Someone's got to say it.

It's looking very bad for us now.  Every game we play, the press, ie other websites and newspapers, say that we were very poor.  Tomorrow morning you'll read the same thing again.

It's no use trying to place the blame on the lack of a striker because now we are missing just Christie and are at full strength in the striking department.

Jan's comment following the game was that he was pleased with our performance and was glad that we kept the score down to a respectable level.  No mention of our failure to get a shot on target or the blindingly obvious fact that we are at the bottom of the table on merit.

Our supposedly best outfield player, Simon Brown, starts yet another game on the bench and we revert to one man up front for the umpteenth time this season.

Unless some miracle happens at Aggborough I think we are slowly being primed for Conference football.


This was a game that we should have, on paper, been able to get a point from.  In reality we were lucky to have not been on the receiving end of a good hiding.  After Gowers goal went in most of the game was one way traffic and it was thanks to the only player in a Harriers side with any value that saved us yet again.  I dread to think what our goal difference would be if we hadn't got John Danby.

The game started slowly with Shaun Cooper making his debut for us at right back.  Lee Jenkins took up a place in midfield at the expense of Ian Foster.  As mentioned before there was no start for Brownie and Christie was deemed to be not fit.

The first chance of the game fell for Southend when Mark Gower made his way to the penalty area before letting go with a shot that was deflected towards Danby by Abdou Sall and forcing him to save low to his right.

The goal came soon after when another deflection, this time from Hatswell, set Lawrie Dudfield on the way to the Harriers goal.  He laid it off for Mark Gower who gave Danby no chance with a strike into the top-left corner of the net that left Danby rooted to the spot.

Two minutes later and the Shrimpers could have doubled the lead when again Dudfield broke through but this time decided to shoot for himself rather than lay it off.  His shot hit the side netting.

We did have a chance to get even mid way through the half when Langmead found himself in a one on one with Flahavan but he could only watch as Spencer Prior slid in to block his shot at goal.

Gower came near to adding to his tally when was again set up by Dudfield but this time his shot went the same way as Dudfields and ended up in the side netting.

In the forty-third minute the Harriers were reduced to ten men when Abdou Sall swung a kick at Dudfield following a challenge.  The referee, Grant Hegley, didn't see the bad challenge on Abdou and didn't even talk to the offender, he just dismissed Sall.  No excuses really, Sall should not have reacted.

The second half started with a tactical change round with McHale coming on for the in-effective Diop to slot into the place left by Sall and in essence leaving Langmead even more isolated up front.

Southend carried on as before with headers from Dudfield and Maher testing John Danby but he easily dealt with those.  He saved us again when he stopped a goal bound shot from Bramble minutes later.

With Southend now dominating the game, but unable to score, and the Harriers not able to get a look in Molby bought on Simon Brown but without any decent service he was never going to be able to change the game by himself.

Ten minutes from the end the Southend manager, Tilson, bought on the ex Harriers hero Drewe Broughton in place of Dudfield but he still hadn't found his touch in front of goal and was just as hopeless as his old comrades. Southend came close to scoring on two on two more occasions before the end of the game.  We didn't.

We're at Bristol Rovers in the LDV on Tuesday so I'm not really expecting an improvement there but we have got the equally as bad as us, Cambridge, at home on Saturday.  Any chance of a point and a goal?