The Voice - Match preview Colchester United vs Bradford City Saturday 13th January 2024 3:00pm

His miss at the back post , free header in the first half , was a shocker. All he hat to do was hit the target. Watch the replay. I said at the time he should have buried it, it looks even worse on review. Sums Cookie up sadly.

 

A draw after leading always seems like a defeat, the other way round doesn’t! Weird innit.? I felt deflated leaving the ground, all the way home and couldn’t be bothered to pick up the forum until this morning over the two cuppas!

 

It was a good , well taken goal, 9/10 it would be saved. Can’t blame the keeper whatsoever.

 

And Apple Maps headed us away from the A12 to boot. Grrrrrr.

 

It will take time to turn them around if the Cowleys are consistent with trying to pass from the back. That pitch doesn't help and their current crop of players aren't capable. It was only because we were so poor in the final third that they were still in the game by half time. Cook, Chapman and Pointon didn't click at all.

 

Interesting Kev. I had a long conversation with Mark Bright who was at the match watching the Palace gk who is on loan at the Us. His view is that Cook is by far and away the best striker in L2 and possibly better than some in L1. Playing for himself can sometimes be confused with a greedy striker who's job is to score and we've had plenty of them over the time I have watched. In my opinion AS A FAN, Cook looked greedy yesterday because he realised there was no quality alongside him. Sorry to say but in my view Pointon should have been hooked after 30 or at least at HT. He looked lacking in energy, regularly misplaced passes and doesn't have the experience to read the game. For example, their defence tried to play out but were not really good enough yet Bobby showed no anticipation or even gambled where the ball would go, only setting off when he saw it which was too late. For me I would have played Smith who might not be in the best of form but is more of a sniffer and has the pace to get there.
Not to put it all on Bobby but equally Chapman for me has no end product, he showed that at Derby. Skillful but no killer punch and GA clearly saw what I saw when he subbed them both at the same time, albeit a bit late for me.

 

RT there was absolutely zero wrong with the pitch, I just looked at one of my photos, before replying earlier. They were hardly trying to pass out from the back. They were totally encamped behind the half way line 90% if the game by design and our pressing, their main task yesterday being to defend their net at all costs and that is what made it an awful game . In a pregame interview Cowley alluded to getting one break from a set piece. That set the scene, before kick off. That was his only game plan, hence 10 men behind the ball .

 

Can’t disagree, I don’t believe I have said Cookie was greedy, my comment was based around that first half header. We were dead in line with the header , not hitting the 8 yard wide target under those circumstances was difficult to comprehend. He didn’t seem to be under much pressure at the incident. Yes the rest I agree.

 

A very good point Roger. Cook imo, is extremely frustrated this season, but some construe that as him being greedy, selfish, lazy, or disinterested. He's fed up, like the rest of us.

 

I was watching at home and whilst the pitch didn't look in great condition, it didn't look any worse than any others do at this time of year, and certainly looked better than the current state of the pitch at VP!

 

Cowley's long term plan is to pass out, you can see what they were trying to do but they didn't have the midfield. It was like watching us under Hughes when we tried but had no outlets to get us out our own half. A half decent side would have taken them to the cleaners yesterday. I'll.conced to you the pitch, it looked poor on the TV but then I'm not there to see it close up.

 

Can agree with this. Playing a three with Cook, Chapman and Pointon doesn't have the chemistry. I thought Pointon was slightly better than Chapman both yesterday and Tuesday as Chapman's decision making is constantly poor. If you want to get the best from Cook you need width and crossing of a decent standard.

 

Have you seen the player reaction video? One of the interviews that concerns me is Bobby’s. Not one smile throughout his interview. He was obviously upset by the result and all the players thought that we should have won. This young player needs our support. Yes he is not going to get it right all the time, but I thought both Bobby and Chappie were creative and produced opportunities to score. I thought Cook should have scored that header, but nobody will know that more than him.


I am concerned about atmosphere. In particular the effect it is having on our young players hence my reference to Bobby’s face. Plus no one cannot have noticed GA face and body language over the last week or so. Whatever is causing this needs to stop immediately, and the club need to take charge. Obviously it doesn’t help with players confidence if highly critical posts appear on here, X, FB. Bobby’s friends and family are no doubt on here and elsewhere.

 

I thought we missed Mac yesterday.

 

We have wingers at the club that could do a job but we don't play them. Maybe Alexander could take a leaf out of Parkys book and convert one of them to wing backs. As solid as Halliday has been this season, he can't cross the ball and looks to cut back. We've nothing on the left at all with Ridealgh, and we tend to see crosses come in from deep at the wrong angle for Cook to attack.

 

I will add though he isn't the best striker in league 2, for me Mullin and Langstaff have a far better all round game. That said he's still a decent striker at this level.

 

Possibly but all i see in them are modern types of player who like to cut in from the wing and shoot. I agree that at this level a decent crosser is a must.

 

Me too. Are you going to be CEO with @Fordy117 Director of football?

 

The whole mood has changed for the worse around the club every since our unbeaten run came to an end. Just shows how fragile confidence can be. The loss of Pattison and Walker has been massive, we just don't have anyone with the nous to play that role. Pointon in my opinion isn't ready just yet to have this kind of pressure put upon him. Again, the poor recruitment by Hughes has led to us depending on a first year pro to bail us out.