Southend United 2-0 Cheltenham Town Review!

February 11, 2015 by Alec Hitchman

Tuesday Hoodoo Finally Over for Blues - Southend United 2-0 Cheltenham Town

Southend United’s awful Tuesday night record finally came to an end last night (10/02/2015), as they disposed of Cheltenham Town at Roots Hall.

Before last night, Blues’ home record on a Tuesday night had seen them lose 11 out of 12 games, drawing the other remaining one. But thanks to Joe Pigott and a great team performance, that run is now over!

First Half:

Blues almost took the lead after only five minutes, when Pigott steered the ball over the bar after being set up by Jake Cassidy. Not long after though, in the 9th minute, Blues had their lead. A cross from John White was headed towards goal by Cassidy, who saw his shot saved by Scott Carson in the Cheltenham goal. However, all Carson could do was to parry the ball back into the danger zone and there was Pigott, to place the ball into the back of the net.

Michael Timlin came close for Blues in the 22nd minute, but his shot was saved by Carson, after it seemed destined for the back of the net.

Twelve minutes later, in the 34th minute, Blues doubled their lead and it was that man again, Pigott. Ben Coker’s free kick was missed by most of the Cheltenham defence, and Pigott rose highest to excellently put Blues 2-0 up.

Blues could have added to their collection of goals if John White could have put his header on target, unfortunately though, he was beaten by the bounce of the ball and could only hit the post with the header.

Cheltenham were less than threatening and hardly gave Dan Bentley anything to do in the first half.

Second Half:

Whatever Cheltenham boss Paul Buckle said at half time appeared to work, when centre back Troy Brown put his free header wide of the target. From a Cheltenham point of view, this was far better than the first half performance already.

All the play was in the midfield for most of the second half, with neither set of players giving up on what they had achieved. In Blues’ case, that was the two goal lead. In Cheltenham’s case, hardly anything. They, Cheltenham, did however have an effort from Matt Richards blocked on the line by Michael Timlin.

Southend legend Adam Barrett finally made his first appearance for Blues since returning to the club, when he replaced Ben Coker in the 68th minute. He hasn’t changed a bit! The chants of “There’s Only One Adam Barrett” rung around the ground

The game was briefly halted by an idiotic pitch invader, who, after dodging one steward on the pitch and making his way back into the stand, was grabbed by a set of other stewards and led out the ground. Personally, I think this put a bit of a downer on things, as Blues were starting to set up an attack before he needlessly interrupted the game.

Once he was rid of, Ryan Leonard almost added some more gloss to the already impressive scoreline, when he saw his shot from range saved by Carson. Leonard had another chance soon after, but this was blocked by a Cheltenham defender.

Carson was once again called into action, this time by Pigott, who could have had his hat-trick if it hadn’t been for the Cheltenham ‘keeper.

All in all, this was a great performance by Blues. The win puts them into 4th place, two points off of 3rd, and only 4 points off top. Next up for Blues is a home game against Accrington Stanley on Saturday.