Official Match Thread Colchester V Southend United

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Scannell was excellent.But it's clear we're going down.:O

A little pessimistic. Personally thought there was more balance in midfield and Moussa looked back to somewhere near what he can do. 2 errors punished and a lack of cutting edge and poor delivery from free kicks were our downfall. Scannell showed what he can do as an out and out right winger. The 2 Col U lads are back on Saturday, Watt I'd like to see run on a good footballing pitch. He needs to be given the ball. Now if we drop points against Tranmere that's he time to worry. It was always a massive game and in terms of league position and confidence is absolutely huge now.
PS I never had this down as a win but having now seen Col U on the box I am very disappointed. They really are not great to watch and i can see why the crowds are so poor. At least we try and play football. It may be our downfall in the end but so be it.

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

Still seething about that joke of a pitch, however overall I am strangely heartened by the performance tonight. 3 points is an absolute must on Saturday though. Mvoto is clearly still not fit, so Baldwin in for him. Laurent was just too greedy tonight - Vernon in for him with Laurent on as an impact player with 20 mins to go (can't drop Scannell after tonight's performance). Christophe didn't do much tonight so I can see Macca back for him.

Would love to see Herd in for Malone (why did they persist in letting him take free-kicks?) but can't see it happening somehow.

Looking forward to seeing Watt play on grass too.

 

[bazzashrimper]

Good performance. Laurent playing up to the cameras thou. Moose was good, scannell best player on the pitch. Mvoto looked shakey for first 20 mins - but after a tough tackle and his hip came through it got much better. Spencer looked good although clearly tired by the hour (fair enough)

Christophe was poor for me, drop him for Macca. Drop Laurent for Vernon - bring laurent on after an hour and tell him to pass occasionally. Malone - I don't get this - Herd much better for me, but I suspect it will take Barrett moving to left back and baldwin in for him to be dropped.

Watt looked good when we got the ball out to him, which wasn't enough for me.

 

[palexander]

Weird game!

Besides the awful pitch and 'punt into the corners' tactics by ColU, I thought we were by far the better side - yet many individuals had stinkers!

Francis, Laurent, Christophe, Mvoto, Malone (how on earth he is in infront of Herd is amazing) and Mildenhall all poor for me tonight.

Thought Spencer was excellent and I'm happy to say - after saying Scannell wasnt good enough for a Lg2 side, that he was also excellent tonight. Watt didnt really get fair chance to get in the game.

At times, despite the poor individual performances overall, I thought we knocked it around really well at times and on a better pitch I would have fancied us to win that.

That pitch really is abysmal though - surely there has to be some FA ruling about playing surfaces?

RATINGS:

Mildy: 5 - Thought he was at fault for both goals
Francis: 4 - Poor from Franno all game
Barrett: 6 - Didnt cover himself in glory for the first goal, but did ok for the the rest.
Mvoto: 5 - Still not fit, not his fault
Malone: 4 - Awful, get him out - offers absolutely nothing positive
Scannell: 8 MOM - head and shoulders above anything else
Moussa: 6 - Did ok in patches
JFC: 4 Big fan, but that is not good enough - again!
Watt: 6 - Looked ok once he got on the ball, pitch obviously didnt suit his style
Spencer: 7 - Intelligent runs, always wants the ball and nice touch. I'd stick with this guy
Laurent: 5 - Looked ok at times, but constant greedy play ruined any chance we had of scoring

SUBS: Patterson: 5 Didnt have long and missed the best chance we created

 

[bazzashrimper]

Mvoto: 5 - Still not fit, not his fault

I thought he started poorly, very poorly, but looked so much better as the game went on. I got the impression he was scared of 'testing his injury' at the beginning, but after a knock he seemed to forget about it and start concentrating on the game.

 

[ol blue eyes]

Only the second game I've not been able to get to this season, so glad it was on sky.
Seeing that 'pitch' I think we should have done our training on the beach!

I know both sides were playing on the same surface, but they were more used to it and had big front men to hoof it to.However our defenders did deal with that.
Both goals came from the ball not doing what it would do on a normal pitch.

Adam may find himself featured on a future 'bloomers' DVD but in all honesty it could have happened to anyone.

Scannell showed Laurent a number of times, what to do after running rings around defenders but Laurent continued to forget he had team mates.

Damian was the MOM by far.The SKY commentators were singing his praises all throuh the match and it his runs they featured at the end of the game.Will some of those on here stop having a go as soon as he makes an error? Of course not, at least not until he's playing for another club.

 

[Beefy]

I'm no Jonny Herd fan. Frankly, I think he, like Moussa, is criminally over-rated just because he's come through the youth team, but if he was ever going to make an impact it was tonight. When we had the ball and were putting Colchester under pressure those long throws fizzing across the box would have been a lethal weapon.

Not too down-beat though, all things considered. If we play like that for the rest of the season we'll stay up.

 

[choggy]

Crap pitch but we never looked like scoring. Scannell was fantastic, the team worked hard but with out a target man up front it was all too easy for Colchester.

 

[colusponge22]

Col U fan Here, Personally thought you played the better football but were let down by a lack of cutting edge up front and you were unlucky not to get something out of the game.

To the point about us playing two big men upfront, alot of this has to do with the injury to kevin Lisbie, who would have started tonight if he had been fit. When he playes we do play more through the middle and pass the ball a bit more however in those conditions its probably better to have the two big lads up front.

Now to the Pitch, IMO it was in a BETTER state tonight than the two previous home games trust me it is shocking and we know it, however there is only one person to blame for the state of the pitch and that is Mike Dean for allowing us to play against Norwich, that game ruined the pitch completely and it will not be right again until next season if we are lucky

 

[colu_mike7]

One word for you Shrimps:

Wordsworth.:support:

 

[SUFCStu]

One word for you Shrimps:

Wordsworth.:support:

Are we morecambe ? :unsure:

:thump:

 

[SUFC_Al]

One word for you Shrimpers:

Wordsworth. Tosser :support:

oh i hate that ****.

 

[southend4ever]

Can't bemoan no goals on that sandcastle tonight but everytime we fail to hit the net it adds to what I see being a very very real and current concern. A lack of firepower!

Really impressed with the football we played tonight throughout with indifferent conditions. Credit where its due, it wasn't easy.

Barretts disallowed goal was very soft.
Scannel great attitude - ill discipline at times but I think thats due to his desire to win or at least I hope so. Iif we play like that we will be ok but we still need goals.

 

[MisterStubbs]

One word for you Shrimps:

Wordsworth.:support:

One word for you hillbilly:

Sister :D

 

[philtalkin]

Good performance. Laurent playing up to the cameras thou. Moose was good, scannell best player on the pitch. Mvoto looked shakey for first 20 mins - but after a tough tackle and his hip came through it got much better. Spencer looked good although clearly tired by the hour (fair enough)

Christophe was poor for me, drop him for Macca. Drop Laurent for Vernon - bring laurent on after an hour and tell him to pass occasionally. Malone - I don't get this - Herd much better for me, but I suspect it will take Barrett moving to left back and baldwin in for him to be dropped.

Watt looked good when we got the ball out to him, which wasn't enough for me.

Baldwin for Mvoto
Macca for ??? One of the 2 CM's!
Don't think he will drop Laurent, he will either start on the wing with Watt up front or leave as is.
Laurent was a greedy tw4t last night but he can make something out of nothing and, when in the mood, terrorises defenders like no one else I have seen in L1.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

YES! .........but the problem was that you couldn't play football on that pitch!Having said that, the one brilliant move of the night came from us in the second-half, when Scannell jinked his way into the box and flicked on a perfect ball to Paterson ........only to see the goalkeeper make a good save. I think it was probably the only move in the match that deserved a goal.
I saw enough to encourage me tonight. When we eventually get a more settled side and are able to play on a surface that merits League football, I believe that we will get ourselves out of trouble.

oh Contraire...I think we played some very good football on the deck, Scannell in particular ran at people with the ball at his feet and scared the life out of them at times.

 

[Kenny]

McCormack can stroll back in despite publicising the wages issue on Facebook to anyone and everyone .

When was that? Maybe the club just aren't aware. Geoff King probably doesn't know about this new form of "Chatline" ;)

 

[Blues 'n twos]

One word for you Shrimps:

Wordsworth.:support:

I wont lower myself to start name calling in response, having seen 1st hand the state of your "pitch" (beach) and the style of "football" your lot played I actually feel sorry for you, and can perfectly understand why many of your fans vote with their feet and dont actually attend. The TV audience have also had a chance to see why there is only 1 FOOTBALL team in Essex!!!!!!!!! C'Mon u blues.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

oh Contraire...I think we played some very good football on the deck, Scannell in particular ran at people with the ball at his feet and scared the life out of them at times.

Yes, indeed when you read on, the rest of the post tends to contradict the first sentence! Look here, I'll seek a compromise with you..........we were the only side that tried to play football on that pitch!

 

[nevereatwhitesnow]

I'm sure I'll take plenty of abuse from you lot on here, but I've been on these boards before the match and I have no intention of gloating.

Firstly the pitch - it's awful, we know that, we can't do anything about it at the moment, now anyone who watched last night knows it BUT, tilson had been to our previous match and seen it for himself so it didn't come as a suprise to him - your players warmed up on it, so also knew what to expect. But blaming the pitch for the first goal? - No way, Barrett was going to clear, saw your keeper coming towards the ball and both pulled out of making the save/clearance - That wasn't the pitch - just basic poor defending and a lack of communication between the keeper and defender. Second goal was just again poor defending, slow reactions from your defence.

I though you looked very good in the middle of the park - very impressed with Scannel, played with flair and some intelligence too - the best footballing performance on the pitch last night in my opinion. Thought the biggest problem for you was the lack of options your forwards offered for the midfield, some of their runs were poor, first touch wasteful on occasions too.

That was one of our worst performance for the midfield for a long time, Izzet was poor, Prutton annonymous, O'Toole weak and Wordsworth didn't do a massive amount apart from scuffing one shot and then the tap in. Our defensive unit was very good last night and the big men up front were also handy.

We are 4th not because of the pitch - (only got like that in Norwich match and we've only played 3 games at home since) - and we aren't 4th because of the type of football we played last night. We are 4th because we adapt well to different styles of opposition and pitches (surfaces and size). We play direct to clear our lines then knock it around in the opposition half.

Still think you'll be OK, Think Pat Baldwin will make a big difference at the back and Scotty Vernon is more than capable of putting a run of goals together at the other end. Sanchez Watt looked as though he had something about him too and with time (and a decent pitch?) he'll come good for you too.

Good luck for the rest of the season