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

Son was really impressed by him.

 

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.

 

We were far better with Angol instead of Young which emphasises how poor Young was

 

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.

 

Twins were seriously entertained by him!

 

All the pretty football and possession will not win you games unless you have decent forwards, Angol and Oliver are shocking up front and Hughes must be stupid if he cannot see this, my confidence in his ability to manage the team has taken a dent. He must show he can win games or is he another BCFC false dawn, When he cannot see what the majority of fans can it is a worry

 

I agree I’d say in the last few games; Gilliead, Smallwood and the two CBs have been a solid foundation and best players. It’s cutting out silly decision making such as needless fouls(Barrow and last night) and poor decision making in the final third that needs to improve. But the CM pairing is the least of our worries and I thought they were both solid again last night.

 

Great summary.

Just make sure you ignore the dozen that Stevenage have brought in or your argument doesn't make any sense at all.

 

we are the one word that springs to mind was Naive ... ... with a capital N We did things that didn't work but kept on doing them... I think Colchester were a really poor side lacing in total confidence and we really helped them. Every time we lots a pass/ foul /wrong decision etc they benefitted. Lets hope a bad day at the office. Angol is better than a Beckham back leg flick foul and his foul for their goal he was like a 19 year old rookie....

 

Bad spelling trying to work too.....

 

Idiots!

No title is won in August (maybe Man City winning the PL is this season) or promotion settled.

 

Second half he played well. First half I thought he was sloppy with the ball. Overall though, he wasn't our worst performer. The likes of Halliday, Oliver, Angol, Young claimed that honour.

 

But we now lost two matches out of four, in injury time. That’s not going OTT, it’s recognising there’s a pattern emerging. Eradicate that, and we’re improving.

 

That kind of plays into my full point if you quoted all of it. It's the basics and naivety of MH and the squad to an extent. You know a Steve Evans side isn't going to give away petty fouls in daft positions. His side will know to shut up shop or at least make it difficult for the opposition. And Evans will know more than Hughes just how painful the officials are at this level, and how he can use it.

Also, rather than having 9 or 10 new signings start every match like we have, Evans hasn't had more than 6 or 7 with the spine still being players who were there before, with the new lads bleeding in. Evans signings were also very experienced, which helps as they've seen it before. Guys like Sweeney who started most the season for FGR and won the league. Piergianni and Bostwick who have been around the EFL for donkeys years. Rose and Roberts in the wide attacking areas, both 28 with loads of experience.

Where as our new boys just in the back line alone expecting to click are a keeper with barely any pro experience, a right back whos just had a year out injured and barely any pre season, Platt who seems to start half a season both time with Barrow, Critchlow who's good but not a lot of experience and Ridehalgh who has spent his career missing half a season injured and didn't feature in pre season.

East, Young, Harratt & Chapman all through age or injury haven't started over 20 games in a season before. It's not just the numbers us or another side bring in and saying "well X team are doing it"... it's what those numbers bring to the table and with us if you take out Walker, Smallwood & Oliver, we've a lot of very young or inexperienced lads who need to learn how to play to the end.

 

Angol was poor last night but some of the comments on here are really weird.
We don’t play to Oliver’s strengths at all. There is only so much the player can do but there was absolutely no service and he is being doubled marked most of the time. People need a bit of perspective. We are 4 league games in with a brand new team.

 

Guilty as charged, I'm better after a good night's sleep but we don't need the likes of Angol (who was obviously still annoyed with regards the penalty claim) coming back to help the defence out and giving soft fouls away.

 

I agree. I think a lot do. Oliver is just another Doyle/Vaughan waiting to happen. I think a lot of us don’t want that.

 

To the fans who were there last night I've just read a post from a fan who was also there and he was saying the lad Oliver made several good runs but the ball was never played to him, obviously watching the game on TV we don't pick it up but I felt at times we were wanting to walk it in and kept possession for the sake of keeping the ball rather than hitting it long to Oliver, did fans at the game pick up on Oliver's runs?.

 

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!

 

Surprised no one has mentioned Cook hitting the post almost immediately after they’d scored. Was a great turn and shot, and was unlucky not to go in. He thought it had. Would have been a real lift for Saturday if we’d had managed to salvage a point.