Howe by the way? Is he injured?

Strange how people see things in a game differently.
But that's what opinions are about.
Thought Billy could have gone with first tackle.
Everyone knows you don't jump in and that's what he did.
That apart one question nobody has asked Rowett is how come we've gone from having one of the best home record in all the leagues to looking like we've never played with each other before.
He must surely revert back to playing the ball on the floor instead of the hoof ball garbage we came out with yesterday.
Many more performances like that and our attendances will surely dwindle even further.
Believe you me having seen Chesterfield play twice in recent weeks I dread whist will happen next week.
Hope I'm wrong but they play with so much pace they will cut through us.
Only problem they do have is putting the ball in the net.
Baffling yesterday was why Rowett persisted with Mcgurk as the lone striker. Surely Symes would have been a better option.
Troublesome times ahead I feel as finishing with 10 players in 3 of the last 5 games makes me feel all is not well.
We can't keep blaming poor refs for awful performances.1 point from the last12 at home is near relegation form.
Having seen quite a few other matches in this league I believe we have a squad to match most.
Just need to sort the mess out ,keep them all on the pitch and start playing football.

Had a tight nit together and focused squad last season. GR's signings for this season's campaign have seriously failed to live up to their billing. In fact I would go as far to say that some of the signings have been a joke and I fear that we will sink without any fight whatsoever this season. Fulham game apart I have seen nothing (apart from an exceptional young player in Palmer) that makes me think we can turn this squad into a decent team.

GR has made some poor, poor decisions with his squad this season - he needs to step up and either get rid or get them playing decent football otherwise the half decent support we got last season will continue to dwindle with these horrible home performances.

Where is Rene Howe?

There seems to be a bit of history about Rene Howe and Chesterfield. He seems to have been a thorn in there side in past games. Rene Howe has done nothing for me yet and has to prove to the Burton fans he can cut it up front. Maybe this is the game where he needs to play some part.
On a Chesterfield forum they seem over the moon about Billy Kees red card and think the Brewers are just going to park the bus.