Colchester United (A) League 1 Saturday 19/2/11.

[Welsh_Saddler]

teams bunching up at the minute points wise.

As it stands, there are nine teams separated by seven points....... lots to go at there :wink:

[boringteacher]

teams bunching up at the minute points wise.

As it stands, there are nine teams separated by seven points....... lots to go at there :wink:

likeliehood is that its any 4 from the bottom 6.

[Rich Evans]

teams bunching up at the minute points wise.

As it stands, there are nine teams separated by seven points....... lots to go at there :wink:

Bit deceptive though with the amount of games in hand the teams have.

Daggers 4 games 2 points behind

County have 5 games in hand over us and are 5 points clear of us

In fact all the way up to 6th the teams have one or more game in hand

[latviancheese]

Who conceeds the pen again? Lescott, awful player imo, get Williams in Smith.

Have you ever seen Williams play? How do you know hes better? How do you know it was not a harsh penalty? :wink:

I've seen Lescott enough this season to make a desicion on weather he's good enough or not...

I think hes cack too, but i wouldnt be so sure Williams is any better.

[Graydon48]

teams bunching up at the minute points wise.

As it stands, there are nine teams separated by seven points....... lots to go at there :wink:

Bit deceptive though with the amount of games in hand the teams have.

Daggers 4 games 2 points behind

County have 5 games in hand over us and are 5 points clear of us

In fact all the way up to 6th the teams have one or more game in hand

Daggers games in hand v Bournmouth,Huddersfeild,Brighton.

[brummie saddler]

teams bunching up at the minute points wise.

As it stands, there are nine teams separated by seven points....... lots to go at there :wink:

Bit deceptive though with the amount of games in hand the teams have.

Daggers 4 games 2 points behind

County have 5 games in hand over us and are 5 points clear of us

In fact all the way up to 6th the teams have one or more game in hand

Daggers games in hand v Bournmouth,Huddersfeild,Brighton.

thank you graydon, that has made my day :)

[Stu]

Well, back home now having made a spur of the moment decision to go about 12.30...

A little disappointing in the sense that we offered nothing going forward really. One of those occasions when we could have played for 90 weeks and not scored, let alone 90 minutes. Lots of nice approach play at times, but we had no idea how to then create a chance... It was good positions down the flank and poor balls in or nobody to aim for, or it was just given away in the middle of the park.

This is going to sound strange, we didn't play too badly, but to be honest, we could have lost 5 or 6 quite easily. Walker made 3 good saves, they missed a sitter from 6 yards after 2 minutes, Lancashire flicked a header onto the inside of his own post and twice they went around Walker only to see Butler and then Gill clear off the line. They seemed to cruise around in 3rd gear for 90 minutes, yet still had the skill, guile and movement to carve us open at times.

For me, the balance of the team was wrong again. Taundry might run around, he might be a little terrier but he has no output or quality to his play, but putting him on the right wing is just soft as he continually comes inside. I lost count of the number of times Westlake had the ball with no option in front of him but to hoik it 20/30 yards down the flank or come back inside. On a big pitch like that, it was crying out for two traditional wingers, I was hoping to see Grigg or Price come on for Taundry and move Nicholls to the right flank for some pace.

The ref was poor, but we can't blame him for the result, as said, they could have had 5, 6 or 7 today. The first goal was contenious in that Butler was claiming a goal kick, but the Ref gave a corner. He didn't seem to protest too much though. Corner came in, fell loose, Macken got half a clearance on it but nobody picked up their bloke on the edge of the box who rifled it in. I can't comment on the penalty and I don't think any Walsall fan can really, it was 70/80 yards away from us on the opposite side, however we can comment on the fact that the entire Walsall team were absolutely livid with the Linesman for giving it. For me, the players reaction was more than enough to say it must have been a poor decision and I base my decision on that.

Started out 4-4-2, appeared to go 4-3-1-2 in the 2nd half with Gray taking up a very central role behind the front two. I think that was a mistake personally, as we became really congested and no real outlet on either flank to get around the back, and we didn't have the pace or creativity to carve them open through the middle.

Walker - Super game, made 3/4 quality blokes from angled 1v1s and a superb 2nd half save from a pull back.
Westlake - Decent game, looked solid, got caught out a couple of times but bearing in mind he had nobody in front of him at times, its not surprising.
Lescott - Okay, not great, not awful.
Lancashire - Okay, not great, not awful
Butler - MOTM, the bloke is a brick wall. Sensational goal line clearance in the 2nd half, this bloke should be signed up now and be captaining this team next season.
Taundry - Poor, sorry. He might be a Walsall lad, he might run a lot and chase and harry, but there is no quality or output in his play. Sort of reminds me of a young Dean Keates, headless chicken at times, but without Keates' quality.
Richards - Used the ball nicely, but faded as the match went on.
Gill - Shame that we're losing him, lots of energy although, gets around the pitch, uses the ball well. Fantastic goal line clearance in the 2nd half when he clattered into the post in the process
Gray - Good first half I though, hugged the touchline, used the ball well, tried to get to the flank but nothing really to aim for. Didn't do much in a central position in the 2nd half
Macken - This bloke gets so much stick, but he holds a ball up well. Just as he did on Tuesday, if he doesn't hold it up, our forward play doesn't exist. Struggled more today, was manhandled by their centre half for 90 minutes, but again, had very little support and Nicholls couldn't read what Macken wanted.
Nicholls - Pretty anonymous I'm afraid. Doesn't seem to read balls or runs.

Subs:
Marshall - Anonymous
Grigg - Tried, but little success and little impact
Price - lol, the only footballer I've seen who seems to go backwards when he runs, the lack of pace is shocking, like Grigg, tried but little success and even less impact.

Sometimes you just have to put your hands up and admit you were beaten by a better side, today was one of those days. Could have been a lot worse, could have been 5, 6 or 7 which would have crushed morale. So, just chalk this one off and move on to the next episode of the Great Escape

PS: Chicken Balti pie was bloody awfull, worst I've ever tasted. :evil:

[Graydon48]

teams bunching up at the minute points wise.

As it stands, there are nine teams separated by seven points....... lots to go at there :wink:

Bit deceptive though with the amount of games in hand the teams have.

Daggers 4 games 2 points behind

County have 5 games in hand over us and are 5 points clear of us

In fact all the way up to 6th the teams have one or more game in hand

Daggers games in hand v Bournmouth,Huddersfeild,Brighton.

Sorry got that wrong. Its Peterborough not Huddersfeild.

[JackoSaddler]

Probably the worst performance under Smith today.
We were beaten by the better team, and a fair result would have been about 4 or 5-0. We were lucky with 2-0 as another poster said before.
Walker or Butler were again solid and both in contention of MOTM, because without them, our goal difference would have been a lot, lot worse tonight.
The officials were an absolute joke. How the ref gave the penalty, after blatantly waving it away i dont understand! Nothing went our way today, just like last week against Bournemouth, but we cant blame loosing on the officials. We were just not good enough.

This squad is so thin, and i really don't think we have enough quality in it to keep us in the division, but i hope i'm wrong. Smith needs to make a a couple of decent loan signings this week, because without Gill we will struggle. Neither Taundz or Marshall are good enough to play in the center and without Gill we lose the whole shape of the team.

I never expected anything out of the game today, they have a good home record but i think a draw would have been a good result. Oh well, a win next Saturday and this will be all forgotten about. UTS

[morethanuknow]

we need a forward who can score and for me its this what will send us down.we was 2 nil down when gill went off so i wouldnt put it down to that . i also would rather nichols right wing rather than taundry.butler and walker have been crucial to our revival plus we have been playing teams who dont punch back.i think we are better than the teams around us and not
the teams at the top so when we come up against the teams around us we have to win and accept that we are going to struggle with the teams at the top .when i look at our last 5 games of the season it doesent look good .we need an out and out goal scorer who can score out of nothing when the chips are down and i think that is what we are missing

[Cully]

Today probably summed up the dilemma we are currently in. Not enough quality to cover when the effort and teamwork have an off day which by an unhappy coincidence was today. Thoroughly miserable performance and display by most of the players, how we got away so lightly with a 2 0 defeat I'll never know. Walker saving us on at least four occasions, the ball hitting the woodwork twice, four clearances off the line and numerous other scrapes too numerous to mention. We didn't start off too badly passing the ball around although Colchester could have scored at least three during our 'dominant' spell in the first twenty minutes.
I don't really understand why Smith persists with Nicholls, he is certainly no striker, incapable of making the right runs, not reading his team mates play and spends too much time thinking about what he should be doing instead of just doing it. Taundrey was absolutely abysmal and like Lescott would struggle to get into an average 2nd division side, if he must play him stick him in at full back where he doesn't have to think or pass the ball. Lescott and Westlake were vying for least effective and most effeminate player today only surpassed by the ten minute cameo appearance of substitute Price and his limp wristed efforts to impose himself in attack or where ever he was supposed to be playing.

I pity Dean Smith with the hand he has been dealt, the team played so well on Tuesday I can understand why he would not want to change a winning side but he must see how poor certain individuals are. Why sign Tom williams and not replace the awful Lescott after he identified the full back position as being particularily weak. We desperately need a midfield player so why play Taundrey who consistantly proves that he has the same footballing qualities of a rhino. Let's start with Grigg and leave Nicholls on the bench, what about bringing Smith back in place of the sluggish and mistake prone Lancashire?

I hope that Dean Smith will be courageous and remove these individuals from the team because with them we are doomed.

[Lone Striker]

Not our day today, second best and can see why they have an impressive home record. The game was really open, particularly first half when we matched them blow for blow initially, but as the game went on they just dictated more and more and both goals coming at vital times for them and bad times for us. Going forward in the first half we looked quite good with Julian Gray prominent in most good things along with Macken trying to hold the ball up and link the play. Richards and Gill were neat and tidy in possession without ever looking like unlocking their defence. At the back we did have some scary moments, and looked very vulnerable at times. In the second half we created nothing going forward and at times it was only the outstanding Butler and Walker keeping the scoreline down.

For me yet again we made poor substitutions and the wafer thin quality in the squad is there to see. The obvious change was Nicholls to the right, Grigg on up front alongside Macken taking off Taundry, Nicholls was nothing great but his pace may have done something in the wider position. Taundry playing wide right is just a waste of a shirt with his contribution minimal, how he played 90 minutes today would be a question I would like to ask the Manager. Losing Gill will be a real blow, and we are kidding ourselves if we think we can replace him from within this current squad, he needs replacing with someone who has similar qualities otherwise we will struggle. Signing Jason Price again is a mystery to me, he gives us nothing different to playing Will Grigg, in fact his signing is denying Grigg time on the pitch which would in my opinion give us more quality and more goal threat, Price showed nothing today to allow me to think he is worth a place. Also dissapointing that having signed Tom Williams, we do not get him on the pitch at any time in the last two games. Nothing against Westlake who could become a very good player but think the time may be right for him to be taken out of the team, move Lescott to RB and play Williams at LB, he was playing Championship football earlier in the season and would surely be an improvement on what we currently have.

This is a big week for us, we need to find a replacement for Gill as well as ideally a player who can play on the right, if we do not this squad just does not have the quality to get enough points to give us survival. We have massive games coming up, a couple of good introductions could mean the difference between league one or league two next season, it is getting to that point.

[Locky]

Well,

Colchester weren't great, but we were very poor making them look better than they were. Definitely the worst performance under Smith.

We started well and were on top, they scored against the run of play and that changed things a lot, gave them a real boost, whilst we progressively worse against their 14 men. Yes 14 because all 3 officals were dire. Made Andy Haines look half decent.

The 2nd killed it off as a game and as others have said it could easily have been 4 or 5 if it wasn't for Butler and Wacka, plus Gill hurling himself to block and nearly knocking himself out cold colliding with the post. Lancashire had a mare.

The ref didn't give the penalty waving play on from just a few yards from the incident but the lino on the far side flagged for a penalty from 30/40 yards away and the ref gave it after consulting him. Would love to hear the explanation.

In summary Colchester were nothing special, we were very poor, the officals were the worst of the lot, but at least there was still some battle and determination on display from some of the lads, but little in the way of quality.

[Magic Man Fan]

Who conceeds the pen again? Lescott, awful player imo, get Williams in Smith.

Have you ever seen Williams play? How do you know hes better? How do you know it was not a harsh penalty? :wink:

I've seen Lescott enough this season to make a desicion on weather he's good enough or not...

I think hes cack too, but i wouldnt be so sure Williams is any better.

He's played well against us in the past and was highly rated once, albeit a long time ago. More than one foot Lescott even was though.

[latviancheese]

I seem to remember Lescott played well against us a few times too :mrgreen:

Im under the impression that Williams is an attacking full back, so im not sure people should expect a steely tough tackling one.

[mrbwfc]

Worst performance under smith lets just hope it is the worst

Williams has to start again Rochdale