Southend United v Scunthorpe United

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Football League One

Southend United :
Mildenhall, Sankofa, Dervite, Clarke, Barrett, Grant (Francis 75), McCormack, Christophe, Moussa, Robinson (Scannell 90), Laurent (Barnard 26).
Subs not used:
Joyce, Betsy.

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Wright, Pearce, Crosby, Mills, Thompson (Lansbury 77), Togwell (Trotter 86), McCann, Woolford (Morris 75), Hayes, Hooper.
Subs not used:
Lillis, Sparrow.

SULSESC REPORT

by Neil Wright at Roots Hall

IT'S 7.20 pm on a Tuesday night in Southend, kick-off is in 25 minutes, it's a 15-minute stroll to the ground, you are just finishing off your pint and the stripper is in mid-routine for some bloke's 40th birthday. So what do you do? Yes, that's right, you finish off your pint and leave the pub.

NO!

What you should have done was stay in the pub and watch the stripper.

Bearing in mind this was a second visit to Southend within the space of three weeks for the 100 or so fans that had made the effort, to say the performance by Scunny was inept would be an understatement.

With a makeshift back four, thanks to the debacle in Swindon which meant Byrne and Mirfin were serving a one match suspension for their respective red cards, the signs were ominous from the start.

Basically it was like this...

Murphy kept punting the ball upfield and the Southend defenders were the first to the header every time. McCann's free kicks and corners into the box were constantly being collected by Southend's ex-Codhead keeper Steve Mildenhall.

Paul Hayes and Gary Hooper both picked the same evening to have an off-night. Whatever they did, Mildenhall managed to save everything, with virtually every part of his body - hand, head or foot.

Woolford probably had his worst performance so far in a Scunny shirt and Morris didn't fare much better when he came on as a second-half substitute.

Two Southend goals in the second-half finished off United. The first, on 54 minutes, was the result of Murphy's indecision and the second, on 86 minutes, a strike from the right hand side that beat Murphy without too much trouble.

Seven minutes of extra-time meant we had to suffer this pain a little longer than we would have liked.

It's Leeds United away at Elland Road next (joy of joys), a must win game that could see us dropping out of the top six for the first time since August if we suffer a fourth defeat in a row.

OPPOSITION VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEND ECHO

SECOND half goals from Theo Robinson and Alan McCormack continued the Shrimpers' recent revival with a 2-0 victory over Scunthorpe United at Roots Hall.

The win was the fourth in five games for Steve Tilson's improving side who produced another committed display to upset their play-off pushing visitors.

The Iron had been hoping to bounce back from losing at Swindon Town on Saturday and, after two minutes, their striker Paul Hayes dragged a low right foot shot wide of the target from 20 yards.

Moments later the visitors came even closer to taking the lead when a defence splitting pass from Grant McCann rolled perfectly into the path of Gary Hooper. But the former Blues forward was denied by the advancing Steve Mildenhall who did well to block Hooper's attempted chip with his body.

In reply, a goalbound effort from Anthony Grant was diverted to safety by Joseph Mills and, in the 16th minute, Dorian Dervite fired just wide of the right post from 12 yards after being teed up by Jean-Francois Christophe.

The Shrimpers continued to enjoy more of the ball and they wasted the next chance when Osei Sankofa headed a deep left wing cross from Adam Barrett over the bar from six yards when he should have at least got the effort on target.

Blues were then forced into a change in the 26th minute when Francis Laurent limped off and was replaced in attack by Lee Barnard.

He struggled to make an immediate impression as the defences of both sides remained on top and clear-cut chances were therefore at a premium. But there was a glimmer of hope in the 37th minute when Franck Moussa, who bagged the first goal of his career at Colchester on Saturday, unleashed a low driven shot on target, only for his effort to be well saved to his left by the Iron goalkeeper Joe Murphy.

And just before the break, Robinson's header from Moussa's right wing free-kick was blocked just in front of goal by his own player, Dervite.

At the start of the second half a deflected effort from McCann flew wide of the right post from the edge of the area and a low effort from Garry Thompson was then well saved by Mildenhall at his near post.

But Southend survived those scares and, in the 54th minute, they opened the scoring with a well taken effort from Robinson.

He beat the offside trap to latch onto a through ball from Grant and, with only Murphy to beat, he rounded the 'keeper and calmly rolled the ball into the back of the South Stand net.

The lead should have been shortlived though as, only two minutes later, Hayes found himself clean through on goal but his shot was smartly saved by Mildenhall who then also dealt with the follow up effort.

Hayes then headed over from six yards while under immense pressure from Adam Barrett but Blues were soon back on the attack.

Robinson was denied a second by Murphy who palmed out the on-loan striker's snap shot from a narrow angle before the 'keeper easily gathered a long range effort from Grant.

Scunthorpe soon hit back and, in the 75th minute, a wonderful piece of skill from Hooper took him away from Dervite but his well struck shot, which seemed destined for the top right hand corner of the net, was superbly tipped over the crossbar by Mildenhall.

The relieved Shrimpers were immediately forced into their second change of the evening, with Simon Francis replacing the injured Grant on the right flank.

After the alteration, Scunthorpe were almost level six minutes from time when Hayes headed a left wing cross from substitute Lee Morris against the top of the crossbar.

But Blues sealed their win in the 87th minute when McCormack latched onto a loose ball inside the penalty area and drilled a low left foot shot across the 'keeper into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

It was the midfielder's first strike since scoring at Huddersfield Town last March and meant the smallest Roots Hall crowd of the season, 6,028, returned home happy.