The Voice - Match preview Colchester United vs Bradford City Tuesday 16 August @ 7:45pm

I understand where your coming from but the only game weve won is from individual brilliance that is it. Yes banks chapman and co are showing signs of promise but that doesnt get your promoted. Possession doesnt get you promoted, you have to win ugly sometimes a set piece works magic like it did for colchester today. Halliday was woeful so was angol when he came on, I forgot Oliver was even playing! We need cook back in the team with harratt next to him. Seriously underwhelmed so far this season dont let the Hull win cloud your judgement.

Hughes trying to make everything look pretty but forgetting its the score that ultimately matters at the end. Can’t see us up there this season unfortunately, I hope to god im wrong.

 

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.

 

Tell that to all the idiots signing about promotions after during new game on Saturday.

We are not even close to promotion.

 

Nobody is even close to promotion haha

 

Agree Cook definitely needs to start on Saturday, although young was really bad today he has something about him and lets shots off which we are very naive at in this moment of time.

Yes top 7 is slightly above mid table I think there will be so many teams fighting for that position we probably will miss out. Colchester went into a shell in the second half but punished us because we could not do anything in the final third. Against barrow second half they were all over us at points. Considering its two consecutive away games we’ve conceded last minute i hope this isn't a regular occurrence.

Dominating games and not being able to score means nothing look at Arsenal and Man utd (not this season) in recent times. Set pieces are important I really hope we start knuckling down on them in training. I would also like to see odusina start now ahead of platt.

 

On the face of it, we have gone backwards since the end of last season but it did take Hughes several games to get some fluidity in the side last season too. I still think we'll come good but a disappointing start in terms of results and performances, albeit I don't think we're a million miles away.

 

Agreed, but then ask yourself... will Arsenal and Man Utd finish top 7?

Even as ridiculously bad as United have looked in their opening two, top 7 is hardly a stretch.

I think that's how we've got to look at it this season, until proven otherwise.

 

Difference with united and arsenal was the individual brilliance they have the quality of players just can perform on any day. In league 2 we dont have that luxury hence why alot of these players are working their craft in league 2.

I refuse to be optimistic i have been burnt too many times.

 

Dropping 8 points in the first 4 games is not good by any standards, especially against the teams we have played so far.....when the fixture list came out, i expected to be least 4 points better off than we are.
Not panicking just yet, but we need to start doing better

 

Colchester we’re at best limited and we managed to throw away the game again at the death. That’s not a positive habit or conducive to getting promotion.

 

Thought we would in all honesty get off to a slow start so ain’t surprised at all ............. one thing that is bothering me is putting players in out of form ahead of form players ........... sometimes having a big squad can give you even more problems . Just go with two men up top and two wide man to support them is that so difficult to ask ............... you know the good old 4-4-2 system ................ this one up top is not doing us any good at all .............. like others have said the two goals on Saturday where down to brilliance we cannot bank on moments like that every week ..............Angol shouldn’t be anywhere near the team he probably looked ok during the back end of last season because he was after a new deal ........... and folk going on about him worrying about his hamstring going didn’t affect him at the back end of last season did it .............. as for Oliver sad it on many occasions that if you provide NOTHING for the forwards then they will do nothing won’t they ................ sure the same shite was aimed at Doyle and Vaughan to lazy etc etc no interest etc etc then magically when the fook off away they magically start scoring again ............ forwards will get goals if the service is right we sadly ain’t providing nothing for him .............. if we ain’t go fly crosses in or play long then I seriously cannot understand why Oliver was signed

 

Cannot stand Evans and still wouldn't welcome him here. However, I think he will get Stevenage promoted. He certainly knows how to get out of this league, that's for sure.

 

We have lost 2 good players that would surely be in the first 11 which would have an impact on most league2 sides. Its 5 games in to the season and some are already having a go , wait until at least 10 games when things have settled down.

 

This is true of course, we have played just 4 games but we’ve also got coming up Tranmere away, Mansfield away and Walsall and Steve Evans Stevenage at home. We’re in a spell of games we should be winning like Colchester,Hartlepool then Crewe but it gets tougher then,and with our soft underbelly from corners and free kicks which other teams will note, I’m not sure our league position will be much better after 10 games.

 

Everyone knew it would take 2 or 3 months for this lot to gel. It's just impossible to have them click until then with all these new signings. Only 2 of our starters last night were here before the summer, and they were in and out the side before hand. There's always going to be these hiccup games like last night where it just looks rigid.

My let down isn't the above, it's just the basics. We sometimes try to be too cute on the ball, trying too much for that nice looking ball in, when more often that not teams are figuring that out. We looked our best last night when Banks just took his man on and had a pop, or Harratt ran down their throat and had a go. But also the gamesman ship, far too many pointless yellows and fouls.

Platt had no need to bloke that early throw, as Sears who ran to throw it was the only man forward at the time. Dont get me started on Angols petty free kicks he gave away. Then Halliday, yellow dragging the man on the break is fine sometimes, but needless when he was well in his own half and we had men back. We just dont seem to have game smarts at the minute.

 

Perfectly summarised, one of the best posts I’ve seen in a while.

 

Aye it was great Dave, I read it was cashless but had no idea each ticket was also a £4 refreshment vouncher too. ?

Bottle of lager please! Big queue at 1/2 though!

We were 10 yds to your right looking at your photo and two or three rows higher . You must have seen Charlie constantly running on the front having a one way conversation with the linesman.?

 

Gilly wasn’t poor at all imho.

 

Cmon, not the old “gel” chestnut! We set an unprecedented stance this season, by getting the majority of the squad signed up early. Played plenty of pre season matches, and even went to Spain on a bonding mission. Gelling or lack of it, has nothing to do with not putting enough crosses into the box, or playing a lone target man up top, thirty five yards away from a teammate. It also has nothing to do with individual concentration, which seems to switch off in every team member on ninety minutes. Don’t get me started on Angol - he was here last season. The only gel he’s looking for, is the stuff he smears all over his dodgy hamstrings to prevent them pinging again!

 

Their football fans, football fans are notorious for exuberance and often misguided enthusiasm for their team and its prospects, especially so at success starved clubs such as ours. I imagine at grounds up and down the country fans will have been making noise about promotion, its August, what are you expecting? No need to refer to them as idiots for that.