Scunthorpe United 1–0 Southend United: a play-off night of bitter regret

For a few days we had allowed ourselves to dream. A play-off place was secured, there was a route back to the Football League, and perhaps this was finally going to be the season when Southend United took that last, enormous step. Five minutes at Scunthorpe was all it took to turn that excitement into a horrible feeling in the stomach.

Scunthorpe United 1, Southend United 0. A single goal on the scoreline, but a much bigger sense of frustration walking away from it. We had worked far too hard to reach the play-offs to produce a night where we spent so long looking for a way into the contest. Nobody expected an easy ride. I did expect us to make Scunthorpe more uncomfortable than we managed.

First things first: congratulations to Scunthorpe. They earned their place in the next round. They started faster, won too many of the important battles, defended with conviction and, crucially, made their big chance count. We can be thoroughly disappointed in our own side without taking anything away from the team that beat us.

Five minutes. One mistake. An uphill battle.

There was barely time for nerves to settle before the tie changed. Danny Whitehall won possession in the Southend half and moved the ball to Callum Roberts. Roberts came inside onto his left foot and drove a low shot past Collin Andeng-Ndi. The clock had reached the fifth minute. Suddenly a play-off eliminator that had been full of possibility was one in which we had to chase.

It was well taken by Roberts, but the build-up will annoy me every time I think about it. Giving the ball away in that area, against a side ready to jump on it, is exactly how you make a difficult away tie harder. It was not about pinning the whole thing on one player or the goalkeeper. The team needed to be switched on from the opening whistle, and Scunthorpe were the sharper side.

What bothered me even more was our response. An early setback is not automatically fatal; there were another 85 minutes, plus stoppage time, to turn it around. Yet instead of putting our stamp on the game, we seemed to get drawn into the type of contest Scunthorpe wanted. They were strong, organised and happy to compete for everything. We kept sending the ball forward into traffic and asking our forwards to win battles that suited the opposition.

Playing Scunthorpe’s game

It is one thing to use Harry Cardwell as an outlet. It is another to spend long spells launching the ball towards him and expecting him, or Andy Dallas alongside him, to somehow manufacture chances against defenders who were enjoying the physical contest. Will Evans in particular was formidable in the air. The longer that went on, the more predictable we became.

James Morton and Keenan Appiah-Forson needed opportunities to get hold of the ball and help us play through midfield. Too often the game seemed to pass them by, quite literally, as we went over their heads. That is not the same as saying they had good games or that the midfield was blameless. We struggled to win enough second balls and to find the next pass when we did recover possession. It became a cycle: ball forward, challenge lost, Scunthorpe collect, start again.

For a while it felt as though we were fighting two opponents: the eleven in claret and blue and our own approach to the match. We have players capable of moving the ball, stretching a defence and creating problems in different ways. I kept waiting to see more of that variety. In a one-off play-off tie, you cannot afford to spend an entire half hoping the same thing will suddenly start working.

Scunthorpe might have been further ahead before the break. Pat Jones asked questions of our defence and Andeng-Ndi had work to do. Then Harry Taylor produced a hugely important intervention on or close to the line to deny Whitehall after Oliver Ewing had put him into a dangerous position. Without that, we could have been looking at an even steeper climb.

The one opening we will remember

We did have a proper chance to level it before half-time, and it is the one that will stay with me. Cardwell headed the ball back across goal and Appiah-Forson met it from close range. For a split second, this looked like the moment the tie would swing. Louis Jones made an excellent reaction save to keep Scunthorpe in front.

You can look at a chance like that and wish the shot had gone anywhere else. I certainly do. But Jones deserves the credit for stopping it. The frustrating part is that it stood out so clearly because we did not create enough chances of a similar quality around it. One good opening in a high-stakes match is a thin return for the attacking players we have.

At 1–0 at half-time, we were still alive. That was the consolation. We had not played well, Scunthorpe had looked more comfortable, yet one Southend goal would change the entire evening. The break was a chance to reset, get the ball down and give them something different to think about.

More urgency, still not enough football

There was more effort to force the issue after the restart, but very little sustained pressure that made me believe a goal was coming. Dallas hit a firm effort from outside the area, only to find Jones in the right place. We got into better positions at times without consistently turning them into clear attempts. A narrow deficit can keep hope alive on a scoreboard long after the performance has started draining it away.

Scunthorpe remained dangerous themselves. Jean Belehouan broke forward and forced a save from Andeng-Ndi, a reminder that chasing an equaliser also left space at the other end. There were appeals for decisions, and James Oldham was not going to leave either set of supporters delighted with everything he gave. I can understand the irritation, particularly with so much at stake. But I cannot honestly put this defeat at the referee’s door. We needed to solve our own problems first.

As the minutes went by, the questions turned towards our bench. Leon Chambers-Parillon and Cav Miley arrived in the 67th minute. Jack Bridge and Charley Kendall were not introduced until the 84th. Tom Hopper followed in added time. By then we were asking fresh players to rescue a season in the time it takes to make a cup of tea.

I can see why Kevin Maher began with experience, strength and players he trusted. Cardwell can trouble defenders and Dallas is capable of changing a match. The issue is what you do when the plan clearly is not unsettling the opposition. We needed somebody to pull Scunthorpe around, get into spaces and stop those centre-halves having such a comfortable night. Chambers-Parillon’s directness or Bridge’s ability to find a different angle might have helped earlier. Kendall had earned a claim to more than a handful of minutes as well.

That is not a promise that the substitutes would have won it. Football does not work like that, and it is always easier to make the changes from the stand afterwards. It is a question about timing and about recognising what was happening in front of us. When the ball keeps coming back, surely there comes a point when you try a different route before the clock becomes your biggest enemy.

Harry Boyes had a late attempt that went narrowly wide, and Joe Gubbins almost reached another inviting ball into the box. Dallas also sent a late opening over. We can point to those moments and say we were not without a threat. But there was no spell when we really pinned Scunthorpe back and made their goalkeeper earn his place in the next round over and over again. That is what hurt most: not simply losing, but failing to impose ourselves when it mattered.

A needless last twist

Harry Taylor’s second yellow card deep into stoppage time was an ugly footnote. After a challenge involving Kian Scales, Taylor reacted and was dismissed. The tie was almost gone by then, so it did not decide the result, but it summed up an evening where composure deserted us at important moments. Taylor had earlier helped keep us in the contest with that vital defensive intervention. It was a sad way for his night to end.

And a word for the 996 Southend supporters who made the trip. That is a proper following for an away play-off eliminator, especially with all the expense and emotion involved in supporting this club. They turned up believing. They deserved to see us give Scunthorpe more to worry about.

Maher, the players and an opportunity lost

There will be arguments about selection, shape and substitutions, and there should be. Kevin Maher has to answer questions about the approach and why we seemed so willing to play into Scunthorpe’s strengths. The players have to look at their own contribution too: the loose possession, the second balls, the inability to take control and the lack of a final touch. A manager cannot kick the ball for them, but a team needs a plan that gives its best players the chance to affect a match.

I am not going to forget the season that got us here. Eighty-one league points and a place in the play-offs are not nothing, especially when we know what this club has been through. Maher and the squad deserve credit for that. But praising the journey does not mean we have to pretend the ending was acceptable. Both things can be true, and tonight they are.

Perhaps that is why the defeat feels so flat. We were not taken apart by a team scoring four or five. We were a goal behind for almost the entire evening, always close enough to imagine a comeback, yet rarely convincing enough to make one feel inevitable. There is a particular cruelty in watching the minutes disappear while you wait for your own team to become the team you know it can be.

The FA Trophy final against Wealdstone is still to come. We cannot change what happened at Scunthorpe, but we can make sure this is not the last memory of our season. Take the disappointment, learn from it, and give us a performance at Wembley that we can be proud of. Up the Shrimpers.

Match details

Referee: James Oldham. Attendance: 6,248, including 996 Southend supporters.