The P*sh (Saturday 10th October)

[EB Claret]

We did ok until P*sh scored but never looked like getting back into the game. Both keepers made some good saves in that first quarter of the match, the save from Hoskins was on the end of the best move of the game from either side. Glad to hear KC say that we lacked quality on the ball and often should have taken an extra pass to get into a better position, can we expect more passing in the future?
The injury to Mills probably foiled plans to sub either Adams or Rose who were both running on empty by the end.
At times we appeared to be playing with a back four but with no left back! Bolger improved second half and snuffed out Clarke-Harris, Harriman I thought, was good throughout. That old saying applied today, 'If you're letting too many goals in and not scoring enough, then your problem is in midfield' although I thought Sowerby had a decent game. As for the strikers, nothing to report, but Rose and BAS may yet come good.
Last time we got to league 1 we started ok under Page and got steadily worse, let's hope this season it's the complete opposite.

[Manwork04]

We have, without doubt, the worse squad in this division.
The lack of quality is astonishing, we have to play our best players and that means Marshall starting.
We need a couple of quality loans or we will be the laughing stock and down by Xmas.

[EB Claret]

It would appear that KC doesn't is still searching for his best eleven and some of those are not match fit. I would have brought Marshall on when Mills got injured but KC chose Korboa.

[Shoemaker]

Really good post, until you set out your transfer hit-list of three ex-Premier League players whose combined salaries would probably equal the rest of our squad put together

I take your point but one is currently earning £0 a week and the other two are not wanted by their clubs and would surely be open to paying at least 50% of their wages in a loan deal for a season to get them off the wage bill.....

Don’t forget KC and KT have always stated that as the window drags on the power will be with the clubs and not the players....

I fully expect more unproven players through the door.

[1HorshamCobbler]

His ‘Brinkmanship’ doesn’t seem to have served us well so far.

[guest1269]

We have, without doubt, the worse squad in this division.
The lack of quality is astonishing

We certainly didn’t look great and I agree about Marshall - I will have to bow to your superior knowledge on the squads of the other 23 clubs in respect to the first point 😀

[Shoemaker]

His ‘Brinkmanship’ doesn’t seem to have served us well so far.

The club have got things very wrong quality wise so far.....

Mind you there’s still time left....

We will know our fate by Friday night.....

[Dan]

Spot on Shoemaker. Stick or twist week for the club. I'm expecting at least 4 signings by the close of Friday.

1x big striker. I like Smith and wanted him to do well this year, but he clearly cannot do what Oliver did for us and be the target man.
2x Centre backs.
1x left wing back as cover for Mills. 2 injuries in a month suggests its needed.

[guest3338]

We have, without doubt, the worse squad in this division.
The lack of quality is astonishing, we have to play our best players and that means Marshall starting.
We need a couple of quality loans or we will be the laughing stock and down by Xmas.
[/quoteThe Marshall isn't starting because Curle will not start with two wide players and like Hoskins, Adams plays if he's fit.

[1HorshamCobbler]

I thought Bolger was ok yesterday, prevented a goal and won some important headers, distribution was poor though.

[Carton Lid]

It was very poor that we had a space you could drive a bus into at left back, I'm not blaming Mills because he is obviously told to push forward but if you are playing 3 at the back they need to space out a bit to cover the large gaps. We got away with it 2 or 3 times before they scored the 1st goal, even Tim and Pete Walton noticed it and remarked about the space, you can guarantee that someone from Plymouth was watching and they will know exactly where to attack us next Saturday. Cant help thinking we look better with a back 4.

[Westander]

At half time should have brought on Racic for Smith and gone 4-4-2 would have given Mills and Adams more licence to get forward and round the outside, and a good argument for replacing Adams with Marshall for the last 30 minutes

[everbrite]

At half time should have brought on Racic for Smith and gone 4-4-2 would have given Mills and Adams more licence to get forward and round the outside, and a good argument for replacing Adams with Marshall for the last 30 minutes

Quite

[Madrid Cobbler]

We have lost the spine of our team in Cornell, Goode , macca and Oliver .
With that we have lost our edge and nastiness that a direct team needs .
We may have struggled in this division with those players because we didn’t pull up any trees last season until the play offs arrived .
Without them, we have no chance playing this way .
Smith has been given too many chances now . He is not a footballer and is also not a bully sadly . Curle doesn’t want to lose face and keeps picking him .
We are a long way off even competing at this level right now

Agree with nearly all of this, except that I'm hoping that KC has just taken this long to realise that Smith can't do this job rather than being a question of stubbornness. I think he already knows we're not nasty or aggressive enough at the moment. He basically said that's why Watson came on on Saturday. Only Watson, Missilou and to an extent, Mills and Harriman seem to be willing to really get stuck in. I'm confident that KC can either generate this mentaility in others or has an alternative style in mind, but something needs to change fast.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

What the squad was missing for about 3 years was a midfield general, a leader on the pitch and in the dressing room? Now McCormack has gone it appears that mental strength of character is a bit light again?

[west stand oap]

I think we give McCormack more recognition for last seasons success than is deserved. Remember he only featured in 15 games and in plenty of those only managed about 60 minutes so the vast majority of the season was without him. That is not to say I do not appreciate his performance in most of the games he did play.

[bungle]

I think we give McCormack more recognition for last seasons success than is deserved.

Someone will be able to tell us the stats with McCormack in the team versus without him.

Do you think we would have won that play-off second leg without him? How about Wembley? And all that's notwithstanding his influence in the dressing room which is a lot harder to quantify.

For what it's worth I think KC took the right decision to release him. As you suggest, you can't rely on a player who can only play 60 minutes 15-17 times a season. However, the problem is that we did rely on him last year and now we have no one who can do a similar job. What KC needed to do is to replace him with an equally experienced midfielder leader who could run the show but play more games. Failing that, a vocal experienced centre back (e.g. Keogh who went to MK) would have been high on my list.

[west stand oap]

Since joining Southend McCormack has only played part of 1 game and is again on the injury list. A Jason Taylor type of replacement would have been ideal.

[west stand oap]

Bungle - looking back at last seasons stats with and without McCormack. Firstly I have to correct my statement that he only featured in 15 league games which I gleaned from wiki. They do not include the play off games so he made 18 appearances from the 40 games (37 played before cut off + 3 play off).
His average playing time over these 18 games was 61 minutes and I believe he never completed a full game as his highest minutes played in a game was 90 so presumably substituted for the added time. In 2 of the games he was only on for 3 and 9 minutes.
Over the 40 games we won 19, drew 7 and lost 14 - win % 47.5. In McCormacks 18 games we won 9, drew 2 and lost 7 - win % 50.0. So overall not much difference with him or without him.

[threeinabed]

Bungle - looking back at last seasons stats with and without McCormack. Firstly I have to correct my statement that he only featured in 15 league games which I gleaned from wiki. They do not include the play off games so he made 18 appearances from the 40 games (37 played before cut off + 3 play off).
His average playing time over these 18 games was 61 minutes and I believe he never completed a full game as his highest minutes played in a game was 90 so presumably substituted for the added time. In 2 of the games he was only on for 3 and 9 minutes.
Over the 40 games we won 19, drew 7 and lost 14 - win % 47.5. In McCormacks 18 games we won 9, drew 2 and lost 7 - win % 50.0. So overall not much difference with him or without him.

not much difference - but better with him.