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This was by far and away the most pathetic showing Rangers have put on this season. From the word go they looked sluggish and never once did they look as though they would cause Southend any problems. Harsh words are in order for the majority of the team.
With the squad being hit with injuries Holloway had no choice but to field the eleven he did. Following a sterling defensive display on Saturday against Brighton who would have predicted this shambles from virtually the same side. Day was in goal behind Forbes, Carlisle, Shittu and Padula. Marney replaced Bean in midfield to link up with Rose, Bircham and Rowlands. Gallen and Furlong continued in attack.
Rangers started the first ten minutes pretty brightly with Furlong and Gallen causing a few problems. Day was forced into a decent early save from a Maher volley but all seemed to be ok. The good work was all undone though with a piece of diabolical defending after eleven minutes. Mark Gower found space on the left and picked out Leon Constantine in the penalty area. There was not a defender in sight as he trapped the ball and picked his spot past Day.
Every chance Rangers had before the break was quickly snuffed out by a Southend side that were belying their poor league position. They were snapping into the tackle and putting their bodies on the line to block shots when the chances came. Neither side could force the opposition keeper into any meaningful work though and the halftime break couldn't come quickly enough to put an end to a pretty poor half.
Even though we were a goal down people were confident that a stinging team talk from Holloway would fire his troops up sufficiently to get an early equaliser and push on to win the game. Rangers did manage to mount a spell of concerted pressure but every time it came to taking a chance it seemed to fall to the wrong people. Shittu and Carlisle had chances with headers that they should have buried and Furlong was involved in a crunching collision with Flahaven, the aftermath of which saw a Gallen shot hacked off the line after the whistle had gone.
It seemed one way traffic when Southend suddenly broke upfield from a corner and scored the second. Padula's corner was cleared and he tried to charge down the clearance but failed. Forbes also missed a chance to clear and Steven Clark was left one on one against Bircham. He had too much pace for the Rangers midfielder and managed to evade his challenge before bearing down on Day and smashing the ball past him.
Things went from bad to worse two minutes later when Southend added the third. The defending was getting worse by the minute and once again a ball from Gower found an unmarked Shrimper, this time Drewe Broughton was the grateful recipient. Even though it was a free header he had plenty to do and he managed to angle the ball over Day and Carlisle. This was the cue for around a quarter of the Rangers support to get up and leave.
The fourth goal came another ten minutes later and yet more slack marking was to blame. This time Leon Cort headed for goal only to see his effort parried by Day. Broughton was on hand to hammer the ball home having been afforded the freedom of the penalty area for the second time in the half. That was the cue for a load more fans to leave, including your intrepid match reporter so the talk of the game stops here!
Rangers never got going in this game and if we play like this at Bournemouth we will get absolutely destroyed. But we wont. I think the fact that the team picked itself had a large bearing on the outcome of this game. After such a mammoth effort on Saturday the lads looked jaded and leggy although that is no excuse for such a shambolic showing.
I have little doubt that Holloway will have torn strips off of them after the game and rightly so. I think though that to describe this as anything more than a freak result would be churlish. Southend have shown nothing this season to suggest that this was ever going to be anything more than a Rangers win but they battled hard and surprised us all. We in turn will come back form this and I wouldn't bet against Bournemouth feeling the backlash from this at the weekend.
simon@qprnet.com
