It was a sunny afternoon in High Wycombe and all seemed good again. Southend were out of the relegation zone and were winning 3-1. Football rarely does fairytales though, and it showed. The shrimpers let in two injury time goals to make it 5 league games without a win- their worst ever start to a campaign.
Who is to blame and where did it all go wrong?
Kevin Bond’s side started the game in great fashion and played some neat passes forward and were rewarded when Brandon Goodship got his first professional goal in a Southend shirt on the 11th minute. Not satisfied with a one goal lead, the shrimpers pushed on and Stephen Humphrys also got his first goal of the season with an excellent left footed curler from outside of the box.
I’m sure that not one Southend fan would’ve expected to be 2-0 up at any stage in the game today, and especially not by the 30th minute. However, the travelling side had not kept a clean sheet for 30 games before today’s match and in typical Southend fashion this run extended to at least another game when Mark Milligan tried to kick the ball out for a corner, but instead hit towards his own net.
Wycombe used this goal as a catalyst and carried on pushing for the rest of the half and so it was a massive relief when referee Darren Drysdale blew up for half time. Similar to every other game this season, Southend had played good football until the first goal and so there were massive concerns at half time that we’d throw away the victory.
Thankfully, Humphrys came to the rescue again and slotted home his second to make it 3-1 to the Essex side. The game seemed done and dusted as the yellows still controlled the game- much to the credit of the front men who ran themselves into the ground. Bond’s 5-3-2 formation dropped into a 4-1-4-1 which was questioned by some shrimpers. It didn’t however seem to make too much of a difference and 3 points seemed to be returning to Essex for the first time this season. Unfortunately, nerves heightened from the players and Wycombe took advantage, when David Wheeler’s pass beat the Southend Defence as Scott Kashkett sliced the deficit in half.
The Chairboys then brought on Adebayo Akinfenwa, a man who needs no introduction. The “Beast” as he is known, loves a goal against Southend and seemed to be a move which had both a mental and physical change to the game. Southend were tight at the back for the first hour, despite conceding two and Akinfenwa meant a new change to system. Four players were dragged into marking the 37 year old, which left gaps open. 3 of the flat back 5 alongside Sam Mantom had their hearts set on stopping him from scoring which meant Wheeler and Kashkett had places to run into and exploit.
Nathan Ralph was struggling down the left hand side and, again, Wycombe took advantage through a long spell of pressure. Jack Grimmer played in Scott Kashkett who put his effort over shortly before Grimmer again picked out a neat cross, this time finding Wheeler who hit the crossbar. Gareth Ainsworth’s side kept at it and were knocking on the very broken door of Southend’s defence. The high pressure which had been seen throughout the entirety of the first hour stopped and the yellows sat back, inviting more pressure; this time through Dominic Grape who hit the post.
Whilst Southend were losing hope, Wycombe grew in confidence and continued their play through Akinfenwa, despite having Shaughnessy, White and Bwomono man marking him. The away side were forced to play route one football but Humphrys had ran himself into the ground meaning The Robinson took his place. A short spell of pressure followed for the shrimpers but it amounted to nothing. With five minutes to go, Akinfenwa continued his impact winning every header that came to him and so Bond made a gamble. He took off Bwomono for Andre Blackman and hoped that he’d be the man to contain him. It wasn’t to be though and in the 90th minute, after a set piece situation, Akinfenwa was given too much space by Shaughnessy and White as he laid off a pass to Anthony Stewart to make the game 3-3. The away end was left heart broken; the players left shattered. It wasn’t to be the end of the nightmare though, with at least 5 minutes of stoppage time to be given after injuries to various players. Wycombe kept attacking, Nick Freeman played through Scott Kashkett who lost Ralph, skipped past Shaughnessy and slotted home to give Wycombe the lead.
At the end of the game, Southend’s players came over to applaud the travelling shrimpers; the opposition manager came and applauded the travelling shrimpers; but one man didn’t- Bond. There’s no denying that yesterday’s result should never have happened, and about 95% of the Southend United Facebook Group were calling for Bond’s Head, #BondOut grew in popularity on Twitter and talk on the way out of the ground was one of disgust. Kevin Bond came under lots of criticism for not facing the fans, including criticism by me, but looking back with a calmer head, it’s understandable why. He had just seen his team throw away three valuable points which meant they are still the only team in the EFL without a point. I’m sure he was hurting like the rest of us and couldn’t face the embarrassment of going over to the fans.
Many fans blamed Bond for the defeat, but controversially or not, I have to disagree. Wycombe have made their best ever start to a League One Campaign, and under Bond we managed to take a 3-1 lead away from home. If Bond was so clueless and inept there was no way we would’ve made the gains we did. Many blamed the change in system and the substitutions for the defeat but you have to look at it logically. The change in system came at half time, whilst Blues were 2-1 up. In the last 10-15 minutes of the first half Wycombe were bombarding our defence and looked like they would grab a second. The change in system was designed to get rid of the gaps and apart from when they scored their second, it was working. Blues were solid and looked like they got their foothold back.
Fans on Facebook and Twitter criticised him for bringing both goalscorers off but that to me screams that they were either not at the game, or were judging based on emotions. Both strikers were a credit to themselves and the football club; both running themselves into the ground. When Blues psychologically decided they would hold on to their lead instead of grab more goals, a direct approach was made. Humphrys did not have the legs to keep chasing and so Bond brought on Theo Robinson to chase the passes (something our own fans have specifically said that’s when Theo should be used). Unfortunately, and not to the fault of KB, Robinson failed to make the impact we would’ve wanted. Goodship also ran himself into the ground and with him being tired, many of Wycombe’s attacks came down our left wing. Bond brought on Ndukwu, who has looked solid since joining, another sensible decision.
The third and final substitution, which seems to be the most controversial, was when Bond brought off Elvis Bwomono for Andre Blackman in the 89th minute. Some of the questions I’ve seen asked is why was it made so late in the game- but it was obvious to anyone who was at Adams Park that there’d be at least 5 minutes of stoppage time thanks to various injuries and substitutions. Bwomono is not the tallest of defenders and certainly isn’t one of the most physical in the team. This showed when Akinfenwa kept shrugging him off like he wasn’t there. In Blackman, there is a slightly more experienced defender, who is both taller and stronger, and may have been able to cope better. This is not to say Elvis had a bad game and was probably one of our better players but I completely understand why Bond made the decision to bring him off. I’ve seen people say that it was this decision that lost us the game but it was a set piece which saw the equaliser (where all eleven players were in the box) and Nathan Ralph’s man who scored the winner.
It is no doubt a massive concern to any Southend fan that we have made our worst ever start to a campaign but you have to look at it without the emotion. The truth of the matter is that we have made massive improvements each game. I do not think it’s good enough at the moment and I have said this multiple times. 14 goals in 5 games is disgraceful and the wait for a cleansheet is gruelling. Fans have said it’s Bond’s fault because he has had a summer to bring in new players and get rid of the mentality. This isn’t FIFA and we aren’t a Premier League Club. We can’t just identify a problem and fix it overnight. We can’t just release players from their contract and sign new players- it costs money we don’t have. We can’t bring in five new players and increase the budget when we are almost £20m in debt. On Wednesday, Southend were faced with another winding up petition at Court showing a real cause for concern. Bond repeatedly says he wants to get rid of the culture that was left from his predecessor and was criticised for saying it could take two windows time. Next June, there are eleven Southend players out of contract and at the moment I can only think of 2-3 who deserve a new deal. Nobody likes losing every week and nobody likes seeing the club where it is but there isn’t a magic money tree that can come and fix this, and there isn’t a magic manager who can wave a wand and get us in the top six. The legacy of last season will remain for a while and the Sunderland game cannot paper over the cracks.
Bond has not been perfect and he certainly has made mistakes. Changing systems each week must surely damage the players and there must be consistency. I’m seeing consistency in the way Bond wants to play but I’m not seeing consistency in the execution. Before Saturday, Blues had scored one goal, an own goal, and shipped 10. The problem is there for all to see and must be sorted before Southend United become a League Two club. On Tuesday night, Posh’s owner Darragh MacAnthony said we played good football and yesterday Gareth Ainsworth had high praise for us after the game, saying he felt it was now that we’d turn a corner. We all know Ron Martin is a lenient chairman and so we, as fans, must stick together. It’s soul destroying losing every week and sometimes you ask yourself why you do it, but I have no doubt Bond will come good. We have a great opportunity to get through to the third round of the Carabao cup before a home game vs Rochdale. Whether you’re Bond In or Bond Out, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t concerned about the state of the club but this is a results based business and time is definitely running out for the man in charge to get it right. UTB.
The SS2 View 