Goals
35 - Mark Rawle - A dubious free-kick was awarded to the home side and our defending was awful as they broke quickly forward. Barrington Belgrave had acres of space on the left to cross for Rawle who headed home unmarked at the back post.
71 - Carl Hutchings (Pen) - Tes Bramble beat Matthew Wicks on the right and as he raced towards the area, the former Brighton man grabbed his shirt. Bramble promptly flung himself to the floor as soon as he got inside the area. Wicks should have known better, but it was a clear dive. Hutchings dispatched the spot kick in to the bottom corner to effectivelt seal the game for thye Shrimpers.
Bookings
David Beresford (2nd), Julian Johnsson (4th)
Tigers Line-Up
(4-4-2) Musselwhite, Holt, Wicks, Mohan, Edwards (Sneekes 82), Beresford (Whitmore 84), Johnsson, Greaves, Williams, Alexander, Dudfield
Not Used - Glennon, Van Blerk, Rowe
Attendance
3,341 - About 300 City fans made the trip. Quite a bit of noise at the start, but nothing to cheer about from the first goal onwards.
Brief Notes
Despite a terriffic win at the weekend, it was nack to normal away from home as City crashed to defeat on the road for the 7th time this season. Simply put, we were once again not good enough, as early good play was replaced by stupid hoofing as the game drew on, completely bypassing our most potent attacking options. However, our biggest problems were at the back, as even a draw would have been possible with competent defnding.
Southend's only threat came from their pacey front 2, and whereas their defence were sweeping up the long balls we fed them, ours was run ragged once again by simple through balls. Mohan and Holt were once again the main culprits, and should be dropped for the Shrewsbury game on Saturday. They were totally clueless at times, and if the Shropshire team have done their homework, Luke Rodgers will have a field day with them, as he did at Gay Meadow earlier in the season.
So what is the remedy? We are simply not tough enough to beat away from home. Surely the players know after all of the defeats they've taken that teams are up for it when playing us at home? The Darlington performance showed that we can grind out results, and that was with 10 men. Surely it is not too much to ask? Brian Little has obviously finally lost patience too - He slammed the players in the Media after the game and rightly so. Let's hope they get the message.
In this game though, the home side had so little creativity that with simple defending, we could have easily earned a point. That we didn't is worrying, but the fact that we are hoping to scrape draws at places like this is perhaps even more so.
They Said
Brian Little, speaking to the Official Site, www.hullcityafc.net
"It was a very, very poor performance from us and the first goal we conceded was shocking. In every game we've played at home this season we've been the better side and I mean that with all sincerity. But on our travels we've been second best in 80 per cent of the games so where's the logic in that? There isn't a magical cure and if there was I wish somebody would let me know."
"We started brightly enough but once the first goal went in that was it and although we did okay we never really looked like getting back into things. I can't defend the players because the way they're playing away from home gives people every right to criticise them. Basically it's the same team that defended so well against Exeter at the weekend and we wanted to take that sort of mentality into the game at Southend. But we didn't and were very poor once again."
On the subject of next week's away games at York and Halifax...
"My initial thoughts are to concentrate on those two games rather than the Shrewsbury one. We haven't really had a problem picking a side and getting it to perform at home all season but obviously that's not the case on our travels. Of course, we will be focusing on Saturday though and a win would set us up nicely for the fixtures at Halifax and York."
"We need something from those two games and it'll be a case of saying to the players 'Hey fellas, we can produce away from home and you're going to have to dig deep.' I know people will be sick of hearing me championing the same old lines after away games but all I can do is try to keep everybody together. There is no magic wand, I know that, and the only thing that will get us through all of this is hard work. We do work hard all of the time but we're giving sloppy goals away which is undermining that."
"It's something we have to sort out and I'm doing everything I can to rectify the problems we have." |
