Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:05 pm
First half we were the better team but struggled to create chances - mainly down to the pitch being pretty rough and not conducive to our preferred style of playing it on the floor, and also Colchester getting loads of bodies behind the ball so not much room to play through them (defence helped by the ball bouncing off divots when we did) and didn't manage to get in behind them very often.
Baxendale looked lost on the right wing - better when he cut inside. Grigg policed by the 2 centre halves and no service so hardly had a sniff unless he dropped deep or pulled off wide - meaning then no one in the danger area to give the ball to. Mantom looked threatening when running from deep until he got closed down but then no attacking support alongside him to keep it goingt - Featherstone was a fish out of water trying to play in the hole behind Grigg.
They were hardly in our half but Jabo held the ball up well when they did (always had to wait for support because they were all so deep) - never looked like scoring though. except for the time a long high ball was pumped to the the edge of the area and McLoughlin decided not to leave the 2 forwards to the 3 defenders but charged out into the crowd outside the box (luckily the resulting loose ball eluded their players or could have been embarassing).
Main reason they never got near was Chambers who more or less bossed the midfield on his own - won every tackle and was strong in possession. distrributed well and kept putting us back on the attack (or at least in their half with the ball).
Close to halftime Baxendale was put through but missed the back stick when only the keeper to beat and at least 2 other players available for a square ball or pull back. The only other incident of note was Paterson being pulled up by the ref for taking a quick thow a few yards from where he thought it should be taken. Letter of the law he was probably within his rights to award the throw to them rather than make us take it again but Paterson hadn't run yards with it, just took it where he caught it and too quick for ref to pull him back to the right spot. The consequence was Paterson started mouthing and stopped concentrating, leaving Benning 2 on 1 for a while. May have had cause to be aggrieved but doesn't excuse the lack of discipline - didn't seem like he got his head back right for the rest of the game.
At halftime thought that what we needed to do was either bring on Hemmings/J Chambers on for Featherstone and play Baxendale in the middle, or drop Grigg into that position and put Powerman up top. Instead it was them that made a game changing substitution by putting on a pacey winger on the right against Benning - skinned him more than once (no support from Paterson), pushing him deeper and allowing them to get more men forward than in the first half to come onto the ball that Jabo was still holding up very well.
Having said that, they never really looked like scoring but they were keeping us penned in so less and less liklely we were going to either. The best chance we had was from a break after another of their poor corners when Grigg out wide on the right looked up to see Paterson with acres of space in the centre. He knocked the ball over bang on the money, but instead of taking the ball down in front of him for a clear run at goal, Paterson "trapped" the ball yards to the side right to where the nearest defender could get his foot to it. Couldn't blame to poor surface because the ball was in the air! Apart from that we were reduced to lumping it forward aimlessly from the back.
Chanbers still the best player on the pitch but getting more and more ineffectual in terms of attacking play as having to hold onto the ball for too long waiting for a run that never happened, and then forced into a sideways or backwards pass. Featherstone more or less a passenger, along with Paterson, and Benning couldn't get forward as much as he did in the 1st half. Too much huff and puff up the the final third, then everyone scrambling back to avoid the break when we inevitably lost the ball.
As it went on you could see that they were getting more and more encouraged that they weren't losing yet again and they made 2 more early subs in a bid to find a breakthrough, while we seemed content to sit it out for the point. If we had have gone for it I think they would have crumbled - but we didn't (after the match at our place their manager said it was a change for the game not to have been beyond them by halftime - and their run has got worse since then so confidence must have been low).
When the goal came with only 10 minutes left it was self-inflicted - a routine back pass to mop up a loose ball was under hit by Downing, their bloke ran onto it, McLaughlin reacted and managed to slide to the ball first but only knocked it out as far as the onrushing Jabo who ran through our flatfooted defence and scooped it into an empty net.
Too late Smith reacted by putting on Hemmings for Baxendale (why?). and even later Bowerman for Featherstone (stable door time!), but still no urgency in getting forward and when we did we left ourselves wide open to a counter acttack - they'd already hit the bar before the right wing sub was allowed to get away unchallenged down the side and cross to the unmarked Freddie Sears for the clincher in the 90th minute (where was our pace?)
Overall a lack of guile to break them down was the problem. More than matched them physically in the middle but not up front as no support for Grigg, and not enough pace or skill to open them up
Given the state of the pitch and Brandy's performance against Bournemouth last week (didn't think he did much going forward - although he did show Paterson how a winger is supposed to protect their fullback), doubt that he would have made that much of a difference really (our shape would have been better with Baxendale in the middle instead of Featherstone though). What could have done is spotting how Colchester changed things at halftime and their other 2 subs and reacting to that instead of just plodding along with Plan A then making a nothing change once it's too late, so maybe the loss of ROK was more of a factor in the result than anything else.
Hope that it was just a bad day at the office because we know that these same players can play better than that (not saying we were bad, just a bit flat and predictable).
Feet back on the ground, concentrate on the Oldham game and getting to 50 points asap - leave dreams of play offs until after Easter iof we are still in with a shout then.
