First time on the club travel coach since we beat the Arse on a cup night game back in GGs day. Wasn’t really looking forward to it but very pleasantly surprised. Good mix of fans, old and young, male and female. No liquor obviously but comfortable and a DVD player to boot made the 5 hour trip down very enjoyable. In fact we got there in such good time we had a couple of hours in the golden lion just up the road. All you could hear was southern accents, thought we’d walked bang into one of their pubs but no. A few choruses of “we all facking lav leeds” soon cleared the air. Never ceases to amaze we how we keep getting the southern contingent, brilliant and another reminder about what fantastic fans we have that stick with us despite been, well an embarrassment. I will offer a perhaps regionalist over generalisation but I do notice a lot of the enthusiasm from the southerners seemed to be artificially induced judging by the gurning goggled eyed darting expressions some of them had. Anyway fair play to them they made a lot of noise.
Sooner or later we will be back in the Prem and I for one will look back with pride and fondness about going to grounds like roots hall. We don’t seem to get a lot of joy there but I was sure wed turn it around last night.
We started off fairly brightly defending the goal in front of us with neat possession and frequently finding Beckford out wide. Somehow though, that good promise started to crumble as Southend came into the game very strongly. The big 26 made some really clever turns and was causing us all sorts of problems. Their confidence was buoyed with some very dodgy cross handling by Casper that put us under some unnecessary pressure that we had to scramble our way out of. One thing that pleases now is our reluctance just hoof our way out of pressure and both Delph and Kilkenny were usually on hand to receive a pass from out of defence. I did noticed one occasion when young Delph tried wrongly to run his way forward rather deliver a simple pass. I was just worrying that he may be letting his well earned confidence run away with him when he immediately got the ball again and put a simple well paced pass sideways exactly as he should have. We were passing the ball sideways quite well but not using the width well at all but more on that later.
The goal came from a foul on the 26 again. I was right in line with it from just wide of the goal and watched it all the way. I might be a bit harsh but I reckon I saw more of it than Casper who seemed a little slow to it. He didn’t have my slightly elevated position though. So another Ex puts one over on us and sent the little rascals to our right into a adolescent frenzy of activity. “Boys pen boys pen give us a song” was the chant from us. Young lad next to me says to his mate after it finished “what does that mean”. His mate says “I don’t know really but I always sing it”.
After the goal we came back into it strongly and quickly got on top. Delph had a rasping effort well saved. JD put what looked like an easy chance wide but too many long range efforts were lame and went harmlessly wide or into the crowd. It was quite an impotent first half attacking display really and we didn’t look quite right. The front two were stretched as Beckord clearly under instruction constantly went wide. That should have left ample room for central pressure on their goal but unfortunately we didn’t have the energy to come from midfield into that position or Becchio was unable to turn his good control into good distribution. It was all compounded by ince again some appalling delivery into the box. So the half finished with us asking the questions including a side netting close range effort but still shaky under their dwindling attacks. No better illustrated than a fairly worthwhile appeal for a penalty when Lubo seemed to impair the big 26 once too often.
A bit of argy bargy in the tea area at half time with a spot of coin throwing from their numpties resulting in some mild copper baiting by some leeds fans kept the interval interesting. “The stewards will sort it out” was their lame response presumably leaving the important task of filming decent citizens on the CCTV cameras to them.
So with us close enough to suck the ball into the goal the half got under way with the lads attacking our end. I forgot to mention the ref in the first half. He seemed a little to indifferent to giving Delph and Becchio any protection presumably recognising that the pair had enough speed and strength to avoid any instantly recognisable foul play. That was just weakness on the refs part and it got worse in the second half. He gave us absolutely nothing ably assisted by his linesmen who must surely have been holding a lifetime grudge against white shirts. Becchio got so frustrated after one tumble he gesticulated to the ref to book the offender only to find himself in the book for the gesture. Fair enough if you ask me, we don’t need that, but a fair indicator of the frustration he was showing over the refs ineptness.
We were continuing the half as we left the first and Southend had all but been reduced to a rearguard action which to be fair to them they did pretty solidly.
Ive got to say that our front twos movement when we are playing it patiently forward is amateurish to say the least. Beckford never shakes his marker demanding it to his feet, the two dont run off each other and neither will attack the near post when its coming in from wide. This effectively renders 90 percent of our crosses as wasted as time and again we lose possession and momentum that way as another attack is easily thwarted and they are able to break. When they do break as well the seem to cut through our central and wide defensive areas with ease putting our back four under intense pressure often resulting in free kicks given away. One of which nearly doubled the score but for Caspers great save.
By now the game was well poised for us to equalise or them to get another but we simply could not get a momentum of pressure going. Beckord was unable to control or beat a man whilst out wide and nothing was coming down the right. It was begging for more quality in the wide channels and namely Andy Robinson. In fact Robbo and Snodgrass came on to replace Delph and Kilkenny though I thought it should have been the increasingly ineffective Howson. It was shit or bust time as they say in the Dordogne.
Well the theory worked, both Snodgrass and Robbo got plenty of ball but neither made any impact, Robbo made a couple of ridiculous challenges after he had been easily tackled or lost possession. Snodgrass cut inside a few times but made very little effective use of the ball when he did. Robbo did a little better but poor coordination by the front two, feeble support by the midfield, lame near post crosses by the wide pair and a desire to walk the ball into the net all combined to end the game in weak ineffective finale
The lads got a clap off, they worked hard, didn’t abandon the passing game and maybe deserved a point at least. There’s been a lot of questions asked about our defence and soft midfield especially away from home. To me we lost it up front in the last third. We could and should have had at least one goal last night and should score at least once every time on our travels. That goal will always put a different complexion on a game. Yes we might concede at least one but there’s as much chance of us extending the lead as they press.
So back on the road up the cold wet and snowy M25, MI. We were back at ER for 2.30 and i was tucked up in the sack by 3.00am. Ready to do it all again on Saturday at Cheltenham
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I might Be Middle Class but I'm Hard. Al Dente you might say
