Two minutes with… Southend United

There was Tuesday night action at Underhill this week with Southend the visitors. Shrimpers fan, Jamie, gives his views in this instalment of ‘Two minutes with…’.

Pre-match

Had you been to Underhill before?

I’ve been to Underhill about six or seven times now supporting Southend. I’ve always enjoyed standing on the terrace, it’s not far and it has bags of character. It’s a real shame to lose it.

How did you get to the game?

I work in Colchester (*spit) so I drove down to the ground after finishing work at 6pm.

The match

Whereabouts in the ground did you sit/stand?

East Terrace, towards the north end goal.

What did you make of the game?

Southend started well and I thought for the first 15 minutes the gulf in class between the sides was evident. However, our inability to score a first half goal (we haven’t managed one in the league in 2013) cost us as we gave away a needless free kick which was excellently taken and led to Jake Hyde scoring.

After that, we resorted to humping hopeful long balls to Barry Corr and lost our way completely. We allowed Barnet to control the midfield, which to their credit they did very well. We had territorial pressure for much of the second half but never really looked like doing anything with it.

As we pushed forward, we allowed Edgar Davids too much space and he started to make things happen. A second goal on the counter-attack killed the game and was probably no more than the Bees deserved.

Who (from either side) do you think deserved to be man of the match?

I thought Jake Hyde was the first striker to dominate Ryan Cresswell all season – that’s no mean feat. Although Clovis Kamdjo won the official man of the match, I was also impressed with Bondz N’Gala. None of our players should have been anywhere near the MOM award, the pick was probably Britt Assombalonga, but even he couldn’t make any headway.

Post-match

Was the score line a fair reflection on the game?

Sadly, yes. The loss of Marc Laird and Michael Timlin through injury has crippled our midfield and we are counting the cost. Barnet played well, tried to play football and were deserved winners.

Who do you play next, and how do you think you’ll get on?

Home to Rotherham on Saturday, we do tend to raise our game against teams higher up in the league, so I’m going to be optimistic and hope we can get a draw.

Ratings

Cost of match day ticket

£16 ––– 7/10

Purchases made at ground

Had a burger from the away end tea bar which was average and took 20 minutes to actually get – but at least you are in view of the pitch ––– 6/10

View

Couple of posts but it’s great to be back on a terrace and sadly I witnessed the whole sorry affair ––– 7/10

Quality of football

From us, 2/10 but Barnet surprised me with the way they played. Trying hard to be objective, a neutral probably would give the game ––– 6/10

Overall experience

Underhill is always a great away trip for us, it’s such a shame the council cannot see its value. A poor result and performance from Southend, but a trip to Barnet is always one of the highlights of the season so I’ll go with ––– 7/10 (would have been higher if you’d let us win as you normally do!)

Total ––– 33/50

Jamie is the editor for the ‘All At Sea’ fanzine, the only fanzine dedicated to Southend United. The website can be found here. And check out their Twitter: @AllAtSeaFanzine