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Rovers 2-0 Southend

Ian

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Big big win tonight and a good one too! Was really pleased with the performance. All XI put in good effort and were rewarded.

Southend were poor. They didn't threaten much at all, and when they did, I thought our defence coped well. It's good to see them looking solid as a unit for a change and even after Goodison went off and Ash Taylor fell back into the centre of defence, they still looked solid. Taylor had a great game, in midfield and defence I thought. I like him. His attitude and work rate seems spot on.

2-0 was deserved, I don't think anyone would argue with that, and it was also pleasing to see us keeping a clean sheet and winning by a few goals. It certainly makes a change and was pleased for the lads. They put in a hard working performance and I'd like to see some more of that.

As well as the opposition being quite poor, the referee was awful. But who cares now, we won, three points in the bag and although we are still bottom with Wycombe and Southampton winning, we have crawled it back a bit.

Keep battling lads!!
 
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Johnny morrissey
Made up with all the lads tonight, got the win they deserved
& played like a team!!
Curran was a man possessed & set the tempo for the rest of the team to follow!!!
 

SonkORLY?

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Eddy Sonko
A good win. Southend are a fairly average side but really didn't look like they could be bothered tonight. Maybe they came here expecting an easy game.

I thought we played well generally. The quality of football wasn't brilliant but the effort was there and we created enough chances to deserve our victory. Daniels, for once, had a quiet game.

I have to say that we look a lot more solid with Ash Taylor in midfield. He wins lots of little challenges that go largely unnoticed, and is an asset in both defending and attacking set pieces. It's good to have a natural, vocal leader on the pitch too - even though he's only a teenager.

Elsewhere, I though Bakayogo had a very good game. Curran, as ever, worked hard, as did Shukes, and it was good to see Gornell get off the mark. Logan seems to have toned down his attacking flamboyance at full-back, which is sort of a shame, but Les has probably encouraged him to focus on defending first and foremost, and I can see why. Edds and Welsh battled in midfield, though Mclaren - in contrast to Thomas-Moore, who nearly scored an amazing goal when he came on - looked lost and short of confidence coming off the bench to replace Goodison (hope he's ok).

Enjoyed it tonight!
 
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Liam Palmer
Thought it was a really encouraging display, the lads looked really up for it against a much bigger and more physical opponent.

Thought Logan had his best game and we overcame two significant handicaps to win with ease: firstly losing Goodison to injury and the referee, who gave us almost nothing all night, including a late handball which would have brought a penalty.

Not bothered that some of the team around us won - the important thing at this stage of the season is that we compete, play well and win.

Well done lads, well done Les!
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
I was well pleased with last nights performance. Granted Southend werent up to much but I'd like to think the tempo/workrate of our players had an affect on this.

Thought Goodison looked a bit more like himself but was well impressed with Taylor, esp in his holding midfield role breaking up attacks etc. Defence has to take a lot of credit keeping Barnard/Freedman quiet.

Thought Edds/Welsh did well preventing service to the Southend front men too.

I have always been a fan of Gornell and think he is the most natural goalscorer we have at the moment and given a run in the team, will score goals. He won a lot of headers against Barrett and holds it up well, plus he took his goal well too.

Lastly whilst I am not Craig Currans biggest fan, I have to say that last night he may have put in one of the hardest working performances I have ever seen from a TRFC player. He ran his socks off and was a pest for their defenders all night.

Role on Saturday and hopefully a good cup draw for the 3rd round!
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
Agree with almost everything said above. Rovers fielded a much stronger side than we'd been led to expect and all of the starting XI played well. So well that even the hapless ref didn't thwart us. Southend were very physical, but did have a couple of good chances, thanks to Logan and Bakayogo for line-clearing duties. My one criticism was the midfield dropping too deep when McLaren replaced Taylor. MoM could make an argument for Curran on work-rate and Gornell for leading the line well and being a real novelty at Rovers, a striker who scores! However Ash Taylor shades it for me, an excellent all-round performance.
 

Ian

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Ideally, we could do with a run of wins now. With Aldershot on Saturday, I'm hoping we can get through to the 3rd round and get the lads' confidence up a bit. Was a little disappointed Curran didn't score last night especially with the shot he had early in the second half which the keeper did well to turn it around the post as he deserved too.

One thing I did notice in the first half with Logan and Shuker. Logan just wouldn't give Shuker the ball. There were plenty of opportunities to do so, but he just wasn't having any of it. Did anyone else notice?

I think the only real disappointment from last night was the attendance and atmosphere. Not that I was expecting much, but when the game kicked off, it was deadly silent. Thought I was back watching the reserves..
 
O

OneNightInGayParis

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Great win last night - much needed and now only 2 (rather than 3) wins away from "safety". Following the pre-match talk of Rovers struggling to field a full team, it was interesting to see that Southend only named 5 subs - perhaps they have some problems of their own, or believed Les's "hype" and were trying to even the numbers up!
 
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Clint Hill
I thought we worked really hard last nite espeically Curran,Taylor and Welsh.Welsh was everywhere even Edds who i think having good season.keep playing with that heart and determination we should be ok. My first message big moment.
 

QuickDrawDan

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Oh my lord!!! Craig Curran didnt stop running last night!!! 93 minutes on the clock 2-0 up and he still chased everything!!!! I bet he's still running now. Best performance of the season so far for me. Welshy was gettin stuck in to everyone. Ash just calmed everything down (be it a few loose passes). Broomes was awesome, Shukes was looking good. Get in!!!! If we show that sort of commitment, all will be well!!!
 

SonkORLY?

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Eddy Sonko
One thing I did notice in the first half with Logan and Shuker. Logan just wouldn't give Shuker the ball. There were plenty of opportunities to do so, but he just wasn't having any of it. Did anyone else notice?

I think the only real disappointment from last night was the attendance and atmosphere. Not that I was expecting much, but when the game kicked off, it was deadly silent. Thought I was back watching the reserves..

Didn't notice the Shuker/Logan thing but will keep an eye out on Saturday - pretty funny, lol. And I thought that the atmosphere was alright in the second half. PP was quite lively towards the end.

Boz, agree that we ended up sitting too deep at times in the second half. The entire JK stand shouting "get out, get out, get out" and waving their fingers forward took me back to the Brian Little days...
 

Ian

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Welcome new members. Hope you enjoy posting here.

There was huge relief when the second goal went in as we all know too well that a slim 1-0 lead can lead to a nervous end to a game.
 

DIW

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Ye[, agree with most of what's beign said apart from Broomes being awesome. he didnt play badly but that's a massive overstatement.
Ash Taylor at the moment is the brightest part of our season without a doubt. Thought he had a really excellent game, both in midfield and defence. I agree Curran worked his socks off, and overall we looked okay - let's not forget that Southend were terrible. Still a win is a win, let's follow it up on Sat by getting to the third round, and then another crucial game against Brentford. If we win both, I may start to hope that we've turned a little bit of a corner.
 
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Johnny Morrissey
Cracking performance in terms of grit and determination. We worked so hard it was magnificent to see, not seen all that much of it this season. They didn't stop running all night and got their just rewards for their efforts with a good 2-0 win.

They were a poor team but we took the game to them which put them on the back foot which was pleasing and rattled them. We kept Lee Barnard quiet throughout, even after Goodison went off, we defended really well.

Glad to see a striker scoring. Gornell took his time and composed himself before slotting home. First goal by a striker since Curran scored against Bury in the JPT at beginning of October! The pair of them worked tirelessly up front and deserved a goal, wish Curran had put that one away at the end cos he really did deserve it.

All in all a good display, and thats what we need to see until the end of the season to get out of this mess.

I'd still like to see if Les could possibly bring in a player or two on loan before tomorrow tea time. A big strong centre half would be top of my list, but we'll see what happens tomorrow.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
All these comments about Southend (still 11th in League One) being terrible I find amusing.

Either (1) they are bad but then so must be most of the teams below them in League One
or (2) they are OK, but we played well enough to make them look ordinary.

Either way, it bodes well for our eventual recovery. We are getting better and there must be a lot more teams we are capable of beating.
 
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Johnny Morrissey
Southend were terrible. We finished 7th last season and still produced some dire performances through the season, it's not unusual. We played well enough to cut out their threat. Barnard didn't get a kick which I would think is half the battle against them given the number of goals he's scored.
 
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