Craven's Marks Out Of Ten

GK Darryl Flahavan | Mins on pitch: 90 | Goals Conceded: 4 | Rating: 7.5

MotM: Incredibly, despite conceding four goals, Flahavan is the sole contender for the Man-of-the-Match award, and the scoreline could have been a lot worse had it not been for some fingertip saves in both halves. Let down severely by his defence on all four occasions, the one instance that he may have done better was in spilling Hignett’s drive straight to Armstrong for the third just before half-time when Blues might still have had a small glimmer, but for the most part Flavs was faultless. Positioning was good, and he did most of the right things without the support he required.

RB Duncan Jupp | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5

Jupp had a much easier afternoon than his counterpart on the left Che Wilson had, but he was part of a back four that invited pressure on themselves. Juppy kept turning himself towards his own goal, thus losing any forward momentum United could have gained, and he seemed intent on doing the difficult thing when the simple would suffice. Not the end of the world though.

CB Spencer Prior | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5

Sloppy play in general means that Prior’s rating decreases. Although you could easily argue that Wilson was to blame for the majority of the goals, the ex-Norwich City man hardly led by example himself, and as a one-time Premiership player, in theory he was the man that was best equipped to deal with Armstrong and Wijnhard. That he wasn’t was a principal cause of Blues’ downfall.

CB Adam Barrett | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5

Maybe time to look a little more closely at Barrett’s defending rather than his heroics up front. To be fair to him he has never professed to be an outstanding forward player, so that should not be held against him. However, he was, with Prior, responsible for horrendous gaps in the centre of the defence, and a great deal of flat-footedness as first Armstrong tucked home from an offside position and then sprung the trap to lob Flahavan in the second period. Did help launch a token second-half fightback.

LB Che Wilson | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 3.5

The Ely-born defender was excepted from his poor LDV display – he was up against ex-top level performers in Neil Danns and Gareth Williams and in his least favourite competition to boot. However, against an American college student – and that is no offence to Adolfo Gregorio (he qualifies without a work permit due to Portuguese parentage) – he should be doing an awful lot better.

Wilson was forever caught out of position, whether that be too far forwards or too far across. As a result Adolfo had the freedom of the northeast, and not just Darlington, to raid the right-flank, and he provided the quality ball for Armstrong’s first, and then a beautiful switch pass for Stephen Thomas to get in behind for Wijnhard’s. From then on, it really was all over. Nicky Nicolau has been impressive in the reserves, and awaits his chance.

RM Carl Pettefer | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 6

Pettefer did little particularly wrong, and indeed in the opening fifteen minutes when the Shrimpers were on level pegging, he looked the most likely player to provide the killer ball. He was darting inside and out and looked set to make an impact. Then, as Darlo got on top, their experienced midfield of Hignett and Neil Maddison froze Petts out of the match, and he was unable to deliver anything telling into the area.

CM Mark Bentley | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5.5

Midfield battler Bentley must have Tuesday’s Football Association review of his red card at Colchester on his mind because this was the least effective display from the Enfield-born player for a long while. It was not that he was not trying – I don’t think I have ever seen Bents fail to go for a 50-50 challenge – but that he couldn’t establish his usual authority on the fixture, and it goes to show how influential he is to the team that stifling his supply line cut the rest off.

CM Kevin Maher | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 6

King Kev was another than didn’t really disappoint, whilst you could barely say that he had a worthwhile positive impact on proceedings. At times he did get his foot on the ball, but when it needed him to be there, he was found wanting, and one early ball was so optimistic that Wayne Gray, Tes Bramble and Mark Gower all gave up trying to get to it. Generally his display was good though, and most of his passes found the right man, if they were not too adventurous. Even powered forward to have a skewed shot from the edge of the penalty box at one stage.

LM Mark Gower | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5.5

Again expecting more for the playmaker in midfield. Early enterprise was replaced by a tendency to construct things on a whim, and he slowly drifted further and further out of a game. Indeed, I can barely recall an occasion where Gower was involved in so little of what Southend did, but he was not the only player to go missing at vital times.

CF Tesfaye Bramble | Minutes on pitch: 64 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 6

Bramble was perhaps a little unfortunate to be substituted for the second match in a row, but it is likely that Steve Tilson wanted to have a look at Corbett and Broughton up front and sacrificed the powerful front runner. A lack of service seriously hindered his chances, which were few and far between, and as far as concrete efforts on goal are concerned Bramble was a non-player, but you still get the feeling that a bit of service and he could yet develop into that 20-goal-a-season man.

CF Wayne Gray | Minutes on pitch: 64 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 6

Gray did spurn the one clear-cut chance of the clash so far as United were concerned when he raced onto a through ball to go one-on-one with Sam Russell. A man high in confidence would have blasted it into the net from the edge of the area, but with Gray short he decided to try and round the ‘keeper and ended up being denied at his feet. Nonetheless showed an ambition to run, and this was a decent performance at least for a man cut off from the rest of his team.

CF Drewe Broughton | Mins on pitch: 16 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5

Most Southend fans are still wondering whether Drewe actually touched the ball in hi quarter-of-an-hour on the pitch. Received a booking as he went off for treatment on a head injury, and that was the last time he was seen – eight stitches were required and he could be out for a while.

CF James Corbett | Minutes on pitch: 26 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 5.5

Ineffectual is the word best used to describe Corbett, who was distinctly nondescript playing as a striker. Perhaps it was because he didn’t have the service, but ordinarily a Broughton-Corbett partnership in theory should work. That it didn’t could be down to the players themselves, or their team-mates – it could be a formation worth trying again.

CM Lewis Hunt | Minutes on pitch: 10 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 6

Quite where Hunt played when he replaced Broughton is a mystery – perhaps switching Nicolau with the injured man to allow Gower a free role would have worked, but he had even less time than anyone else to get stuck in, so is completely free from blame.