 The Shrimpers were rocked by responses from O's forward duo Anthony Okadigbu and Chris Benjamin within 20 minutes of the restart and could not find an equaliser, leaving Head of Youth Ricky Duncan to muse over his side's inconsistency.
"We were as poor today as we were good last week at Millwall," he commented. "All aspects of our play were poor today, particularly the passing with the exception of James Stevens' ball into Julian for the goal. Orient played well and deserved to win, but I was disappointed with our performance."
The match, played in blustery conditions throughout at Boots & Laces, started slowly, with the few early moments of enterprise coming either from Stevens and Alex Woodyard attempting to thread the ball in behind the Orient defence or wingers Moses Odubajo and Bobby Scott trying to get around the back of the Southend rearguard at the other end.
The dangerous Odubajo had the first shot of note midway through the first period when he curled wide of the right-hand post from 20 yards out, while George Smith's softly-struck effort at the other end drew the opening save of the morning from the O's Tom Lovelock.
Ten minutes later, Stevens pinged the ball over the top for Smith to race onto but, despite getting to the ball first, Orient skipper Stephen O'Hara leant into the attacking midfielder and gently eased him off of the ball inside the penalty area.
Smith was involved again sixty seconds later when his right-wing centre picked out Okai, and the diminutive winger was afforded a second chance to score despite mis-kicking with his first attempt. Duane Ofori-Acheampong shielded the ball back into his path, and this time the second-year scholar chipped against the top of the crossbar.
Okai then fired wide after Ofori-Acheampong flicked a Daniel Bentley goal-kick into his path on 36 minutes before later delivering a right-wing corner onto the head of Kane Ferdinand, who was unfortunate to see his downward header bounce up and over the bar.
Blues were able to edge in front three minutes before the interval when Okai scored his first goal of the season. He owed his eventual precise finish into the bottom right-hand corner of the net to Stevens, who drove powerfully forward through the midfield and sensibly gave up two opportunities to dispatch speculative strikes goalwards himself to slide the ball expertly into his team-mate's path.
The lead proved to be short-lived as the visitors levelled five minutes after half-time. Sam Konway fought hard for possession on the left and set up Scott to swing a left-wing cross into the box. From there, Benjamin touched the ball on to Okadigbu and he glanced a header over Bentley and into the bottom left-hand corner.
Odubajo then lead an Orient breakaway that culminated with Benjamin lofting the ball over, although the Shrimpers almost established an advantage for a second time on 62 minutes when Stevens put Smith clear again, but the Republic of Ireland Under-18 international could only nod casually into the gloves of Lovelock.
That proved all the more costly sixty seconds later as the east Londoners moved into the lead. Benjamin crafted the opportunity for himself, holding off Okai before drilling the ball clinically into the opposite corner from his position on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box.
Substitute Hicham Abdellah tried to haul Southend back into the game, crossing for Ofori-Acheampong, although it was centre-half Jack Dekanski's touch that Lovelock claimed, before the former Football's Next Star contestant brought a save from the custodian himself with a 25-yard effort.
With ten minutes remaining, Abdellah forced Lovelock to scramble at full-stretch to his left-hand side to palm the ball away from goal before the shotstopper recovered quickly enough to gather at the feet of Fope Coker.
In injury time, Ferdinand, who had by now joined Abdellah up front having been imperious at the back, sent a header flying over the crossbar from Coker's cross before Stevens' set-piece was saved by Lovelock. Blues next travel to Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday as they attempt to get their bid for Second Round qualification moving.
There was better news after the match as Duncan confirmed yet another international call-up for one of his young stars: "James Stevens has been called up into the Northern Ireland Under-19 side for their friendlies in Iceland, so he will join them from September 19th-24th," he said. Stevens, who at 17 still qualifies for his country's Under-18 team, could feature in two fixtures against the Nordic outfit ahead of UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying in October.
Southend United U18s: Daniel Bentley, Anthony Furlonge, Teddy Nesbitt, James Stevens, Louis Baucutt, Kane Ferdinand, Ryan Auger (Hicham Abdellah 58), Alex Woodyard, Duane Ofori-Acheampong (Fope Coker 67), George Smith (Michael Hyland 81), Julian Okai.
Substitutes not used: Luke Chambers, Jack Paxman.
Goal: Okai (42).
Thanks to the Shrimpers Trust website for the reprinting of these reports, for the Trust's own youth section, go here:
www.shrimperstrust.co.uk/home.asp?page_id=10 |