Another game and another game the missus comes to! The wedding lark has got alot to answer for - Roots Hall used to be my couple of hours of lads time with the boy (admittedly he's three but any married fella will know what I'm on about) but now she wants to drive there and back and expects me to cough up for her ticket.
I was looking forward to tonight purely to see Robson-Kanu back in a Southend shirt and if we're honest we'd like to think he'll be here for the duration rather than just the initial month he's been signed on. The game itself pitted Albion old boys Revell and Harding up against their old team mates and it was Revell who caused the most fuss. His lateness going through on Michael Kuipers was worthy of the Yellow but surely Mr Singh should have shown the nutty Brighton keeper the red card for what can only be described as "windmilling in" on Revell. A raised hand is usually enough to have a player sent off but in Mr Singh's eyes obviously not.
Mr Singh in all fairness didn't have his best ever game - in his previous visits to Roots Hall he has been alright but I personally thought some of his decisions were shocking and cost us the game. Yes, Moussa was always going to go for his studs up challenge but he seemed very keen on littering the game with yellow cards.
With Kuipers being as unpredictable as ever in the Brighton goal even with 10 men you always fancy your chances and if his attempted clearance which bounced of Sir Barnard had ricoched that little bit more we'd have been laughing but Friday obviously wasn't meant to be our night.
It also saw the introduction of Lee Sawyer to a Proper Blues shirt and his first competitive challenge led to his yellow card, (surely words of advice would have been better given how long he'd been on), and to the free kick which saw Brighton open the scoring. As soon as they had scored, you sensed despite Kuipers antics that the lads heads dropper and they themselves were resigned to their first lose of the season. Brighton scored another one in the dying minutes to rub salt into the wounds and send the merry little men and their boyfriends', (sorry couldn't resist), back to Brighton happy.
As for me - it left me explaining to the missus why we bother going and why it wasn't a waste of a Friday night. You have to love them you really do!
Mildenhall - 6; Not one of his best - at fault for second goal as it went under him. We all have bad nights but keepers get shown up for theirs.
Francis - 7; Can't really fault him - linked up well with Betsy.
Barrett - 7; Little to do - what he did do he did it well.
Clarke - 7; Exactly the same as Mr Southend.
Harding - 6; Dont think he is fully settled yet - it took Mulgrew a while so here's hoping . . . .
Betsy - 7; I liked him from his brief showing at the Peterborough game, good going forward but lacking that final ball at times.
Grant - 6; Nothing really makes him stand out.
Moussa - 5; Purely on the back of the red card. You cant go in with your studs up. Until then he was going well.
Robson-Kanu - 8; The flashes of last season are there for all to see, pacy and his passing is good. Just hoping we keep hold of him at least till May.
Revell - 7; One of his better ones for me. Yes he was late with the clash on Kuipers but def. getting better.
Barnard - 7; Always works hard - the missus seems to think he goes down to much - I'm thinking its just her wishing.
Subs: Sawyer 6; Hardly had much to do in the time he was on - I'll put it down to us being down to 10 and this being his first game.