The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Colchester United vs Bradford City Tuesday 16 August @ 7:45pm

Fair play to the club

 

Shall we just write the season off then and call it a day?

All football teams lose football matches. We can't be going OTT every time we lose.
Sooner or later we've got to give people a chance or we end up with the merry-go-round every February.

 

Overriding feeling today is one of FRUSTRATION.

We are good enough on paper to do well. However the execution right now is quite poor.

Lewis to Crichlow to Platt to Halliday to Platt to Crichlow to Ridehalgh to Crichlow to Smallwood to Platt to Halliday ad nauseam isn't going to get us very far.

 

Likewise, I get where you're coming from, but these aren't the doldrums we've experienced under other managers.

Cook has to start on Saturday, and for the foreseeable future - he needed only minutes to do what Oliver hasn't looked like doing all season when he hit the post.

But I think what's easily forgotten is that to be top 7 you only have to finish 7th - which is only slightly above midtable by any working definition.

You don't have to be a hotshot team winning every week to get out of this division, but you have to be able to win when it matters - and so far, I've seen stupid mistakes cost us two games, and I've seen a team that hasn't quite hit top speed still dominating games and causing problems without playing particularly well.

I don't think for one second we're going to keep losing in the 90+6/7 minute, so since I've yet to see anyone actually beat us from pillar to post, I'm not worried about it.

We need to improve, but nothing massive. Barrow weren't great, Colchester were pretty poor outside of their blocking/tackling, and I don't think there's anything for this Bradford City team to fear - but lots to learn.

 

Train tickets booked for tomorrow staying down there till Friday. Can't wait

 

How is Gillied playing poorly? He's won the ball many times, protected it well and is forward thinking. If you think he's had a poor half, you need to clean your TV screen

 

The way to get us to shoot on sight is to play Cook and Harratt.

 

We shouldn't have had to defend a free kick that late in the game, theres no need for Angol to make that challenge.

 

Just got up after the tour of Essex and Suffolk last night! A12 Northbound was closed heading North from the ground so we went sightseeing in the dark for 30 miles before civilisation was sighted.


Itself fully summed up a pretty dire evening. (It was fine until kick off one might say, Free Beer, free food, free programs)

Bear in mind this is my take, from my position , you peeps watching via cameras might have seen something totally different?

Player Profile
Lewis 8 Didn’t do much wrong ,great save from a header diving to his high left in the 2nd half, decent distribution.
Haliday 5 Ridehalgh 4 Both rather subdued compared to Saturday , and partnerships with their frontmen, Young in Ridehalgh’s case was poor, largely because the ball was never sticking with Young so Ridehalgh had to stay defensive especially in the first half.
Platt 8 Crichlow. 7.5. Platt had his best game for me, the latter sometimes appearing slow to progress the ball forward, probably because the ball wasn’t sticking in the middle of the field . Ping pong stuff.
Now things start to deteriorate.
Smallwood 6.5 , Gilly 7 Both good at the dirty “ breaking it up “ stuff. Smallwood had his least effective game last night. Distribution was slow to the “ three” and non existent over the top. Gilly was the only one, imho, breaking through their lines.
Young 3 , bambi on ice, ball was lost just as fast as it was gained, kept slipping ( so did Halliday!), crossing was a rarity and when there was one it didn’t beat the first man. I don’t recall him beating their fullback once?
Chapman 5 willing to run but it was generally into a wall of their midfield. Passing where attempted , largely ineffectual from memory throughout.
Banks 7.5 best of the “ Three” . Always willing to take a man on from the right, but they eventually doubled or trebled up on him, which nullified him somewhat. One area he could improve on is he always seems to “ cut in” from the right and don’t ever recall him going on the outside of the full back and crossing from the byeline. He has to learn when to “ gain” free kicks. Several times he cut inside and was tripped, clipped etc and could have easily gone down and gained a free kick wide out right. Instead he tried to be honest and stay on his feet , Ref waved play on , and we promptly lost the ball. THE REF THEN DIDNT go back to the foul!
Oliver 3. In fairness his service was nil, and ploughed a lonely furrow as he was marked by two large journeymen centrebacks . I can’t blame him individually as the team “game” , just didn’t work last night.

Angol. 5.5 Big improvement on Young and gave them something to worry about down the left.
Harratt,. 7 Looked lively and when he and Cook broke through , Hornby was forced to pull off a terrific save. I thought that was going to be a nailed on goal?
Cook. 5.5 An improvement on Oliver?

Team Game
Far far too slow in getting the ball from back to front, looks good for sure, but 6 passes are likely to be broken up compared to the same move using three passes! That why we looked disjointed, they flooded the middle at times and we struggled to get through them. Longer more penetrating balls would have perhaps bypass this flooded middle? As a result we became too easily predictable. Once again we switched off for the goal and we’re left with land of the giants at the back post against our smaller defenders…leaving a clear header.

Let’s be clear this no way excuses our performance but I have to comment about the referee.

Referee I will give him a ONE for getting dressed correctly!

Absolutely awful decision making from first to last. Identical tackles he gave a foul against us, he waved play on to us and as a result we subsequently lost the ball as it broke free. (See Banks above) The more this went on the more we got frustrated, hence I think the Angol kick out, and the Hodges(?) booking. He was constantly inconsistent and at times struggled to keep up with the game. I’m convinced, from where I sat Angol should have had a penalty to the extent he immediately put the whistle to his mouth…and promptly waved play on. Everyone around me saw him do it and then completely bottle out of the decision .

Added time.
I can’t understand what on earth is going on. They now seem to be increasing added time to 7-9 minutes. This can’t be because of substitutes, so why is on field timewasting not being dealt with?
There was a farcical moment late in the game where one of their forwards was taken off. We all saw the sign raised and the same forward jogged to the complete opposite side of the pitch. He then pretended not to know he was being subbed. The ref then ambled over, again to the opposite side of the pitch to tell him he was being subbed, the both then ambled back across the full width of the pitch , back to the dug outs to get him exchanged for the sub. What an absolute joke the new directive they are working under……. Add time on but do nothing to stop timewasting!!!

A particularly bad night at the team office, compounded by a very very poor referee.

Onwards and upwards
We ARE missing Walker!

 

80 for me if I can persuade my brother to join me

 

Shipley to Ipswich £92 return 4 hrs. Cheaper than driving and less stress. Get picked up in Ipswich. Ex rugby man brother in law and gin loving sister welcoming committee, not good when you're recovering from a heart attack lol

 

Piss poor. We were better to watch at the end of last season than this. We're massively lacking in a goal threat. Oliver was awful, Chapman flattered to deceived. Banks bright but poor decision making. All a bit too safe and sterile, not enough penetration or pace up front. Angol looked tidy but had no threat and what was he playing at falling down when he got in down that flank? And then he gives away a completely pointless foul in a dangerous area that leads to their winner?!

Until Harratt came on, did we force Hornby to make a save? Harratt looked bright, he needs to start games. We have the same laborious feel to our attack.

Unless we improve, we won't score enough goals to be a promotion winning side. And tbh, whilst we're tidy, we're crap to watch.

 

Angol looks a shadow of how he was at the end of last season. He either needs to play as target man or next to one in a front two. He's doing nothing out wide.

Oliver looks lackadaisical and has awful first touch. No way he should be starting ahead of Cook.

Young was awful. Never beat his man once. Gave the ball away far to often.

Chapman needs to do a lot more.

 

I think that's it - the manner in which Angol gave away the needless free kick in the first place as well. But I didn't leave the ground frustrated or dismayed because these are individual errors that can be ironed out. Similar with the decision making in the final third, it's all small margins that can be worked on and I'm sure that it will improve as the season progresses.

I found myself comparing that performance to the feeling I had when I last left Colchester a couple of years ago after a 0-0 draw under Gary Bowyer where you could see fundamental, ideological issues engrained in the team that led to a lack of ambition and goal threat. Last night's loss was different to that where Colchester edged a pretty even game where they played well and we made a couple of key errors.

 

Regardless of the comedy penalty and the late free kick, Angol was just awful. He slowed down every attack we made through him. Absolutely no urgency, penetration or intent

 

No place in this team for Angol. He's lost everything he had before the injury and seems shite scared of doing anything overexcerting for fear of injury.

Not sure about Oliver. Looks like he could be the love child of Delfounso and Lavery.

 

There were a lot of knee jerk reactions on here last night immediately following the game, with players that were being praised after Saturday's win now seemingly not fit to wear the shirt. My take on the game is that defensively we were pretty sound - we would have had a clean sheet if it wasn't for Angol's stupid foul in the dying embers of the game, but attacking wise we were poor. I don't agree with Hughes that we deserved 3 points, but I do think a draw would have been a fair result. I am a bit concerned about Oliver and his 3 year deal, it's not looking like a great decision at the moment, and I don't think he should be anywhere near the starting 11 until we have worked out on the training pitch how as a team we are going to play to his strengths and/or, he is going to adapt to ours.

 

Well, he’s picked the right game….

 

The conundrum of that front four. Back four looks solid most of the time and the central two show promise at times. But as an attack we look all.iver the place, we simply cannot start without Cook. Oliver hasn't fit at all and Angol is useless unless played upfront. I hope Chapman isn't a one good game in 4/5 type player because we need him to step up to the plate. Feels like two steps back after 2 good performances.

 

Banks needs to improve, but mate, he was the one beating players and getting shots off in the first half...

To say he's not amazing is fair enough, but to say he didn't do much (first half especially) is pretty curious...

At one point, I wondered if anyone else was attacking.