Southend United 0 Kidderminster Harriers 2

Mark Beard battled as ever, but unfortunately many around him didn't seem as bothered.

I'm sure you know that we at The Little Gazette always try to remain positive and upbeat in our coverage of the Blues, but we don't lie and we can only be frank about this performance. From this Reporter's point of view it's the worst performance I've ever seen and believe me I've seen some poor ones in the past.

Manager Rob Newman was quoted on the back of the Evening Echo, "We're going to tonk someone" he said, well tonight United could not even muster a meaningful effort on target and the boos that rang around Roots Hall at the final whistle told the entire story of what was quite simply a disgraceful 'performance'.

Not one United player had a decent match tonight and in all honesty Kidderminster are a very average side, but southend did not threaten their opponents, not even in the slightest and it seems unbelievable to say that despite playing at home Southend were never going to win this match.

Needless to say the match itself was hardly a thriller, and there wasn't any worthwhile action until the 25th minute, Kevin Maher loosing out to John Melligan who took a couple of strides before striking a shot just over the crossbar. Five minutes later Drewe Broughton found time and space to turn and fire a fierce shot towards goal which saw Darryl Flahavan make a great save - tipping the ball over the crossbar.

United's first half chance saw Jay Smith fire over from a tight angle following a low Steven Clark cross before Harriers took the lead in the third minute of first half stoppage time, Ian Foster's cross finding Sean Flynn who, completely unmarked at the far post, cooly headed past Flahavan.

The lead was doubled just four minutes after the interval, Flynn's pass picking out Melligan who incredibly was standing in so much space that there wasn't a United player within thirty yards of him, duly he struuted forward before placing a neat low shot past Flahavan much to joy of the 37 supporters who had made the trek from Worcestershire.

Danny Maye tried to get United going and he probably deserves a starting berth on Saturday.

Southend never really tried to get back into the match, Newman flung on both Barrington and Danny Maye in an attempt to salvage something and the pair were probably United's liveliest players but with their team mates static there really was very little they could do. Rawle gently stabbed the ball at Harriers goalkeeper Stuart Brock from a Graeme Jones flick on and Mark Rawle headed a Kevin Maher corner just over the bar but unbelievably the Shrimpers could manage nothing more.

Southend are away at Lincoln City on Saturday afternoon, we've got a feeling that a few supporters may be reluctant to make the trip...

Mark Wallis
www.thelittlegazette.com