Solihull Moors 1-3 Southend United: Three From Three As The Shrimpers Ride Their Luck And Go Top

Nearly Behind Inside Five Minutes

Southend actually threatened first.

Leon Chambers-Parillon cut in from the left inside the opening minute and bent an effort narrowly wide of the far post.

It looked an encouraging start.

Then came the first warning.

Rayan Oyebade brought down Joe Sbarra inside the penalty area and, after initially appearing to allow play to continue, referee Jamie Robinson pointed to the spot.

Jake Wakeling stepped up.

Joe Duncan stood his ground.

The Southend goalkeeper saved with his legs.

Wakeling then somehow blazed the rebound over from close range.

A huge escape.

It wouldn’t be the last one.

Solihull Make Southend Pay

The penalty miss didn’t knock Solihull out of their stride.

Wakeling tested Duncan again with a low effort before eventually giving Solihull the lead after 14 minutes.

Matthew Carson’s pass took a fortunate deflection off Darren Oldaker and dropped perfectly into Wakeling’s path.

This time he made no mistake.

The striker swept a composed left-footed finish into the bottom corner.

And it was deserved.

Southend were loose in possession, struggling to win second balls and looking uncomfortable whenever Solihull attacked quickly.

There was almost a second when Wakeling again found space inside the area, only for Ben Goodliffe to produce a vital block.

For perhaps the first time this season, The Shrimpers looked genuinely rattled.

Coker Changes The Mood

Then Southend found a way back.

And once again, Harry Cardwell was involved.

Cardwell drove a low shot towards goal and Max Metcalfe could only parry it away.

Oli Coker reacted quickest.

The Southend captain arrived in exactly the right place and swept home the rebound.

It was Coker’s second goal in three games.

And suddenly the game looked very different.

Southend hadn’t played particularly well.

They were level anyway.

That’s becoming a useful trait.

Popoola Strikes Again

The turnaround was complete before half-time.

Chambers-Parillon delivered a deep cross from the left and Coker stretched brilliantly to keep the attack alive, sending the ball back across goal.

Josh Popoola was waiting.

From close range, he stabbed the ball home.

Two goals in two games for Popoola.

Two goals in eleven first-half minutes for Southend.

And somehow, after spending significant parts of the opening half second best, The Shrimpers were walking down the tunnel in front.

Football doesn’t always reward the side playing best.

Sometimes it rewards the side taking its moments.

Southend did exactly that.

Half-time: Solihull Moors 1-2 Southend United.

A Lead, But No Control

Southend again threatened immediately after the restart.

Coker drove forward and sent a low effort wide before Chambers-Parillon curled another shot off target.

There were moments when it looked as though The Shrimpers might finally take proper control.

They never quite did.

Solihull stayed in the contest.

And Southend kept giving them encouragement.

Passes went astray.

Second balls weren’t always won.

The defensive composure that had been evident against Scunthorpe wasn’t quite there.

Dyer responded by introducing Sahid Kamara and Ryan Colclough for Popoola and Oldaker shortly before the hour.

Kamara went to the right, Colclough to the left, Chambers-Parillon moved centrally and Coker dropped deeper alongside Anthony Hartigan.

It gave Southend a different look.

But Solihull were about to come extremely close to levelling.

The Crossbar Saves The Shrimpers

Jamie Andrews launched a long throw into the Southend penalty area.

Duncan punched clear.

Scott High collected the loose ball on the edge of the box and cleverly lifted an effort back towards goal through a crowd of players.

The ball beat Duncan.

It didn’t beat the crossbar.

Goodliffe reacted quickly to clear the rebound.

Southend had survived again.

And this was no longer simply a case of managing a one-goal lead.

Solihull were genuinely threatening an equaliser.

Duncan Makes Amends

A few minutes later, Duncan almost handed Solihull another opportunity.

His attempted pass forward went straight to Callum McFarlane near halfway.

With the goalkeeper stranded well away from his line, McFarlane immediately tried his luck from distance.

For a moment, it looked dangerous.

Duncan recovered superbly.

He raced backwards and clawed the effort away with his fingertips.

It was an excellent save following his own mistake.

Not the cleanest sequence of goalkeeping you’ll ever see.

But the recovery was outstanding.

And Southend still led.

More Pressure, More Duncan

The closing stages were uncomfortable.

Sbarra tested Duncan from distance.

A poor Oyebade pass allowed Solihull another opening, but Wodskou’s low effort was saved by Duncan’s feet.

Then, with five minutes remaining, Wakeling drove another effort towards the bottom corner.

Duncan got down well and turned it behind.

Southend were still ahead.

But nobody wearing blue and gold could seriously claim this had been comfortable.

The Shrimpers had ridden their luck.

They still needed to finish the job.

Kendall Runs Into An Empty Net… The Hard Way

Then came the moment that turned an uncomfortable afternoon into a 3-1 scoreline.

Deep into stoppage time, Solihull won a corner.

Goalkeeper Max Metcalfe went forward.

Southend cleared.

Charley Kendall collected the ball.

And suddenly there was an empty goal a long way down the other end of the pitch.

Simple?

Not remotely.

Kendall still had several Solihull players chasing him.

He had to carry the ball forward under pressure, hold them off and keep enough composure to finish the job.

He did all three.

Kendall powered into the Solihull half, stayed strong under pressure and sent a left-footed effort into the empty net from distance.

That was that.

Three points secured.

And the travelling support could finally relax.

Full-Time: Solihull Moors 1-3 Southend United

The scoreboard says comprehensive.

The match wasn’t.

Southend deserve credit for finding a way to win, because this was exactly the sort of afternoon that can catch supposedly strong teams out.

Solihull were bottom.

They had lost their opening two games.

Southend had won both of theirs.

On paper, plenty might have expected The Shrimpers simply to turn up and take three points.

Football rarely works like that.

Solihull competed.

They pressed.

They forced mistakes.

They won second balls.

And they created enough opportunities to make Southend uncomfortable throughout the second half.

On another afternoon, that crossbar effort goes in.

One of Duncan’s saves isn’t made.

One of those sloppy passes gets punished.

This could easily have been a draw.

It could even have become a defeat.

Instead, Southend scored three times and went top of the league.

There’s something rather encouraging about that too.

Coker Is Becoming Very Important

Oli Coker’s start to life as captain continues to impress.

He scored at Altrincham.

He played his part in the Scunthorpe win.

At Solihull, he scored the equaliser and then created Popoola’s goal with an excellent piece of improvisation at the far post.

Two goals in three league games.

And increasingly, he looks like the player Southend turn to when something needs changing.

The captaincy appears to suit him.

Popoola Keeps Delivering

Josh Popoola now has two goals in two games.

The first against Scunthorpe was about being alert to a rebound.

This one was about being in the right place when Coker kept the move alive.

Neither goal will feature in a goal-of-the-season competition.

That doesn’t matter.

Forwards who consistently appear in the right areas score goals.

Popoola is doing exactly that.

Kendall’s First Of The Season

Charley Kendall had only been on the pitch for around 20 minutes when his opportunity arrived.

He still had a lot of work to do.

The empty goal made the target obvious, but the finish required strength, awareness and composure after a long sprint with defenders chasing him.

He showed all three.

A first goal of the campaign.

A memorable one.

And one that finally removed any doubt about the result.

Three Wins, Three Different Games

There is already an interesting pattern developing.

At Altrincham, Southend went behind and responded strongly.

Against Scunthorpe, The Shrimpers controlled the game but struggled to turn chances into goals.

At Solihull, they were well below their best for periods and still found a way to win.

Three games.

Three very different challenges.

Same result.

Three points.

That doesn’t mean Southend are suddenly unbeatable.

Far from it.

There was enough wrong with this performance to keep Dyer and his staff busy this week.

But winning while playing well is one thing.

Winning while playing poorly is another.

Teams with serious ambitions usually need to do both.

A Word Of Caution

The 3-1 scoreline shouldn’t disguise the problems.

Southend were sloppy in possession.

They gave Solihull too many opportunities through their own mistakes.

They were second to too many loose balls.

And they looked less secure than they had in the opening two matches.

The reaction among supporters afterwards reflected that.

There was plenty of satisfaction at the result, but also a clear feeling that Southend had ridden their luck and would be punished by stronger opposition if they repeatedly offered up the same opportunities.

That’s fair.

This was probably Southend’s weakest performance of the opening three games.

It was also another victory.

Both things can be true.

Match Details

What We Learned

Southend can win ugly.

That might be the biggest takeaway from this one.

There wasn’t the same control we saw against Scunthorpe.

There wasn’t the same attacking authority that eventually appeared at Altrincham.

Instead, there were errors, loose passes, missed second balls and several moments when Solihull came extremely close to equalising.

Yet when the final whistle blew, Southend had scored three and Solihull had scored one.

Duncan made saves.

Coker influenced the big moments.

Popoola scored again.

Kendall made sure.

And The Shrimpers walked away with another three points.

It wasn’t pretty.

It wasn’t comfortable.

But it counted exactly the same.