GK Darryl Flahavan | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals Conceded: 0 | Rating: 7.5 |
Flahavan knocked up another clean sheet, although he had little to do throughout the match. The was one occasion were Flavs was sent low to his right after a shot by experienced forward man Iwan Roberts but the afternoon was rather dull for Darryl. It was a good performance from the Southend defence that meant that Flavs could spend most of the afternoon in the sun getting tanned! |
RB Duncan Jupp | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 7.5 |
Another good performance who has kept is critics quite having played in all of the last games that have seen Southend keep clean sheets. Jupp’s. Jupp looks as if he will be a permanent fixture in the Southend side, even when Lewis Hunt does return, due to his good performances that have helped Southend to rise to second in League Two. |
CB Spencer Prior | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 1 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 8.5 | ||
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CB Adam Barrett | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 1 | Assists: 1 | Rating: 8.5 |
Barrett was another contender for the man of the match award and with one assist and one goal he may feel that he should be claiming his eighth TLG award of the season. Not only was great in the air he was also a rock at the back. Despite not having an awful lot of Cambridge attack to deal with Barrett was an inspiration to the team even without the captains armband on. |
LB Che Wilson | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 8 |
To be honest I barely noticed Wilson throughout the match. I’m not sure if this was due to the lack of activity in his areas or whether it was due to Wilson’s consistency in what he does; Probably the latter. Wilson stuck to the job in hand and completed another ninety minutes where he was involved in a virtually faultless defensive performance. |
RM/LM Carl Pettefer | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 7 |
Another performance where Pettefer was a lot more direct than he has been in the past. Petts attempted to beat the opposition; Often fullbacks Tom Newey and Dan Gleeson however he struggled to do this. Pettefer’s work rate was very high as usual and his link up play with Eastwood and Gray was also of a high quality. |
CM Mark Bentley | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 8 |
Another driving performance from Bentley who needed to be at his best in order to compete with the five strong Cambridge midfield. Bentley flew into tackles with the U’s midfield and often charged through the middle of an often-weak centre of the park. One weakness of Beno’s game was his tendency to be offside. Bentley was offside on a few occasions and also interfered with play as Wayne Gray went through goal in the second half. |
CM Kevin Maher | Minutes on pitch: 90 |Goals: 0 | Assists: 1 |Rating: 8.5 |
Much of the pre-match talk was about whether Maher or McCormack would start in the heart of Southend’s midfield. In my mind it was a one horse race; Maher is clearly the better player and was rewarded with a place in the starting line-up. Maher certainly rewarded Tilson for selecting him with a fantastic performance that saw him deliver the two set pieces that resulted in Southend goals. Both met Adam Barrett’s head and one went straight into the net, thus giving Maher a massive eighteen assists for the season. Maher’s all round play was also exceptional. He sprayed the ball around nicely but also got stuck in very well. Maher’s hard tackling was an important feature of his play and he, like Bentley, dealt very well with the extra man that Cambridge had in midfield. |
LM Mark Gower | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 4.5 |
This is one of these times when you just have to say what you feel- ‘Gower was awful!’ Most of the match I was left cursing at a player who was quite simply a let down, especially with the ability he has. Everyone at Southend knows he has much more talent than he currently demonstrating and this is what frustrates me. Gower seems to be cutting corners with everything that he does. Rather than cutting back onto his right foot, he often crosses (poorly) with his left and instead of trying to beat players he often runs alongside them and is therefore an easy target to get tackled. Add onto this his inadequate delivery of set pieces and you have an awful performance. I don’t like to criticise players, especially Gower, who is my favourite player but to be honest the former Tottenham midfielder has been appalling of late and I would like to see Nicky Nicolau return to the side for Friday night’s game against Bristol Rovers. |
CF Freddy Eastwood | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0| Rating: 7 |
Unfortunately for Eastwood the run six games of finding the goal has ended. If Southend do make the top three this year then Eastwood’s amazing streak of goals will be long remembered but unfortunately today was not Freddy’s day. Often he tried to wriggle in and out of the stern Cambridge defence but they were determined not to let the former Gray’s man in with a chance. They did slip on one occasion but Freddy shot more or less straight at keeper John Ruddy as he went straight through on goal. |
CF Wayne Gray | Minutes on pitch: 90 | Goals: 0 | Assists: 0 | Rating: 8 |
Another quality performance from Gray who again worked hard to contribute to the team. Gray was the man who won the freekick that produced Southend’s second and ultimately game-killing goal. I am not sure that all of the Cambridge fans felt it was a freekick and Gray was booed frequently in the second half of the match. This did not deter his performance and Gray continued to chase throughout the half although he did not see an awful lot of the ball. Gray did carve out one more chance when he headed a Pettefer cross that was tipped over the bar. |