south east latic

2 minutes ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Of course he hates us. Makes me ill thinking of his snidey manufactured sending off at home to Exeter with three matches left, ensuring he'd be sat at home as we finished the season. Won't be forgotten that.

Northampton wasn’t it? But yes, some captain that. 

First 15 was good, then we fell into our usual habits of pumping it long fairly aimlessly. That being said, Bromley are clearly a decent side and a point in isolation isn’t a bad result. 
 

In terms of style of play, we really all just need to get used to it for now. Whether it’s Mellonball or Mellon making the most out of what he has, I don’t think we have the players to effectively play any other way. None of our midfielders have shown they’re capable of dictating a game and we have no one in the team with pace who wants to take the ball on the half turn and run at the opposition (Green the exception if we’re being generous, but he’s injured). 
 

What’s most frustrating for me is we have the best set of strikers for the level we’re at that I can remember yet we’re so poor in wide/creative areas that they hardly have a sniff. 
 

Think last night also showed the importance of Hammond as the only midfielder willing to break opposition lines, even if his end product is questionable.

In the context of the 90 mins, today was a car crash. Players looked leggy from minute 1 and everything that was good about Tuesday wasn’t there today. I’m not sure anyone really comes out of that with any credit and with a good, boisterous crowd it’s a missed opportunity to accelerate the feel good factor.
 

In the broader context, it’s another blip in a frustratingly inconsistent season. I think we’ll finish in the top 7 and we can expect improvements from Conlon and Dallas in particular as they get sharper but it doesn’t make today any less disappointing. 

I’m in the camp of not really caring about the FA Trophy. Even if we did make it to the final, it’s that weird non-league day set up where they have the Vase final followed by the Trophy final. A number of people in the ground are neutrals and I imagine it’s a very strange atmosphere. It’s certainly not what I have in mind when I think about roaring latics on in a big game at Wembley.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t be looking at winning every game but I’d have done exactly what Mellon did yesterday in terms of giving the squad players a game. If they can’t beat Hendon, they can’t be relied upon in the run-in. Resting the better players in these games lessens the chance of needing to rely on the squad players later on. It is yet another embarrassment at the foot of some our ‘professionals’. 

5 minutes ago, Magic Mikey said:

Seiously? If so, that is unbelievably arrogant. There are plenty who know a lot about football who are very unhappy with that performance. 

Mellon being one of them I’d imagine.

It’s possible to be delighted with the result and what it does to our league position whilst thinking it was a poor performance today. 

No doubt it’s a stupid thing to post but I also don’t get what they’re moaning for - being in on for a couple hours on Christmas Day is pretty standard in professional football. 
 

They’d have as much leeway as they wanted if they’d been even half competent this season but given how they’ve performed, they’re lucky if they’re not in all day. Think fans have a right to be miffed though I can’t say their attitude surprises me.

15 minutes ago, JoeP said:

 

Just catching up on the thread from yesterday -  was anyone calling out Mellon?

 

People (including myself) were calling the first-half crap.  Because it was.

 

People (including myself) then called the second-half good.  Because it was.

 

That's not turn-coating or being fickle, it's describing what happened in the game.  Why would people say the first-half was good when it wasn't?

 

Hobson's performance epitomised the team performance.  In the first-half he struggled to pass the ball to a team-mate 5 yards away but in the second pinged a 50-yard cross-field pass straight to the feet on Kitching. A better ball you will not see in this league..

Yes, I wouldn’t have posted it if not. There were comments questioning the line up, criticising him for dropping certain players, comments that only Mellon can’t see that Norwood feels he’s untouchable, comments suggesting he couldn’t deliver a ‘rocket’ because of his demeanour, comments about his management style being slow and pedestrian etc etc. 

No problem calling a spade a spade, the first half was crap. But we’ve finally got a proven winner in charge, just let him get on with it rather than looking for faults is my point. Ultimately the line up he picked and the rocket he presumably delivered won the game. 

6 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Nice story, just to add some context we were fucking awful for 60+ minutes, Norwood was again disappointing and appears untouchable, they needed another rocket which I'm presuming Mellon eludes to in his post match interview and we managed to get something from the game, most comments on here are not aimed at undermining the manager but merely pointing out the huge deficiencies that exist in the playing squad, not one person at half time could have been of the opinion that that was anywhere good enough, it's easy to after time in a debate when the outcome is known but I'll stick by what I said as it wasn't good enough, simple as that.

 

Nobody is blaming Mellon let's just get that straight before it starts getting quoted as fact.

It wasn’t great and the goal we conceded was amateur but that was about the only thing Solihull created too, it was just a poor game. Not for the first time Mellon found a way of turning it around which is why it’s not worth getting hysterical until the game is done.

I don’t know how to quote the posts in a reply but there’s at least 3 calling Mellon out for something. Not sure why you took my post so personally…

7 minutes ago, True Tic said:

That’s the disappointing thing for me, they had nothing really from defence upwards, and we couldn’t make a dent in them and conceded again. I think Mellon will improve us but only very marginally with this squad. 

I see it another way that they were poor from defence upwards because we kept them at arms length. The sideways and backwards football is one way of stopping the opposition from attacking and I think contributed to an improved defensive performance. What we now need to get better at is the killer ball and taking the opposition on; I just don’t think we have the players in the squad to do it. That being said, we should have scored at least 3 on Saturday. 

4 minutes ago, welshgaz said:

One other key point is that Tommo had us tight at the back. Mellon hasn’t thus far. That’s just a fact. Looking forward to seeing how we improve on that front. Saturday despite the result was a step in the right direction performance wise.

We were extremely unlucky not to keep a clean sheet on Saturday for my money. Did Hudson have a save to make other than the penalty? I don’t think an opposition team have created less against us than that this season

26 minutes ago, lookersstandandy said:

 

Sounds to me like what you're doing is calling for patience. That's all we've ever really done I think. It'll come good in the end. It's just gonna take longer than any of us really want / hoped it would do. It was sh1t under DU, mainly sh1t under Thommo/Redders and still pretty sh1t under Mellon, which has everything to do with recruitment IMO. None of them can get a consistent tune out of this lot.

Maybe, but I wasn’t very patient under Unsworth because from what I could see, there was never any discernible progress on the pitch. What I’ve seen over the last couple of games (excluding Newport as can’t comment on that) is better on the whole than what we’ve produced since we were relegated. 
 

I am happy (well, not happy but you know what I mean) to be patient if I can see progress. I’m also happier to be patient now we have someone who has the credentials to sort things out and seems to see what I see. I don’t think we have much choice but to be patient until the opportunity arises to make some additions to the squad. 

52 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Don’t usually say this, but completely disagree with the large Majority on the pod - other than Andy who brought some balance. 
 

We’re awful. . 
 

We can’t pass. 
 

We have no creativity. 
 

Why is everyone neglecting the 6 - yes 6 really good chances we created??? 

Why is everyone neglecting the fact that Eastleigh won 5-1 last week and we didn’t give them a sniff. Do they get any credit for that. 
 

Why is nobody cutting Mellon any slack with a lob sided squad that means in about 4 positions we have no cover meaning someone has to play out of position. That’s not his fault. 

 

Yes we can and will improve- BUT. Poor ineffective sides do not create 6 clear cut chances! 
 

Mellon hasn’t had chance to sign a single player and has already shown he’s light years ahead of Unsworth. 
 

 

I agree, feels like the pod has swung the other way since the Mellon appointment and become possibly a little more negative in its view. The Eastleigh game for me was a slight evolution on the Altrincham game before it in the sense that while there was still a lot of predictable, slow backwards and sideways passing (particularly in the first half), we created a lot more and really should have run out comfortable winners.

We are hamstrung at the moment by the complete lack of pace and guile in attacking areas coupled with having no one in midfield willing or able to carry the ball forward. Kitching and Lundstram are the only two remotely capable of that. It will require personnel changes for us to become more dynamic. Until that point, incremental improvements are about as good as it’s going to get and if we play like we did second half for 90 mins, I think we win most games still at this level. 

Some comments on here after Rochdale suggesting we’d go unbeaten for the rest of the season were laughable. We still have the same deficiencies in the squad thanks to Unsy and our wonderful recruitment team and until they’re addressed, we’re going nowhere. Deficiencies combined with the lack of effort on show last night is a recipe for disaster. 

Last night was probably the worst performance I’ve ever seen and some of Mellon’s decisions were definitely questionable. But he’s two games in and, as above, it might be no bad thing that he’s got to witness that horror show first thing early doors. 
 

I’m resigned to the best we can hope for this season being sneaking into the play offs which is far from good enough but ultimately where we’re at. 

A very disappointing evening. Low crowd, flat atmosphere (again) and the third poor performance on the bounce.

13 points from these 5 games would have been a fair target given the opposition and we’ve now fallen short of that. The squad is unbalanced, the players look unfit and we’re still unable to look after the football and create opportunities going forwards. Thankfully we have Hobson at the back who has prevented a few goals in recent games. 
 

We looked composed against York, decent for 45 mins against Oxford and have been crap since. It’s disappointing that we’re still churning out such abject performances given the investment in the squad. I think we’re at the stage where the manager decision needs to be made so we can crack on with getting a couple of players in key positions in. Thompson’s steadied the ship but he either needs backing or we need to get a new man in (which would be my preference).

Norwood should start every game he is available for. Let’s see what he’s about now we have a team looking to create chances 

There’s no defending today’s performance and no defending our start to the season. Today was nothing short of embarrassing and if Frank and Darren can’t see that then we’re in serious trouble.

I really hope that the Royle’s friendship with Unsworth doesn’t get in the way of the good of the football club. We’re losing fans through the door and money through the gate hand over foot, the fans that are going are bored and fed up and we’re in real danger of completely throwing away a great opportunity to challenge for promotion.

Unsworth is clearly not the man to take us to where we want to be and it is becoming negligence to do nothing about that. Genuinely such a shame that we’re in this situation.

Today wasn’t a sackable offence on its own. Thought we actually created a few chances which we should have scored from which isn’t something you can normally say about us. 
 

However it’s 1 win in 7 and 10 points off top already. Every week there’s something. Every week there’s a ‘we could have won that if it wasn’t for…’ but we never do. There’s a point at which it stops being unlucky and becomes incompetent and I think we passed that point a while ago. We should be better and I firmly believe we would be with a better manager, it’s as simple as that. 

20 minutes ago, True Tic said:

I think it’s more disappointment than anger, for me anyway. If more time gives us a springboard to winning games then great, but I don’t see anything like a cohesive confident group with six games and the pre season out of the way . 

There’s also the added expectation and, therefore, disappointment at how things are going. It feels as though this is a huge opportunity for the football club to capitalise on the biggest crowds and feel-good (or felt-good as it is now..!) factor in years. Instead it feels very much as though we’re squandering it and that is currently down to the manager. 

4 hours ago, GKing521 said:

There’s still tickets remaining. I’d park the complaints until it actually sells out and there’s strong demand for more.

 

Anyone remember the tears surrounding the Wrexham allocation only for us not to sell it out..?

 

Ticket stats can be found here: https://southend.cstevens.me

Same with Bradford a couple of years ago. First away game I think it was, 1200 allocated, everyone up in arms and not sure if we even shifted them all in the end.

I’d love to be wrong but I really can’t see us signing decent league one players. Surely the kind of wages required to convince a player to drop two levels are going to be above the wages we’ll be offering. 

I was firmly in the Unsworth out camp until fairly recently and I sympathise with those who are still unimpressed - if you look at his tenure as a whole, it’s not been great.

However he is potentially on the verge of having us finish the season in the top half and, results-wise, is finishing the season strongly which were both important criterion for me. 
 

I don’t think anyone can deny that it’s not dull, and that really will have to change to some degree but over the past few weeks I’ve seen a team really putting it in. We’ve looked more solid and though we’ve created a pitiful amount of chances, we’ve now got some quality in the side who can finish their dinner. I think he’s earned the right for a crack at it next season but we have to be in and around the top 3 from minute 1 next season.

8 hours ago, League one forever said:

I think Unsy intimated that MaGahey had another year, (probably due to his contract error/dispute) so he’ll be a hefty pay off. 

I see what you did there 

2 minutes ago, Steve_R said:

Why is it odd? People can tolerate dull football if it brings success, but won’t if it doesn’t. A manager will get more leeway if his football is good to watch. I’m sure adults understand that, and a few kids too.

Exactly.

I watch football for two reasons: 1) to be entertained, 2) to watch Latics win

Can I forego the first in order for the second to happen? I think so (I can’t say for sure because it’s been so long since we won consistently). But in that scenario, we have to be top 3 or 4. A promotion race would be exciting, even if the football isn’t much.

The bigger point is that I don’t think we can challenge top 3 or 4 playing how we’re playing. Without going down an xG rabbit hole, it is a fact that successful teams like Brighton and Brentford base their recruitment and way of operating on stats like xG. I don’t know, but I’d imagine ours is crap even in this recent ‘run’. Over a long period of time I suspect teams who create more chances and concede less than their opposition win more games. We’re not currently doing that.
 

There’s then the argument that we’re not there yet but a few more signings and we will be. That’s a fair argument. My view is we should be playing better football with the players at our disposal. 
 

No one is willing Unsworth to fail as it’s been suggested, we’re just looking for visible signs that we are making strides towards a successful season next season. 

5 minutes ago, mcfluff1985 said:

 

 

Those saying our current petformances awful to watch are right, but I'm more than happy if we keep on picking up a good points total to look shit every week and have playoff form

Performances, style of play etc are a better indicator of longer term progress than short term form. He’s in a place where he’s needing wins by hook or by crook because he was so abject in his first 20 odd games that we found ourselves in the relegation zone. We’ve done that and long may it continue.

However the style of play, the lack of intensity, lack of chances created etc leads me to think that this isn’t sustainable and I think we’ll get found out over the next run of games. This squad surely has too much about it to be not discernibly better than rock-bottom Maidstone.