Southend have been revived under their new manager Chris Powell who made his mark with Charlton and was once a Southend player. I saw quite a lot of Phil Brown’s team and they played rather unimaginative football – boot it down the wing and cross it with the hope that someone might be on hand to knock it into the goal. CP has revitalised them and brought in fringe players and provided stimulus that has enabled them to beat Wigan, Scunthorpe, Peterborough and Portsmouth since he took over in late January which is impressive. Some of their players are good and it seems that CP is making much more of their talent. However, last time out, at home, their bubble suffered a puncture and they lost to Walsall at home 0-3… so we have something in common!
Theo Robinson was a much-heralded signing by Brown based on his moderate success with Lincoln, but (not surprisingly to me) he has not really made much impact and might have gone on loan in the last window, but stayed on to an uncertain future. Perhaps Powell might give him a start against his old club.
I shall be interested in seeing how Powell has reshaped them. Southend’s explanation for the Walsall loss was their failure to take chances and Walsall’s ability to take theirs, but an obvious lapse which they will be trying hard to erase from the record.
The pitch can be a bit soggy and we have had rain here after the snow, so it could be heavy going.
Despite watching them several times this season I have not seen them since Powell’s takeover, so I have no real idea of how they will fare, but they are clearly a revived force and one to be reckoned with.
We will need to deal with our former loanee Marc-Antoine Fortuné who always impresses me as someone who can hold the ball up, is skilful and also good in the air, so a tall defender, like Tom Anderson, would be (but can't be) the ideal man to deal with him. If we can score first we might be in with a chance, but I am not really confident. However, I will say 1-1 and Rowe with the goal and 6800.
DPL - Southend Utd
posted on 10/3/18
From the sofa it looks like a good away point. Bring on Bradford.
posted on 10/3/18
Well, I do not know who could play good football on that cow pasture! I thought one team would nick it at the end with a lucky bobble or bounce - thankfully Southend did not.
Again, a reluctance to shoot at times - why do we try and walk it in so often?
With Copps success with free kicks in the past against Southend, why was it Rowe and Marquis that "had a go" today?
Marosi made one great save and should keep his place.
posted on 10/3/18
Pretty much how I saw it Mickey. 3 or 4 times Houghton was positioned perfect to have a dig but either went sideways or back maybe Whiteman would have had a dig? He did it successfully against these at home. Credit to there keeper who made a great double save in the first half and Marosi tipped one away in the 2nd. You got the feeling it was an end of season mid tabled clash so a point probably right. Ps good news we've got players returning who will all need to be fit in playing a key role in us maintain a mid table position.
posted on 10/3/18
Fantastic point
posted on 10/3/18
I agree with Micky about the desire to over-elaborate in attacking mode and the predicted soggy surface did not really lend itself to it anyway. We were more imaginative than Southend, but were indecisive once inside the box. Southend did not show the sort of form that one imagines they must have needed to beat Wigan and almost seemed to have reverted the mode adopted under the previous manager of taking the ball down the wings and crossing it hopefully.
In the first half we seemed prone to passing the ball backwards and McCullough hardly ever did anything else. Mason was OK at left back I have to admit, but Kiwomya did not seem much changed from when I saw him against Fleetwood. He rarely actually gained control of the ball to run with it. Rowe did not seem to get going and was a bit hemmed in and I did not really notice Houghton. Marquis was industrious as always, but unusually restrained and failed completely to put the home fans backs up! I think his objective was to avoid that final booking that would see him suspended. He had a close encounter with the goal when his 2nd half free-kick was just wide of the post with the GK seemingly beaten. May was no more effective than Kiwomya and Williams’s size and experience might have made him a better choice as his replacement.
Marosi was competent apart from one incident when he and 1 or 2 defenders rushed to take on a Southend forward, Cox I think, who got the ball past them all as they challenged him and it just went wide. He made a good save in the second half as did Oxley for Southend in the first and Fortune was suppressed with tight marking rather better than some sides have managed. Blair had quite battle with Coker, Southend’s highly competent left back.
There were exciting moments and we were less cautious with the back-passing in the second half, but it was not an exciting game. We did look more composed too in dealing with their set-pieces which was heartening.
A point was certainly deserved; it was the sort of game where, if we had a true goal poacher, the play created enough to have scored 2 or 3, but we haven’t. Beestin with his skill or Anderson with his head might well have made a difference.
There was only one booking, Baudry, probably for several squabbles in their box and then something he said. No more were justified, but these days just one is quite remarkable.
posted on 11/3/18
Donaldo,
A very good analysis. A good comment about only one booking - the ref seemed to like to talk rather than book. I wonder what Baudry said? - he had been spoken to earlier. It must be some time since I've watched a game with neither side having a scream for a penalty!
Our best two chances were Wright and Kiwomya. Watching on iFollow it looked good when Wright hit the ball powerfully with his head and from the view I thought it could be going for the far top corner. Apparently it was well wide. While their GK did well to keep out Kiwomya's effort. He should not really have had a chance.
I thought Marquis' free kick was very clever - going low for the near post when most would have gone for the far top corner. He nearly made it work.
I did think when their guy was through he would score. May be the combination of Marosi rushing at him plus the other two guys put enough pressure on him to miss. However, Marosi's save from that header was top class.
I thought Houghton showed class at times, but wish he would go more forward. He also gives away too many niggling fouls. When McCullough went forward he was quite good, but as you say, it was backwards too often, especially in the first half.
Rowe has been somewhat quiet for some time - at times it would have been good if Whiteman had been there.
I'm really looking forward to Beestin returning.
PS: I assume Virgin Trains will not be sponsoring next season as it appears they want to pull out of the East Coast service. When we were back in England for family reasons in May 2016 we loved their service. We had a day trip to London from Doncaster to see my sister. If you picked your times right the fare was reasonable. However, peak fares were unbelievable.
posted on 12/3/18
It is unusual for there to be no major complaints from either side about the result of a match and I have not seen or heard anything locally to Southend about the outcome being unfair etc. What I thought was particularly irritating from both sides was the number of times goal kicks were directed at a point just beyond the half way line where all 20 out-field players would gather and fail to make anything of it and the ball would go into touch. This happens a lot nowadays. Rovers did it repeatedly in the first half and Southend did the same in the second. Why do they do this?
Anyway, assuming that I might have got the figures right for a change, Uthred remains in front in the DPL with Micky, making good use of his regular observations of matches in second.
Southend U 0: Rovers 0 (6766)
………………..….Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo ………… 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 8 ……. 133 ……. 141
PDXMickey ……. 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 5 ……. 148 ……. 153
Yorks Lad …….. 1 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 4 ……. 111 ……… 115
BVZ. ……..…….. 3 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 118 ……… 121
Crazy …….……… 4 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 4 …….. 100 ….…… 104
Uthred …….…… 1 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 1 ……. 157 ….…. 158
Mooligan …..…. 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 5 ……. 123 ……. 128
King Chmprr …. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ….…. 3 ……. 58 …..…… 61
Small Azza ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …….. 93 …..…. 93
Aussie Lad. ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …… 0 ……... 5 ……..… 5
Azza ……..…..… 3 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 6 ……. 110 ….... 116
Cheltenham …. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……..… 0
Nookie ……….… 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 5 ……. 70 …...…… 75
Selby …….……… 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …... 5 ……. 111 …….… 116
Lanza …….….. 0 …….. 3 ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 .... 3 ……. 38 ….…… 41
……………..……. 37 …….. 3 ……. 0 ….. 12 ……. 0 …... 52 … 1375 ….. 1427
posted on 12/3/18
Hi Donaldo
I predicted a draw
Cheers
Mooli
posted on 12/3/18
You did indeed Mooli and I got it right on one side of my Excel sheet (which I don't think there would be room to show in the space available), but not on the other!
So your total is 8 and carry forward 131.
Sorry.
posted on 12/3/18
No problem Donaldo
Thank you for doing the sums.
You are a gentleman Sir.