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Joined
Nov 4, 2003
Messages
15,285
Location
Rayleigh
Colchester%28H%29.jpg


If it can ever really be said that we scored (twice!) too early, then it could be said about this one.

After the midweek heroics against Leeds, it was always going to be difficult to raise ourselves a second time in such quick succession. With the visiting Ewes enjoying a rest during the week due to their re-arranged fixture, our two-nil lead was certainly welcomed but, in truth, it threw down the gauntlet and brought with it a desperate onslaught for the rest of the match that our weary legs couldn't cope with.

In the opening 25 minutes, our football was sublime and our finishing exact. Although the small team from up the road had clearly done their homework on him from what someone saw on Tuesday, Laurent started in the same form he'd displayed against the big team from up North. Like Leeds, Colchester couldn't live with him. Unlike Leeds they sought to kick lumps out of him from the start.

For the remaining 75 minutes, Colchester looked like a side who'd won their last game 5-0. We found it difficult to cope. Goals change games and it was definitely true here. Our first put the Ewes firmly onto the back-foot and our second pushed them even further back onto it. We looked as if we'd score from every attack, yet a rare forage into Southend territory led to a free-kick as Barrett handled his man a little too much for the referee's liking. One deflected free-kick past Federici later and it was backs to the wall for almost the rest of the game.

The Col U fans were resurgent and so were their team. After the humiliating opening, they now wanted it more. They were fresher and they were hungrier. And with Harding now off the pitch due to injury, they had the edge over our now less-confident defence. We still had the lead but the pendulum had swung firmly for Colchester. Gradually their dominance paid dividends and they claimed a second on 71 minutes and a third with just 9 minutes left of normal time on the clock.

As Blues sought in vain to find the equaliser, our lack of attacking options (with Barnard and Freedman injured) saw Peter Clarke join Scannell and Revell in attack. Even Federici got his head on a well-placed corner as we tried to find a way back.

Five minutes into injury time, many Blues fans left the ground (shame on you!!) and even the die-hard fans had conceded the game. Colchester taunted the Blue Voice. Federici moved upfield again in hope and the clock ticked over into the 95th minute. It was over now all bar the shouting. And then suddenly we have a corner. Adam Barrett has a shot and it's pinball in the box. And then finally, with almost the last kick of the game, Christophe finds himself on the end of it to bundle it home from close range. It's three apiece. A fat lady is singing.

"It's all gone quiet over there!"
 
strange game,

1st 25 we looked worldbeaters and a serious stuffing was on the cards,colchester removed their centre back reshuffled and then bossed the game,second half the blues were dreadful and being honest were lucky to grab a point.

the ref could easily have gave at least 1 red to colchester.


my man of the match barrett and clarke shared.

under 9000 what went wrong?
 
Federici - 8 (Another good game)
Francis - 7 (Not as bad as recent weeks, but still too casual)
Clarke - 8 (Best performance of season, although not sure who to blame for 3rd goal)
Barrett - 8 (Captains performance and big part in equaliser)
Harding - 7 (Decent game until he went off)
Robson-Kanu - 6 (Started well, but put off in 2nd half after bruising from farmers)
Sawyer - 7 (Good 1st half - got worse in second)
Christophe - 7 (Decent, but as a midfield we were outplayed for much of today
Betsy - 6 (Really didnt get going today)
Revell - 6 (Ran everywhere but won little in the air - unusual)
Laurent - 6 (After the lord mayors show. Maybe he doesnt like the wet !)

McCormack - 7 (Came on and did ok - spurred us on to game)
Scannell - 6 (Strange sub by Tilson. No real impact)
Sankofa - 6 (Anonymous. Defence looked poorer for losing Harding)

Generally a lacklustre performance against a good Colchester side. Lambert has got them going. We were outfought I feel, but then we battled our hearts out last tuesday and we looked tired. All in all, a great draw, and how annoyed did all those farmers look on the way out. Brilliant !
 
Apart from the first 20 minutes we were awful. When will Tilly realise we need at least 2 more defenders to avoid the shambolic defending in the 2nd half. Francis and Sankofa had stinkers, as did Betsy (bar the corner which was a great ball). Yet again the loanees were the standout players- Sawyer and Christophe excellent. Laurent and Revell struggled but never stopped working and the supply was poor. Worry is the likes of Scannell, Macca coming off the bench and looking sub standard. I'm not a fan of Walker but surprised he has lost out to Scannell, who for me looks like the non league player we bought. If we can get Harding and Christophe signed up and a couple of defenders in, we shold stil be top 6.

Also, Colchesters midfield must be amongst the best in the division, and think they will shoot up the table, although Gerken in the first half was all over the place.
 
6 for Betsy is extremely generous. He was completely useless. How he still has a regular place in the side is beyond me.
 
That was quite odd...

Firstly, HAHAHAHAH :D col u! Spoiled that didn't we!


Anyway, looked easy as pie in the first quarter of the game.. don't really know what went wrong. I hope im not wrong, but to be fair colchesters midfeild looked alot better when they started getting back into it (maybe we sat back too much). Think it's been mentioned, but not sure who to blame for the goals, but the shuffling around of the defence must have been a bit annoying to say the least! Their second was a bit frustrating to see him wander through our whole frikking defence, but then I guess noone wanted to trip him up..

Great effort in last 5 minutes to get that satisfying equaliser :).. but if were going to be honest we probably didn't deserve bugger all out of that!


Looking at it.. 2 tough games without Barney and Freedman and we got 4 points. Im happy :)

Up The Blues
 
Heres my ratings.

Federici - 7 decent performance, dont think he could do much about the goals, and a few times his dangerouse kicks were poorly controlled by outfield players.

Francis & Sankofa - 3 didnt even notice them apart from when they were just standing off their men and not sticking the foot in to win the ball. Sankofa espiecially seems like his got a long way to go to be good enough. What was he thinking with his throw ins, same situation every time and it never worked.

Barrett - 7 good enough and drove us on at some points loved when he grabbed his badge towards the west when chanting "one adam barrett" real passion.

Clarke - 9 MOM and best performance so far this season for me

Betsy - 5 was really really poor. About all i can say really

Sawyer - 8 Contender for MOM seemed to be the only player chasing everything and running on the ball without hoofing it in the secound half

Christophe - 6 Didnt really do anything wrong but was fairly annonimous.

Robson - Kanu - 6 same as Christophe

Laurent - 7 started well, and showed some really good skill in beating his man down the wing a couple of times. Dissapeared after a while.

Revell - 6 didnt stop working but didnt do alot right tbh.

Scannell - 5 no impact

McCormack - 6 seemed to push us on when we were failing

Harding - 7 Not sure why he was taken off, and the defence looked so much more fragile without him in it.
 
I honestly thought at 2.0 we were going to stuff them and was actually feeling sorry for the shambles that we were tearing apart at will. Then the game seemed to slow right down for twenty minutes with niggly fouls and stoppages and we never got going again. I think Tuesday took a lot out of certain players and we just tired and in the end stole a point.
 
Surprised at some of the comments, let's not forget how atrocious the conditions were out there - I'm assuming Harding must have taken a knock (there's a surprise in that game!). Was good to see both Sawyer and Rev complete a full game for once.

Fed - looked reasonably comfortable, can't believe he got beat 3 times (4 if you count the one on the crossbar). Good to see him come up at the end there - 7
Franno - thought he did well, looked composed and more confident - 7
Clarke - bloody great game from the Scouser, knew Derbies would mean something to him and boy did it show! MOM performance for me - 8.5
Barrett - shaded a touch by Clarke but good covering allowing Clarke to go and play centre forward at the end - 8
Harding - looked more than comfortable and was keeping the attacks flowing down the left, is it a coincidence that HRK doesn't look so good when he's not there? - 7
Betsy - don't think he liked it out there although I didn't think he was as bad as some are suggesting, was more caught up in defensive duties than attacking - 6
Sawyer - was given MOM but don't think I'd agree, still capable of controlling things and got in some good hassling type tackles - 7
Christophe - another great game from the Frenchman, decisive and committed - 8
HRK - don't know what to say, again seems to be more defensive at the mo - 6
Laurent - not his day but was getting chopped and fouled - 6.5
Rev - another gutsy performance, gave the ref a real dose of verbal for one of his decisions over in the south east corner - 7.5
Subs:
Sankofa (for Harding) - looked assured for most of the time and got in some good clearances, definitely improving - 6.5
Scannell - I guess the idea was for some pace to be injected, didn't really work - 6
Macca - that's more like the Macca we're used to - 7
 
I can never understand how we can fail to kill teams off and invite the opposition onto us.

Fantastic ball in from Harding for Clarke to get his head on (with the goalie flapping like an idiot) Then Laurent putting us 2-0 up shortly after I thought we were going to win 4 or 5-0.

I didn't really have a decent view of their first goal, did it take a deflection ?

I could see the equiliser coming, Not quite sure how Perkins was allowed to run across the face of the box and through the whole of our defence.

After going 3-2 down on our second half performance I really couldn't see us getting anything from the game.

But we never gave up and kept the pressure on, Thought Federici was gunna score with that header.

Thought the ref was going to blow up at any second but we force another corner, bit of a scramble but when I saw the ball hit the net fair to say I went a bit mental. Most of the people who sit around me had left so had some random bloke jumping on me.


My Ratings:

Federici 7 - Didn't think he had much chance for any of the goals, distribution was good as always.
Francis 6.5 - Slightly better performance today, looked a little bit unsettled at the start of the second half having to switch to Left Back
Barrett 8 - Solid performance, made two fantastic blocks much like Tuesday.
Clarke 8 - Much the same as Barrett, Some of his distribution was better and a good header to put us infront.
Harding 7 - Brilliant delivery for Clarke's goal and was heading a lot more out of defence. I'm guessing he got a knock ???
Robson - Kanu 6.5 - Dissapointed with him today, kept falling over, had a few good bursts down the left but not enough end product.
Sawyer 7 - Usual performance, got himself stuck in and set up a few attacks.
CHRISTOPHE 8.5 MOM- Fantastic performance from him today, does the simple things well and looks really composed on the ball and he wants to stay here.
Betsy 6.5 - Much the same as Kanu, couldn't seem to keep his balance, needs to believe in himself more.
Revell 8 - Never stops working, run himself into the ground again. Won his flick on's well and was pulling out a few skills, He's a work horse (pardon the pun)
Laurent 7.5 - Good finish, was really impressed with him again, maybe looked a little bit tired from Tuesday night, His English is coming along nicely after calling the lino a "F**king Prick"

Sankofa 6 - Done a steady job
McCormack - Didn't have a chance to make an impact.
Scannell - Did he touch the ball ?
 
Fecking shambles other than the first 20 minutes. The real thing that frustrates me about the management and has done since the beginning - we were under the cosh, looking like lost school boys, and there was no guidance from the bench. No instructions, no help, no changes. Be a bit more assertive please Tilly?

Is anybody actually surprised Barrett cost us a goal with his hugging technique? and he still carried on with it for the rest of the game. Hands off Adam!

And no Walker again, with us preferring McCormack and Scannell out of position...............

Ratings:

Federici 6 - Not as dominant as in the Leeds game and his distribution was here there and everywhere today.

Francis 6 - Time for a rest. Shame we don't actually have any defenders to bring in. Poor again.

Clarke 7.5 - Some of the players needed to adopt his approach.

Barrett 6 - Stupid, stupid, stupid foul for the free kick. Felt nervous whenever the ball went near him incase he cost us again.

Harding 7 - A massive loss in the 2nd half. If his knock is bad we're in a pickle.

Betsy 5.5 - His worst performance in a Southend shirt. Offered nothing and looked tired. Very rarely did we see his pace and he never seemed to get out of 2nd gear.

Sawyer 6.5 - Got stuck in but must take some of the blame for the game bypassing our midfield.

Christophe 6.5 - As per Sawyer, but saved us.

Robson-Kanu 5.5 - Just as poor as Betsy. Off the pace.

Laurent 6 - Colchester had done their homework and didn't let him play as much as Leeds did. Still showed off some nice skills and got his goal, although he seemed to go into a shell when the team crumbled around him.

Revell 6 - Was nowhere near as effective as the Leeds game and that game seemed to affect him as his work rate wasn't as good either. Tired perhaps?

Subs:

Sankofa 6 - Struggled at times. Wasn't helped by us being under the cosh for the entire time he was on though.

Scannell / - Barely saw any of the ball.

McCormack / - Helped steady the ship slightly and could possibly have been brought on sooner. Right wing though Tilly? Really?
 
Harding actually pulled up in the pre match shooting in and he did something again before half time, hence the substitution.

It really upset our balance as Yeates had a field day against Francis playing out of position.
 
Harding actually pulled up in the pre match shooting in and he did something again before half time, hence the substitution.

It really upset our balance as Yeates had a field day against Francis playing out of position.

Stannard was pointing to his hamstring, which is very worrying.
 
Thought Christophe was outstanding today and in the hustle and bustle - and the conditions, showed a bit of (Premier League style) class, by getting his foot on the ball and trying to play it simple, rather than panicking and lumping it like the rest of the side.

Hope Tilly can pull off the signing of Christophe as he is looking as good as any of the other loanees.

When they are all gone, we are ****ed!

Great comment from some ******** on the way out - "tilly should have dropped all the loanees today as none of them were committed to a local derby". Honestly, makes me wonder what those people know about football as they clearly have no clue!
 
Had heard it was Christophe's last game of his loan today, That can still be extended for a final month cant it ???
 
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