Southend United manager Paul Sturrock leaves players to talk over defeat to Plymouth Argyle

11:52pm Tuesday 19th March 2013 in Sport By Chris Phillips

Paul Sturrock - frustrated by suffering a 2-0 defeat against his former side Paul Sturrock - frustrated by suffering a 2-0 defeat against his former side

SOUTHEND United manager Paul Sturrock left his players in the dressing room to discuss what went wrong after Tuesday night's dire 2-0 defeat against Plymouth Argyle.

Blues were again well below their best when faced with a side fighting against relegation at Roots Hall.

And Sturrock felt the squad would benefit from speaking among themselves.

“They've had the same voices speaking at them for a while now so they were in the changing room on their own after the game to talk about what they think went wrong out,” said Sturrock.

“I want a few home truths to be spoken and for them to get to the bottom of what they think is going on.

“Are they training too much or too little and what do they think can be done to put things right.

“I will be interested to hear what they came up with but I'm exasperated, just like everyone else connected with this football, following a performance like that.”

Blues conceded twice in the second half to remain eighth in the League Two play-offs.

And Sturrock is now demanding an immediate improvement from his side.

“Our season is fizzling out at the moment and we have to stop that happening,” said the Blues boss.

“We still have 21 points left to play for and we want to get as many of them as we can.

“We also need to try and get some confidence back in to our game before the JPT final but we also need to try and get ourselves healthy again.

“I'm not making excuses but during the last month it's been impossible to work on team shape or to get organised because players have been coming in and out of the side.

“They've been coming off the treatment table the day before a game or the morning of a match and we've had a different defence for about five matches running now which makes things very difficult indeed.”

Comments(8)

world_gone_wrong says...
9:20am Wed 20 Mar 13

Nice to see Mr Sturrock showing such strong leadership skills!! I'll give him a hand - send Mohsni back to France with a one-way ticket, it has all gone horribly and painfully wrong since he returned to the fold.

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SUFC1906 says...
9:56am Wed 20 Mar 13

One solution could be to put Sturrock on gardening leave until the JPT final & give Coughlan a go at managing the rest of the league games. In fairness, give Sturrock the Wembley game to manage so he goes having been respected & thanked for his efforts. Coughlan might get more out of some of the below par players who seem to have lost respect for Sturrock & Coughlan has a 100% success rate as a manager, played 1 won 1.

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danstheman says...
12:36pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Last night was truly awful. It was about this time last year that Paul Sturrock lost his way and then there was the inspired boost of Freddie coming back to SUFC which at least ensured we made the playoffs. I am not saying play Freddie at all costs as the jury is out with me about if he really has it in him anymore. Last night we saw a few flashes, but only a few!
A big problem now is there are no 'leaders' on the pitch, such as Timlin and Phillips and of course Captain Barker. The loanees are still finding their feet. Hurst, Britt are off form and all the injuries have undoubtably taken there toil on the side and caused PS problems in selection.
But last night - as in particular the Wimbledon game, the side were second to the ball, and seemed to have lost the spirit of earlier in the season when being a goal down would have really inspired them,but last night again they were ineffective and lacklustre to put it mildly.
Only good news was that Tomlin when he came on looked sharp and no doubt he will be match fit enough (I hope) to start on Saturday
We have Wembley to look forward to and let us hope we can get a team together to win the JPT as I fear that is the best we are likely to get out of the season as achieving playoffs now looks beyond our reach.

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southend loser says...
1:43pm Wed 20 Mar 13

What a surprise another dismal defeat from a truly badly managed team.
Told you Sturrock is the nearly man I have real fears about them even winning another game,also they still need 6or7more points to guarantee league safety.
Must also bear in mind any points deductions especially as how this shower is misrun you never know what horror is going go turn up.
I also see that Crewe have already carved their name on the Mickey mouse cup.
I am not a great fan of sacking managers but it is time for a change.
My sort of sympathies go to the supporters but remember you do not have to buy things when they are not good enough.

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dbfromrayleigh says...
9:37pm Wed 20 Mar 13

I wonder if leaving the players to talk it out among themselves is the first sign of what they call in the game "losing the dressing room".
Sounds like PS really has run out of ideas.
A Wembley day out is great and I wouldn't begrudge PS that trip, but it is no consolation for another season of League Two dross in 2013-14.
I do think maybe PS has run his race at Roots Hall. If we are to be in this division next season, then at least can we please please play some proper passing, entertaining football.
I really do think we are the least entertaining team in the whole division.
RM could do worse than give the job to Coughlan with Neil Harris as his number two (player/coach). And please keep Freddie. He still has more class than anyone else in the squad and a different style of football may just suit his, and others, games more.

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lennyfy says...
1:44pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Its a pity the headline didnt finish after the 6th word.

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Sam Carpenter says...
1:50pm Thu 21 Mar 13

It's unbelievable to me how much negativity there is towards a manager and players who are fighting a constant battle against a poorly run football club. There isn't a manager out there who would be willing to manage at this level, under these circumstances, that could do a better job than Sturrock is doing. We have half a fit squad and a bunch of loanees and we're 8th in a very tight division. We're going to Wembley. We might still make the play offs. This club could be dead in two years and that's no fault of the manager. The ire is misfocussed.

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TheEssexWay says...
4:35pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I agree with one of the comments already made, Southend United are at Wembley let's face it, so it's not all doom and gloom, however, their last 3 home games have shown seriously poor form, some of that down to key players being injured. What Sturrock needs to do, is stop picking Assombolonga as a starter, cos since he has been back from injury he has been awful, I specifically watched him against Torquay and he seemed lethargic and was aimlessly jumping for balls while falling way short of anywhere near to his head with his back to the ball. he can't be bothered to run around and challenge half the time and he's only scored 1 goal since last year, so why pick him? Corr has scored in nearly every game since he came back from injury and Eastwood at least showed some form against Torquay. So with Tomlin and Corr now fit and Eastwood showing at least some enthusiasm, it is surely time to start with a different attack line-up? Leave Assombolonga on the bench as he would be ideal to bring on as sub, but for me, it's got to be Tomlin and Corr to start from now on? As for Mohsni? I think the it is debateable as we haven't done much since he has been back in the side, but who else do we play at the back with the injuries we have? Good to see Bentley getting a chance in goal, hopefully he can prove himself?

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