Well what a busy week. Really glad I was busy on Wednesday so felt it better not to go to Tuesday's match! On Saturday we travel to Southend, probably with a bunch of light headed footballers needing being brought down to earth again, hopefully MM and MJ have already done that and pointed out that playing passing football and continuing trying to play it no matter what the opposition are doing is a good thing (Thank you Liam Lawrence for actually noticing and stating it during the week in sloppy star) Useless but possible interesting facts: Southend pier, at 1.34 miles (!) is the longest in the world Southend was orignally called Legra. It is mentioned in the Domesday book in 1086 as "Legra" as small fishing hamlet, worth 100 Shillings. Famous people include James Bourne from Busted, impressionist Phil Cornwell, one of my favourite comedians Lee Evans, historian Somin Schama and Helen Mirren 5 Wins, 3 draws and 3 losses see Southend in a good position sitting above us in the table with 17 points, top scorer is Payne with 4 across all comps, but beeb state Payne, Clifford and Weston all on 2 goals. Southend defender Ben Coker is out because as is still recovering from an elbow injury. Defenders Cian Bolger and Ryan Leonard might be back following their injuries. Shrewsbury Town as far as we know have no injury concerns. Hopefully with a few of their defenders coming back to fitness or injured Town go for attaking mentality and get themselves a well desereved away win. Previews here: http://www.shrewsburytown.com/fixtures-results/match-preview/index.aspx?matchid=3734042 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29289749 Come on you blues, breathe on 'em Salop
we are approaching mediocrity, just 4 points away from 18th place. Plymouth and chelt. lost today and Exeter knocked bury off the top. we need back to back wins pdq. hopefully town may come good against Cheltenham as I hopefully witness a goal fest. cup runs are fine but compare most unfavourably with mediocrity in the league. time for MM to awaken his sleeping beauties before AJ does on 11/10/14!! Floreat Salopia! it is high time those up front started earning their corn. Bradders is doing it for Walsall. pity he isn't doing it for Town.
Atcham, I am happy to see us progress in the League Cup but to my mind League 2 is much more important and I hope the players do not get distracted by all this talk of the Chelsea game. To be frank, looking at the team Mourinho put out against Bolton he seems to be the only top manager taking the League Cup competition seriously and we have precious little chance of causing an upset against them (and could well get a right hammering). What MM does needs to do fast is to sort out our away form in League 2 otherwise we will get detached even from the play-off places. We have some quality players for this league but to my mind the main weakness is the lack of width - Vincent and Caton do not compare favourably to Wright , Ainsworth or Taylor at the moment and this means we are having to play in front of teams rather than getting behind them.If we can get some decent crosses into Collins and Mangan I am sure they will rediscover their scoring touch.
The three at the back failed to work today but that was down to a woeful display by Gayle rather than the three. For the first half hour we were giving as good as we got. For the remainder we were living off scraps. Akpa Akpro came close with a very good header and that was really it. Mangan's dubious mind set was definitely called into question today with his stupid challenge on the keeper resulting in the second booking. Southend, though, were a decent side and, if I were a betting man, I would put money on them getting automatic promotion.
I agree with points made. thanks to other results the league is "bunching" up. not totally hopeful of 3 points at Plymouth nor against Bury. am hanging my hat on Cheltenham game. 2 loan wide men may make a difference, and chances converted will make a difference. I am convinced we have the fire power to marmalise some club. the sooner Chelsea distraction is out of the way the better. then within 10 days we start FA cup campaign.
KDS I agree that Southend look like contenders this year but no side has really stood out yet in this division. What is really worrying for us is our inability to score goals. It seems to lie with the balance in midfield not being quite right so we are not getting enough quality balls into the box. Whatever system is played it can always be let down if players have an off day or make individual errors.
It was the same old yesterday. Shooting high or wide or not shooting when they should have. I see in the end we had more attempts than Southend. Demetriou is capable of delivering quality and so is Vincent, who I would expect to start next match. Comparison of wingers is interesting. I would compare Caton with Ainsworth, who was one of my favourites, but a luxury we could not afford. Vincent is every bit as good as Wright or Taylor. Works as hard for the team as the latter and with better control.
Vincent was the joint biggest threat when he came on with Collins in the last last league match. He only played 25 mins and attacked the goal so many times we joked he deserved MoM
KDS I think you are a bit harsh on Wright and Ainsworth. Ainsworth was very fast and talented and terrified defences for at least half a season (destroying Kilbane at Derby) and was a great crosser of the ball before his personal issues got in the way. Wright was very skilful, could run all day and was very good at finding space between the opposition lines and also scored the small matter of (I think) 26 goals in his first two seasons. Caton is young and still quite raw and I hope he does make a decent player. We have probably not seen the best of Vincent yet and he has looked a bit unlucky to be benched but if he turns out to be half the player for us that Wright was then I would be happy.
Not really being harsh on Ainsworth. I was at Derby, too, and would far rather he played than not. When Caton came on pre-season he looked as though he could beat a man with ease but we haven't seen anything like that since. Neither he nor Ainsworth were defensively minded, thus bringing about the exclusion of the latter. Wright could do that job to an extent but I would have prefered to see Parry being retained (salary) this season. He performed quite effectively in the league above last season (when given the chance) and also scored goals.
KDS, I have seen very little of Caton but MM would not have signed him if he did not think he could do a job at some point during the season. I think Clarke is wasted on the wing and we need to get more of a creative threat in midfield so I would play him there (certainly at home). The forgotten man at the club seems to be Wildig who was very good at linking the defence and the attack but MM does not appear to rate him.
Clark has not really played on the wing for some time. At the moment he is making wrong decisions (inexperience). Trying to beat too many men and shooting wildly. Has the talent, undoubtedly, but lots to learn. Agree about Wildig.
