Southend United suffered a disappointing 3-0 defeat away at Concord Rangers last Tuesday in the Shrimpers' final pre-season friendly.
Three goals in the opening twelve minutes was only the beginning of a forgettable night for the Blues as poor finishing and a lack of creative passing reflected poorly on the young Shrimpers side.
Newly appointed manager Mark Molesley did have some positives to take from the disappointing defeat however, as he voiced his opinion in his post-match interview.
Reflecting on the defeat:
Molesley did not shy away from the disappointment of conceding three successive goals so early in the match and spoke about how his side could learn from the experience:
“You want to learn these lessons in pre-season and we definitely don’t want to hide from them, sometimes we set high standards and sometimes to set those high standards you have to learn from mistakes and learn from these experiences.”
The ex-Weymouth manager went on to speak about how the defeat could have been caused by some youthful naivety:
“We’re no strangers (to the fact) there’s a very youthful look to us tonight and at times there was some naivety, but as long as we learn from that we can hopefully use this to continue to get better.”
When asked about his half time team talk, the 39-year-old commented on how his criticism was more constructive rather than aggressive.
“It wasn’t so much harsh words at this stage, I think there is a lot being thrown at them at the moment, a new regime, lots of hard training and sometimes there is going to be a couple of dips.”
Talking on the youth:
Despite the loss, Molesley was quick to praise the youngsters overall pre-season:
“That youthful side have shown so much against tough opposition in Charlton and Millwall, and then they’ve got to know that different challenges await them and they have to deal with all the challenges thrown at them.”
The Blues manager acknowledged that the younger players didn’t perhaps perform to the best of their ability, but insisted that they continued to try and play the right way:
“They probably showed a lack of experience and naivety at times, but they continue to try and do the right things, I think the second half performance showed that and we certainly learnt some valuable lessons.”
The return of Harry Kyprianou:
Centre back Harry Kyprianou has recently returned from a long-term injury, and the Cypriot defender saw his first 75 minutes at Thames Road last night.
Molesley commented on the importance of senior players returning to the side:
“It’s no stranger that was a youthful side, if you look at the players that were not involved there today there’s a good five or six very experienced players still to come back into the fold, that shows that we have some real strong players to come back.”
A final decision on Jack Bridge:
Midfielder Jack Bridge’s trial at Southend seems to have come to an end with Molesley commenting on how it was not going to work for the club:
“Without the club being able to commit to him at the moment, I think it was only fair to him that he looked for other avenues until something might change here.”
Bridge’s departure has meant that an unnamed trialist got an opportunity to play for Southend against Concord:
“We’re at that stage of the season where we got to have a look at another young lad, he only came in yesterday, he’s come recommended by a few people so we’ll look at him and hopefully he might play some part in the game for the 23’s on Saturday.”
Looking ahead:
Southend travel to the Priestfield Stadium this Saturday to face Gillingham in the first round of the Carabao Cup. Molesley commented on how the time given to prepare has not been ideal for the Shrimpers:
“We’ll try and be as ready as we can, it’s not an ideal situation but it’s not an ideal world at the moment, pre-season has been short, and the games are going to come thick and fast so we’ve got to learn lessons quickly.”
Despite a short pre-season, the Blues manager has spoken about the importance of having belief:
“We’ve got to have real conviction and belief in the way that we’re going to do it (play), we know that to get that belief we need to get positive performances and we’re going to be working tirelessly hard to make that happen.”
You can watch the Blues face Gillingham this Saturday with the ‘Video Match Pass’ which costs £10.