I agree- it's all about the reaction. Sounds as if we were unlucky, but also reminds us that we need to get back to being clinical. From twitter, it sounds as if solly and wiggins ran the show.
Another magnificent run comes to an end. I suppose I should be sad or disbelieving or something, but I'm strangely unconcerned. This may be something to do with the fact that we're still 13 points ahead and The Blades simply don't have whatever it is it takes to close us down. Well done CP! Well done you Reds!! I'll give it 20 minutes for Rufus98 to appear...
The referee's surname was Ward. It was the midfield central 2 that let us down; I don't know how Chrissy didn't address that. He had Haynes standing waiting to come on for almost 10 minutes and only forced him on when they scored the second.
I guess this is karma for the result against Bournemouth. Still, another game down and still same lead over second.
The longer the game went on the less we looked like scoring. We ended up with 4 strikers and no wide men, and just completely ran out of ideas. For Saturday we need some fresh legs in midfield.
Just back. Strangely enough we played really well for an hour but got caught out by a screamer and a bad mistake. Hamer culpable for both goals in my opinion. First was a belter but I thought he was slow to go for it. May revise that opinion when I've seen a replay. As stated above midfield two were off key. Hollands in particular was poor. So was Green who departed to no applause at all. A little later Clarke entered to no applause at all so I suppose there is symmetry there. To be honest I don't feel too bad. We actually played better that in many games this season when we drew or won. But the second goal killed us dead. No booing at all. I think everyone just realised that it was one of those nights. Brings us down to earth a bit which may be no bad thing. Solly MOM for me. Now where have we heard that before this year! Wiggins energetic going forward but tried too often to beat his man rather than cross. BWP still looks short of confidence despite the hat trick.
Just want to say, totally agree with ybabobmij's assessment of the game, we did not play badly, although I thought we lacked a cutting edge. was delighted the boo boys were in the pub watching Arsenal tonight. It was just one of those nights & if I'm honest it was coming with some of our winning performances being based on a lot of luck. We may be 13 points clear but we can't be complacent. The guys should be playing for their places in what I hope will be a good championship side next season. Clarke's already a non runner in my opinion.
Just got back and read the posts. Ybabomij's assessment is good enough for me. Hamer was probably to blame for both the goals and don't see why he played tonight after injury on Saturday. Think we could have started with Sullivan and had Hamer on the bench. Green misfired a bit and I for one would have liked to have Waggy on the bench since I dont really seenHaynes as a wide player. jacko had a poor match for me as well. The surprise for me was Clarke who due to his size and positioning opened up a couple of opportunities for us by creating space near the end. He may have a role in some matches and certainly looked fitter during his cameo. Midfield went missing again for times tonight. Overall however a good night to have a mare of game. Hope we stop the bad dream come Saturday.
Just got back. I must admit, i wondered if it might have been one of those days when i was stuck on M25 for hour and a half because of some inconsiderate person having an accident at Leatherhead - so , only got there with 20 mins gone, and already 1 down. Also, they had 1 lane down on the A2 after the game - what a load of rubbish (just like the game, really). Back to the game. Well, this is the first time i have seen a side win 2-0 with only 1 shot on goal ! - Colchester were poor, totally defensive, only played with 1 man up front and stifled and time-wasted and trebled up on the wings and midfield - yeah , they worked hard, however, with all our dominance with the ball i dont recall their goalie having 1 shot to save, yeah, he flapped at a few crosses, but nothing too serious. TBH, we were clueless, and resorted to the old trick of long balls that were gobbled up by their 2 man mountains at the back - even Kermy got beat in the air most times, which is unusual. Poor,poor performance by us - didnt have any idea how to break down a packed defence and midfield, and CP didnt seem to want to change it around it bit to try to get something going - just the same long ball easily dealt with. There was a sense of well, it had to happen some time.But this is about the 6th time i've seen us this year, and at no time have i been impressed - we quite obviously have a problem should we concede first, and it just cried out tonight for someone to try to go down the wings, but, no, long punt up in the air again. My player points.... Hamer - 6 Had nothing to do apart from get the ball out of the net, yes, he cocked up with the second, but it happens sometimes. Solly - 7.5 MOM , solid and unspectacular. Wiggins - 6 not one of his best - always seemed to have 3 ColU around him. Morrison - 7 ANother solid display Taylor - 7 same Hollands - 4 Poor,poor - didnt know he was playing - and this is not the first time i've thought this about him Jacko - 6 reasonable game, but lacks pace to really worry anyone down the left Green - 4 Mr Frustration - innocuous, wish he would go round a fullback now and again - bring back Paddy Powell. Stephens - 5 Also innocuous Kermy - 5 Not one of his best games, kept losing the ball and won little in the air as both their centre backs were 10 feet tall. BWP - 3 Poor,poor,poor - looked disinterested, didnt make himself available, and looked slow. Had a great chance if 1st half that he seemed more intent in trying to get a pen - and didnt even try to shoot. Very disappointed in him. Haynes - 4 was on pitch for about 20 mins but only remember him touching the ball once with shot that went harmlessly wide. Oh, and by the way, the ball WAS out for our disallowed goal - i was right in line.
Hamer 5 - FINALLY he's been caught out, every single week on numerous occasions without fail he leaves his kicks until the last possible second, he was punished for it today. Couldn't do much about the first though. Solly 8 - his usual solid self and also had a good attacking impact, one perfect long ball across to Johnnie Jackson really stood out. Taylor 7 - same thing I say every week - solid! Morrison 7 - again, solid as always (also had Odejayi in his pocket all game) Wiggins 6.5 - played well defensively, but when going forward he seemed a bit predictable and failed to produce much. Green 6 - not a spectacular performance, a few poor touches and dull shots. Stephens 6 - sprayed the ball around the pitch with ease, but was playing far too deep. Also, one too many misplaced passes. Hollands 6 - always seems unaware when there's a player right behind him and leaps like a cat whose tails been trodden on. Great player clearly but needs a rest. Jackson 5 - showed some decent control at times but was anonymous and ineffective most of the time. Kermit 6 - probably his worst game for us so far, mainly because he won nothing in the air (huh?!!). When the ball was at his feet though, he laid off some brilliant passes. BWP 5 - poor service for him, struggled to control the ball and failed to get in behind the defence. Haynes - had very little effect on the game when he came on. Clarke - yet to find out how he escaped from Margate beach...
Also worth noting, the referee didn't seem to quite have a grasp of what his role requires... -play can be stopped for off the ball fouls! -reckless challenges still require punishment even if the ball is out of play! -the use of hands in football isn't permitted! -if a goalkeeper time-wastes once, by all means warn him. After warning him though, get your card out, don't just warn him again!
Agree with your ratings WWOCB I know it seems mad to criticise Powell - especially on a night where it clearly were'nt happening for us - but he offered very little in terms of changing the game tonight. Haynes was stood waiting to come on for ages (maybe 10 mins?) and only the goal forced Powell to go for it. Even then whilst Green wasn't playing brilliantly he wasn't the most pressing issue. There were times when Colchester were heading a ball out and Stephans/Hollands were nowhere near the second ball. Why wasn't Russell bought on? What are all his coaches doing? Do they all agree with him?
I think its fair to say Powell is quite tactically naïve. This is not just a knee-jerk reaction to todays result, its been evident all season. The first example this season being replacing Solly with Morrison at RB (and Cort in his place) during Stevenage away. Other examples being pairing Clarke and Kermit up front together, the LB at RB, CM at RM, RM at LM situation a few weeks back etc. Tonight, Powell seemed reluctant to do anything with the big gaping hole in midfield, and his reliance upon the same tactic (hoof the ball to Kermit, header towards BWP, BWP misjudges his run) is getting so increasingly dull. At one point, Morrison had the ball in defence, and passed it straight along the ground all the way to Kermorgants feet, which set up a pretty decent bit of attacking play. The reliance on Kermorgants headers is frustrating as he is clearly more than capable of playing the ball well with his feet. Looking at this seasons stats, Kermit has only one league 'assist', surprisingly low for a player whose key job is to provide BWP with goalscoring chances (this is in no way a dig at Kermorgant himself who is a brilliant player). Also of course its worth questioning why Powell consistently brings on Leon Clarke every game (and why indeed he signed him in the first place)? Every single person in the stadium can see he's not good enough, seemingly everyone except our manager. Perhaps he's just hoping he'll 'come good'. Don't get me wrong guys, Chris Powell has done a brilliant job this season, I'm just saying he still has a lot to learn.
CP did say quite recently that with games coming thick and fast we'd be seeing some players we haven't seen much of during the season. And I said I was looking forward to that. So I hope he starts this process on saturday, because we do need to use the squad. I only remember their goalie making one save, from a Green shot straight at him first half.
Have to say I'm surprised by the ratings- the stats/commentary suggested we played well and battered them, but just didn't get the rub of the green. Was that not the case?
We had a lot of the ball in areas that weren't going to hurt them - for example they only played with 1 up front, so therefore we had a lot of the ball at the back, it just continual hoofball to Kermy, but they had 2 giants at the back who won everything and knocked it down for their 5 man midfield.Their midfield worked their socks off to close us down, and once they scored they just shut up shop and parked the bus, but we had no skill or nous to get round the back or have a quick attack - it was all far too ponderous, and we just didnt really look like scoring from open-play(where have i heard that before?).They had obviously done their homework and treble marked Wiggins too.- certainly, tactically we were much the worse side tonight.
Also surprised by the ratings particulalrly those who said Hamer didn't have that bad a game. He was indecisive and his positioning for the first goal had a lot to be desired. I would have been happier to see Sullivan in goal last night. What annoyed me more was the lack of control by the referee. The celebration by Wordsworth was tantamount to incitement and could have been a booking for unsporting behaviour, the blatant warming up over our warm up markers at the start of the second half. His failure to understand that football is not a wrestling match in which liveral use of the hands is allowed. Should changes have been made to the starting line up, I for one would have wanted to see Hughes and Russell in midfield and Wagstaff on the bench. Iwould have brought Clarke on a bit earlier since given his size he would have made a difference in the air up front where BWP was being bullied off the ball every time it came in the air. However, we can all be wize after the event and have differing views of what would have worked. We did not have a good night. CP has got to get the side over this and provide some impetus for Saturday. I beleive we might see some changes to the starting line up on Saturday and can hope that these are not overdramatic and are clearly to get us through the glut of fixtures we have in March.
To be fair to Wordsworth, in past games I've been to he gets a lot of ''Charlton reject'', so think it was in response to that. Re Hamer. I like him and think he has been much improved over the recent months. He needs to add some weight if he really wants to progress though. I'm sure thats something the club has looked at/discussed. I hate changing a winning side, but the games have really been coming thick and fast recently. I think we have to look at bringing in Evina, Russell, Haynes and Waggy in the coming matches. You don't want to be caught out by an injury and/or suspension and not have players 100% match fit.
