Southend game

[zenfootball]

after failing to beat a nine man Northampton team , town continue to do it the hard way , Bury pulling off a draw has not helped with a better goal difference and only one point behind , meanwhile Bolton seem to be losing there way after only picking up one point out of a possible 9. Bolton face Val let us hope Bolton rediscover there scoring boots.if Bolton draw and fleetwood win fleetwood will go to second place on goal difference. to keep ahead of the pack nothing less than a win will do , this will be a very tough game as Southend are only only one point out of the last play off place they also must win to keep there hopes alive . so both teams know they must get a valuable three points and hope the teams around them lose . Swindon face a tough test against Scunthorpe we have to hope Scunthorpe beat swindon as that will mean they cant catch us, Bury play Northampton unless Northampton dramatically improve this will go as three points to Bury ,things could not be tighter.
Southend have recently beaten ,Coventry, chesterfield , oldham and walsall .in contrast town drew against all three .the form of Southend is nearly as good on there travels as at home.
if we were not battling relegation i would say town would do well to get a draw.
Simon cox is the clubs top scorer with 16 goals and next is anthony Wordsworth with 12 . if you wont to see how dangerous Cox is then watch this you tube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nw7BlZsObA

i hope Hurst shows this to our defense Cox has the ability to time with perfection the diagonal run , he also seems to just sit by a defender and find space,and any lose ball in the box and he will pounce on it, he also drifts to the far post and nails goals on an angle .he has a good football brain, good ball control ,he can also shoot anything in from 20 yards area plus he he scores from free kicks!! ,any errors and he will score.essentially every area our defense have consistently failed to get right all season is where cox excels .let us hope we dont have to endure his naff post goal celebrations!
i only hope Hurst get a designated player to mark the far post from corners .i have lost count how many times town have conceded the first goal this make town vulnerable to conceding the second from a counter attack, the stats show the team who score first tend to win.so town score two goals play Southend off the park to give town the best chance to stay up(simple)

[zenfootball]

since taking over Hurst record stands at 12 wins , 9 draws 12 losses .the next games could define his management of Shrewsbury , the man who took town down or towns great escape?

[matster]

If that range of results was over a whole season that'd be 63 points. That wouldn't be too bad would it?

[zenfootball]

If that range of results was over a whole season that'd be 63 points. That wouldn't be too bad would it?

since it would be miles better than anyone else has done as manager for town in the recent history of town at league 1 it would be a massive step in the right direction and this would put us in the right half of the table 63 points would put us 10th !!!, bearing in mind he inherited Mellon's team and has to do his best with a team who are not up to league 1 rather amazing. i wish we can survive so he could have a chance of choosing his team and starting a whole season and see what he can do with the right players and financial backing.

[zenfootball]

this is it make or break time time for town to roar and fight for every blade of grass ,contest every corner , stick to cox like glue or leave with a whimper, destiny is calling time for the players to step up.we need another charlton.

[zenfootball]

i might get egg on my face but here we go , Bury win , Swindon draw , Vale win . if i was not a town fan i would be saying Southend win ,as it is wish for a win because nothing else will do otherwise we have to hope vale loses two games and swindon lose today, if we were not battling relegation i would say town would do well to get a draw.if southend score first the best i can see town doing is a draw,if i was a betting man i would put money on cox scoring . let us hope we have Agogo and morris in midfield , morris is a much more rounded player than Yates , also Yates was lucky not to pick up a yellow card the other day he and Deegan are prone to rash challenges in dangerous areas yates is a liability when he defends ,Deegans distribution is very poor and he tends to pass back or across and often fails to see the potential of what is in front of him. Hurst thinks Payne is the real deal !! if there was ever a time to prove it is now and the next game.Let us hope whalley repeats what he did against Northampton but with much better delivery as most of the time it is catching practice for the keeper, Rodman has been a complete waste of space whatever happens he needs to be given his P45 at the end of the season.
to be honest i am rather apprehensive love to be proved wrong.

[zenfootball]

just as well that i dont bet and very happy to get most of my predictions wrong
town made the best possible start they were really up for and off the blocks quickly ,Payne had three half chances in under 11 minutes ,he later forced two good saves from shoots, Morris also forced a good save . Nsiala did and incredible job in nullifying Ranger who is a big unit and a real nuisance ,Saddler had another solid performance Cox was limited to some half chances as town denied him any room.Payne worked hard chasing a lot of lost causes, Whalley had a tremendous first half ,Morris and Ogogo really compliment each other and Yates brought his brand of physicality to the midfield. the only thing missing from the first half was a town goal. it is a credit to town that Southend only really started to get in the game in he last eight minutes.Brown won a number of crucial headers

the second half was a more even game Southend showed there quality in there touch and go passes that caused town problems and at times some scrambled clearances, Whalley forced a save .it was difficult to see how this game was going to go when town via a whalley cross and a brown header get town that priceless goal. Leutwiller made a save with his knees Southend put town under more pressure and we looked a bit wobbly at times, the last ten minutes they went for route one five minutes of extra was just torturer near the end a Southend player was free in space and thankfully miss hit the shoot. on the balance of play we deserved the win but football is often not fair, there was waves of relief when we scored and when the ref finally blew the whistle. equally thankfully results went our way as both Vale and swindon lost. we can play our last game of the season with less pressure than today.
thought the linesman was a waste of space he missed two blatant hand balls and two clear off sides .

[lazchamp]

What a great result!
I was a bag of nerves at the start, not helped, I have to say, Zen, by you posting up video of their Cox scoring goals for fun!
In the end I hardly noticed Cox and once it was clear that Southend were not all that great really and that Town were really up for it I relaxed and really enjoyed it.
Toto and Sadler were terrific. I actually think Payne gets better and better - he just needs composure in front of goal. But that's academic as his loan spell will be up soon.
Composure in front of goal is lacking all round really. In the first half we got clear on the right several times only to shoot straight at their goalie from a tight angle when a head up and a pull back was the ball.
Never mind. We are safe and that's what matters. We don't really think Vale are going to win well twice away and we are going to go down heavily at Oxford. Do we?
Sad to see Swindon go down!

[zenfootball]

What a great result!
I was a bag of nerves at the start, not helped, I have to say, Zen, by you posting up video of their Cox scoring goals for fun!
In the end I hardly noticed Cox and once it was clear that Southend were not all that great really and that Town were really up for it I relaxed and really enjoyed it.
Toto and Sadler were terrific. I actually think Payne gets better and better - he just needs composure in front of goal. But that's academic as his loan spell will be up soon.
Composure in front of goal is lacking all round really. In the first half we got clear on the right several times only to shoot straight at their goalie from a tight angle when a head up and a pull back was the ball.
Never mind. We are safe and that's what matters. We don't really think Vale are going to win well twice away and we are going to go down heavily at Oxford. Do we?
Sad to see Swindon go down!

Sorry for causing the nerves lazchamp !
what it showed was if you gave him the room and the time he will punish you (It shows what a quality forward can do something town have not had recently)
for once towns defense turned up and stayed that way for 95 minutes, Payne is improving but would you wont him back ? whilst it is still mathematically possible they would need to score ten goals.i am relived this is not all dependent on a win against Oxford let us hope Walsall can beat them or get a draw and it will all be academic

[Bluedog]

Our keeper annoyed me with his blatant time wasting at the end of the game,the last thing we wanted was a lot of extra time,anyway we got there in the end,i am to old for this my nerves are shattered.

[matster]

Yep the time wasting by Leutwiler was completely unnecessary, he could have been a lot more subtle than that. The ball boy by the corner of block 12/13 was far better at time wasting.

[zenfootball]

Our keeper annoyed me with his blatant time wasting at the end of the game,the last thing we wanted was a lot of extra time,anyway we got there in the end,i am to old for this my nerves are shattered.

He was not subtle that is for sure .i got so wound up in the last two home games it was like i had ants in my pants.