Southend Game | Page 7 | Vital Football

Southend Game

It's bizarre that we're still in contention. It's such a weird league this year in that there's one team that's been kicked out, another knackered by points deduction and two others who are outstandingly bad. So that's the relegation places sorted out to begin with.

Then you've got another half a dozen teams who are just normally bad but out of danger because of those four, and then a top twelve or fourteen who are all much of a muchness. I reckon that in any other season we wouldn't be contending for anything. I don't want to take away from Evans's achievements, but the extremely odd situation this season has to be borne in mind.

Whoever manages to go up this season is going to get their arse kicked in Division Two next year anyway.
And The team second in the league were kicked out of their stadium at the start of the season :LOL:
 
Hmmmm. I got the match on iFollow. Then my son messaged this morning and asked if he could watch it on the bus on his way to work. Bless him, born and bred in Brisbane, but now loves the Gills like me so I couldn’t refuse.

Sounds like I dodged a bullet 👍

Plus points out of a terrible game?

We got the 3pts playing dreadful ✅
Keep unbeaten run going ✅
Last 3 wins without our best midfield - Jones/O’Keefe ✅


It really does look like we are at our best playing with those 2 as rocks in defensive midfield.


Despite all us fans wanting to go out and attack, I think we have a better chance playing the more defensive formation we’ve had up to recently and then pressing more later in games. If we manage to score early, great. But the games v Blackpool and Southend it sounds like we’ve been right off it in midfield.
 
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The text I wrote at HT didn't send. Basically shite hoofball and dysfunctional formation.

Graham made a big difference and his cross was excellent. Well done Ogilvie for getting on the end of it. Why he was there I've no idea as he is LB and it was a breakaway. Should have been Akinde but he was a bit of a useless lump all evening.

Poor overall and too much hoofing, especially 1st half. Didn't test their goalie enough. From the away end it looked as if Bonham made a good save at 0 0. Southend appeared to be clean through in the last minute but they screwed the shot wide.

Got out of jail today as Southend were weak and low on confidence. They appeared to have a seven year old centre forward who had to go off shortly before the end for his 9.30pm bedtime.

Good away end atmosphere. Good support on a horrid evening.
 
The text I wrote at HT didn't send. Basically shite hoofball and dysfunctional formation.

Graham made a big difference and his cross was excellent. Well done Ogilvie for getting on the end of it. Why he was there I've no idea as he is LB and it was a breakaway. Should have been Akinde but he was a bit of a useless lump all evening.

Poor overall and too much hoofing, especially 1st half. Didn't test their goalie enough. From the away end it looked as if Bonham made a good save at 0 0. Southend appeared to be clean through in the last minute but they screwed the shot wide.

Got out of jail today as Southend were weak and low on confidence. They appeared to have a seven year old centre forward who had to go off shortly before the end for his 9.30pm bedtime.

Good away end atmosphere. Good support on a horrid evening.
I think Willock tried all game to keep the ball on the ground and pass; it's a pity he went off but he looks the business.
 
It's bizarre that we're still in contention.
Whoever manages to go up this season is going to get their arse kicked in Division Two next year anyway.

How is it bizarre? We’re unbeaten in 14. A lot of times that would see a team comfortably in the top 6.

As for promoted teams getting spanked next season, that’s a no-brainer. Recently there have been excellent sides (in this division) have gone up and really struggled or come straight back down. Rotherham anybody? And Luton, Barnsley and Charlton are all struggling this season.

If we ever manage to get promoted again it would be a miracle if we stayed up. And that’s not a dig at us or Scally. We could have 10x our budget and still not be particularly competitive.
 
As soon as I saw the team sheet I thought wtf starting with 4 strikers and one being Mandron who hasn't even got any minutes as sub under his belt recently was beyond odd.


I’m thinking the starting XI and formations have almost been forced on Evans. Having no back up Centre midfielders means we are really unbalanced with O’Keefe and Jones sidelined.

Was surprised seeing Akinde, Hanlon AND Mandron all playing tho. Maybe Steve thought we’d just go all out attack for a big margin. But then afterwards he was saying the players disrespected Southend in the first half. So maybe he was at fault there too.
 
Both Akinde and Mandron were pretty awful but the changes made worked. Akinde still needs time it seems but he is a presence. O'Connor is fitting into that role very well and I think Willock is just getting into gear. Apart from Hanlan and Roberts, who should start, we have a pool of useful midfielders to choose from depending on the opposition or how the game is going.
 
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I noticed that, despite Southend's plight, their attendance was over 6,000 again. Makes you wonder if we will ever get a gate that high, especially as we are only six points away from fourth placed Peterborough with a game in hand.
 
I don`t usually snipe at players but I think that Max might have broken his own record for the number of hoofs in a 90 minute game - Jesus !

Hopefully Mandron will be on the bench at Lincoln, I think he`s more effective supporting a catch-up last gasp effort than starting the game. IMO, Pringle and Lee should start at Lincoln - there seemed absolutely zero cohesion in our play (line-up) last night.
 
I don`t usually snipe at players but I think that Max might have broken his own record for the number of hoofs in a 90 minute game - Jesus !

Hopefully Mandron will be on the bench at Lincoln, I think he`s more effective supporting a catch-up last gasp effort than starting the game. IMO, Pringle and Lee should start at Lincoln - there seemed absolutely zero cohesion in our play (line-up) last night.
Agree with the vast majority of that. Would start Willock again as he was the only player who didn't automatically hoof it. I think he's got class and will contribute more and more as he gets match fit.

Roberts anonymous and Akinde a lump yesterday. Some good crosses from Graham when he wasn't overrating his ability to skip past players.

Not complaining though. Bound to have some poor games. Delighted with our long undefeated run. Enjoying watching and anticipating games rather than fulfilling a duty.

COYG
 
Was impressed with Willock last night and he'll only get better the nearer he gets to full fitness. Kept it on the floor and distribution was good.
Like the look of Graham, he and Hanlon looked like they could cause problems but was surprised the ball didn't stick up front more with Akinde there. I thought he'd more of a handful in the air but seems better with the ball to feet (on the rare occasion it went to his feet).
I like the look of Ogilve but was disappointed with Tucker, a rare off game I assume after the rave reviews which was a shame as I like watching a good centre half play.
Bonham worried me a little although not an out and out bad performance but his kicking was woeful at times. Maybe he's too comfortable and needs more competition for his place.
All in all, it's good that we can win ugly and to be fair to Southend, I thought that until the goal, they played it around quite nicely at times, probably better than us. But once we scored their heads went a bit. Shows the advantage of a bit of experience in our side in that we were able to keep them at arms length.
Onwards and upwards.
 
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To the poster, HolySpirit who said he was disappointed and wasted a tenner watching on ifollow are you mad? Any Gills win, away from home is something to treasure, no matter how we get it & the unbeaten run continues and we've put ourselves right in the mix for a play off spot. Love it. UTG!


Upon reflection I'm much happier now with the result than I was at the time. I think frustrated would have been a better word to use than disappointed.
But a win is a win, and any win away from home is a good one.

Agree with absolutely everything in your post.
I think the Willock sub may have been pre planned as he came off just after 60mins which is a shame as he was our best player up to then.
 
I think Mandron getting subbed (plus a lack of playing time) at half time may suggest he might not be a Gills player next season.
 
It's bizarre that we're still in contention. It's such a weird league this year in that there's one team that's been kicked out, another knackered by points deduction and two others who are outstandingly bad. So that's the relegation places sorted out to begin with.

Then you've got another half a dozen teams who are just normally bad but out of danger because of those four, and then a top twelve or fourteen who are all much of a muchness. I reckon that in any other season we wouldn't be contending for anything. I don't want to take away from Evans's achievements, but the extremely odd situation this season has to be borne in mind.

Whoever manages to go up this season is going to get their arse kicked in Division Two next year anyway.
I agree. The Conference teams promoted will find it tough in L2.
 
Another terrible game and a poor performance from us saved by the fact Southend are woeful. However, given that circumstance, it is a game we should be winning and under SE we are at least winning games we should be winning, drawing games we should be drawing and often doing better than we should have done. I have no doubt that last season in the last three games - tight games, where we were poor, or poor in patches, we'd have lost the lot. Even earlier in the season, when SE first came in, we were often scrapping and managing to eek out draws in close games, but the SE factor is meaning we fight for everything and never give up and are able to eek everything out, even when we're not playing well.

I thought the selection was strange last night. I know Southend are poor, but it seemed over attacking for an away game - three out and out forwards, with a very attacking midfielder in the middle three was, I thought, always likely to leave us susceptible in the midfield. Fortunately, Southend seldom exploited our midfield weaknesses and even when they did, their forwards never looked anything like scoring, bar the effort out of the blue at the death which the guy fluffed and wasn't exactly a sitter.

The switch of Mandron for Graham mad a big difference. He offered more width on the right and despite fluffing his lines on several occasions caused them all ends of problems with his running and crossing ability. Roberts looked more effective in a more advance position on the left in the second half with Mandron off. Their young keeper was clearly a huge weakness from crosses and we did well to spot this and keep testing him which lead to the goal and really should have lead too Ogilvie and Hanlan scoring easy headers - I don't think I've ever seen so many completely unchallenged headers in one half in a six yard box. There must have been 5-6 with the keeper nowhere near them and the defenders clearly not clocking that their keeper needed a bit of backing on that front.

Ogilvie was the pick for me. All of the back four was solid as we'd expect, if a but clumsy. However, Ogilvie was the one that looked to get it down and get forward or link up with those in front of him. The other three - including the usually classy Tucker - too often resorted to hoofball. On occasions that is required, but against a team like Southend, there s an opportunity for the defenders to get it down and play.

All went swimmingly for me with the journey bar the final leg. I got to he stadium in nice time from work in London to Prittlewell station next to the ground with plenty of time for sausage in batter and curry chips at the fish shop near the ground. Left bang on full time and managed to snag a taxi right outside the ground and made the 950 from Southend central to West Ham with a nice connecting DLR to Stratford international for 1045, missing the 1044 by about a minute - looking at the board, the next train to Ashford at 1116 was delayed for nearly half an hour, meaning an hour wait in Stratford in the freezing cold - even more annoyingly the Tap East had literally just served last orders. Still, in by 1230, so not a disaster and worth it for the win!
 
Think what is going to be crucial over the next few months is whether we can play our preferred line up and therefore formation. Hope injuries don't play a big part but Jones has always been one if the first names on the teamsheet and along with Okeefe (gone off injured a couple if times recently) O'Connor (just come back from a couple of weeks out) Pringle ( not played much up until the last month) and Willock ( ditto Pringle) appear to be playing for the midfield 3 places so we're going to have to be quite lucky to get through to the end of the season with just those five players competing for 3 places without those players getting injured/fatigued.

With the amount of games players are having to play I guess the bold line-ups recently show that we may occasionally have to change formation purely because we haven't got the numbers to keep playing the same way using the same players.

SE is certainly earning his money juggling this small squad whilst trying to still pick up results. Think managing the players game time, fatigue and judging when players need a rest will be a massive part of SE role in our remaining games and probably determine how close to the playoffs we get. I fear we may just run out if bodies and be forced to change away from the midfield diamond.

Only saw the first half last night but it looked like a lot of square pegs in round holes, but three points none the less and we'll definitely play better between now and the seasons end and lose.
 
You saw the worst of it Captain.
The second was a bit better once Graham came on the wing.

Credit to ST for his arduous journey.

I watched on the desktop with a bottle of Sancerre and a nice portion of Nobby's nuts.
Very civilised.
To my shame, I actually drank the whole bottle before retiring with a bit of a wobble.