Phil Brown isn't Peter Taylor. He has supreme self confidence and he values experienced footballers who speak their mind. He isn't afraid of the big names that become popular with the crowd. He has the belief in himself to handle them and watch them pass on their wisdom to those around him. Barmby, Parlour and Windass could not have played under Taylor. Under Phil Brown, they play and they flourish and so do those alongside them. Today was another excellent performance from Brown's Hull City. Again, he proved able to get the best out of players who struggled in the previous regime. It hasn't all been rosy since Brown took over, but on the whole, we've showed a lot of fight and plenty of ability. Beating Southend was a must. Brown tried to play it down, but no one was fooled. It was a precious home fixture and a real 6-pointer and Browny knew we had to win.
We won in some style and we deserved every bit of it. The first half was scruffy. The ball spent a lot of time in the air and we had to at least match Southend's fight. We showed more fight than they did and more craft and as the half wore on, we started to press the game high up the pitch and create half chances and good situations. We scored at the right time, because we'd been on top. The same was true of the second goal. We started really well in the second half and chances were going begging. Just when you were starting to wonder whether it would be "one of those days", we produced a second goal. With Southend on the ropes, we hit them with two super goals to kill the game. Southend had their first shot on target in the 88th minute, a sign of our dominance. They simply weren't as good as we were. Our strikers worked to ensure they never had the opportunity to build play from the back and Peltier was a superb addition to the midfield, putting in a lot of challenges higher up the pitch than Ash or Livermore normally would. Southend's captain, Mark Gower is a good footballer who'll run the game if you let him, but he never had a chance today. He was closed out whenever he got the ball. Southend had no option but to hit long balls in the first half. Turner and Delaney will head them all day. In the second half, the game settled a bit and they had some success finding Campbell-Ryce at every opportunity. He's a tricky, quick winger who can cause a team a problem. Unfortunately, he came up against Andy Dawson at his very best. Daws didn't miss a tackle, a block or a header. He was superb and he snuffed out any threat. On the other side, Ricketts had a quiet time defensively, but did an incredible job going forward and his goal was well deserved. There's plenty of room for improvement when we're defending, but Ricketts is an excellent attacking full back. Along with Daws, he makes the 4-3-3 work a treat because they make it 2-5-3 at times and providing you keep the ball, that's difficult to defend against. Ricketts stretched Southend numerous times, while Daws provided the ball for the 3rd goal.
As well as working extremely hard without the ball, we showed a lot of quality when we had it after the first half hour. Parlour rarely loses possession and found Ricketts in space time after time. Peltier has a great touch and made good passes. It was a great debut, one of the best I can remember. On the first impression, he looks a better player than Welsh. He's quicker and he has more about him when going forward. He won the penalty by bursting into the box and picking up a loose ball. Elliott had his best game for a while. Like the team, he was scruffy early on, with loose passes and silly fouls, but he settled down and put in a great shift. He made on crucial tackle on the edge of his own box, forced a great save from Flahavan, made runs in behind and held up the ball for Daws and Peltier to join in. Forster had his standard outing. His level of consistency is superb. He works hard, presses defenders and forces them to make snap decisions, often resulting in us getting the ball back. On the ball, he's dangerous. He has the pace and control to reach the bye line and win corners or pull the ball across the box. His movement is superb. Like Windass, he has bags of experience and uses it to full effect. He's always available for a pass in behind. He was unlucky not to score when he hit a thunderous drive against the crossbar.
It was disappointing that we didn't get to see Barmby and Windass from the start, but the trio of Elliott, Windass and Forster make up for it. They give the opposition a variety of different problems, with and without the ball and they are so disciplined that there is always a pass available. Elliott and Forster worked hard to move up and down, but also in and out so that Windass always had someone in support. There wasn't a bad performance in the side. Boaz was barely tested but pulled off two fine saves. Delaney had one tiny slip from which he recovered superbly, but otherwise, he and Turner were flawless. Ash had a quiet game, but marshalled the troops like only he can and broke up the little bit of possession Southend did manage in our defensive third.
So, another 3 points and, crucially, three taken off a relegation rival. Not only did we win the game, but we matched the opposition in the dirty side of the game and wiped the floor with them in the pretty aspects. Under Phil Brown, here have only been 3 or 4 games when we failed to match this sort of effort and they've resulted in poor results. We look like we've learnt from those experiences. The level of concentration is excellent. We work hard and work for each other. The experience we've added in Windass and Parlour has been crucial, as well as the return of Barmby and Forster's contribution. When you add Ashbee, Livermore, Delaney and Dawson, we've got a good, experienced backbone. The likes of Bo, Turner and Ricketts have looked better with a steadying influence alongside them. They'll be better players next season and Phil Brown will be the manager. He's made excellent signings and good use of the loan market. He's made brave decisions, like dropping Parkin, selling Fagan, building around Barmby and then Windass, "resting" Turner and introducing and sticking with the 4-3-3. Very few of his decisions have been wrong. I have every confidence in him to spend our summer transfer kitty and to take the majority of this group of players into next season. Hopefully, that will be in the Championship. It's hard to see anyway that we'll slip into the bottom three. We look so confident at the KC. We'll surely get enough out of the three remaining home games.
That leaves the last word for our first bit of summer transfer business. We've got to get Dean Windass signed up for next year. There is no doubt that he's good enough. The only worry should be a bigger club gazumping us. Like Barmby earlier in the season, Deano struggled to make an impact from the bench and it lead to some, like me, to doubt that he was worth the investment we made. However, since he was given a starting role, he's made it a starring role and proved an excellent acquisition. 7 goals from 9 starts is a super return. All hail Deano, living, breathing, scoring City legend. Long may it continue!
Ratings: Bo 7, Ricketts 8, Dawson 8, Delaney 7, Turner 7, Ashbee 6, Parlour 8 (Coles), Peltier 8, Elliott 7, Forster 7, Windass 9 (Vaz Te).