Thetownend.com

Got a real mid table feel this game. Both teams with little goals for and against.

0-0 Att: 8,153 (222 of them)

63% possession
80% passing accuracy
Conroy to make 75+ passes
1-0 defeat

Goal fest

4 - 4

Att: 8,000

Although we've started the season OK, we've not set the world alight. We have played some nice stuff, and have good spells, but we don't control games (yet). I think this will come, but Colchester so far are unbeaten away from home, so won't be an easy game.

1-1 in front of 8200.

I'm taking my Dad to his first game in over three years :)

2-0 win.

Not got a particularly good record against this mob, not a clue on the score, just hoping for the three points.

Still have nightmares from our last season in League Two with Colchester sucker punching us constantly in 3 games.

6-0 win please.

Swindon to suffer a single goal defeat in front of 8,445 fans with 216 Colchester fans there.

1-2.

2-2 in front of 8,547

About time we won against these.
2-0.

Been looking forward to the McGreal derby for some time now.

Their manager/head coach will miss the game due to Covid.

1-0 to Swindon Att 8050 with 278 away fans

Port Vale did not have a good record against us but still pissed off with the points, hopefully we can break the Col hoodoo, 3-1

Entire squad injury free and up for selection. All down to individual fitness levels.

Got to say, whether it’s just plain luck but we do seem to have stopped picking up those niggly injuries which were a regular occurrence the past couple of seasons.

I think the fact the club have been out and spent good money on a very good medical team is reaping the benefits.

Very true. You only have to look at the fact the first team squad travelled up to Rochdale last season on a double decker bus that things were stripped right down, including medical facilities and staff. I am not sure how much of that was during the season before as the injuries under Wellens seemed to be pretty consistent. Edit - I note Doncaster have quite bad injury problems so that could also be down to how Wellens trained his teams.

Wellens also said he bought players whose ability was of a higher standard than L2 - eg Fryers - working on the basis he might get 30 or so games out of them - it seemed to work in a normal season (at least for 36 or 37 games when the season stopped) but in the shortened treadmill of last season with a limited pre season as well it was clearly not working.

I would personally go with this team

Wollacott; Kesler, Odimayo, Conroy, Iandolo; Grant, Reed; Payne, McKirdy, Gilbert;
Simpson

I like that other than I would have Critchlow for Iandolo who for me has been poor in most games so far when playing at LB/LWB.

Not sure, I’ve seen nothing from crichlow to suggest he has the ball playing ability to play full/wing back. Think we just have to ride with Ian/hunt, no matter the form

Same, I still don’t know what Iandolo is but it’s not a left back as he has zero in the way of defensive ability and his general fitness is shocking, one run and it seems to take him the next 5 minutes to recover. Critchlow is currently very loose with his passing at centre back so worth a shot at left back as might be less of issue there.

I agree, Critchlow played left back dring his loan spell at Hartlepool and Welling and most of his Huddersfield appearances were as a left back.

I wouldn’t drop him, but KKH has been pretty anonymous in the last 3/4 games to. He certainly hasn’t showed anything close to what he did at Scunthorpe.

I was thinking that too during the last match, hes not been the same since his sending off.

Thta's my only worry with the team i have chosen, i would probably change it actually and play a 3 5 2 as it allows KKH to get forward and be more creative.

Wollacot

Odimayo
Conroy
Crichlow
Hunt

Reed
Grant

KKH
Payne
Gilbert

Simpson


...is probably the best XI we can put out. Or perhaps KKH back to RB to put McKirdy in that attacking three and drop Odimayo

He's only really played well with McKirdy in front of him creating the space.   He's not a winger and looked lost the 2 games he played there.   Found a lot of space at wingback, but no real service with the ball often going back inside rather than wide or over the top into space.

He will start with the same starting line up against Northampton I reckon.
It was getting close to how he likes to see the ball moving quicker and finding gaps in the midfield pockets.
Just hope we are not chasing the game tomorrow.

Williams will start surely

Perhaps.

Not convinced by him yet. The attacking 3 all very interchangeable with Williams, McKirdy, Gladwin and Parsons. Even Iandolo

With a full squad and arguably enough match fitness for the majority of them, today is the ideal opportunity to go all out, attack and spank the shit out of the opponents.

1-0 😁

On holiday in Newquay (booked by dear lady wife well before fixtures were out!) so picking up a commentary will probably be non existent and I hate getting the updates via Twitter etc.. so will have to find a sports pub with the scores from Sky coming in. Could be worse I suppose.

Win. 3-1

How many times, since the first game, have we scored more than 1 in the league?

Based on that hoping for a 1-0 win, but won’t be surprised if it’s a draw

2-2 gladwin and payne  att 8056

er, er. this time will be different .

or maybe not.

Missed last week's game - Looking forward to today's.

Wollacott; Odimayo, Iandolo, Conroy (C), Crichlow, Gladwin, Simpson, Payne, Gilbert, Kesler-Hayden, Reed.

SUBS | Ward, Baudry, Mitchell-Lawson, Hunt, East, Parsons, Dabre.

Still no Grant.

Williams injured.

Full squad. No injuries. No Grant. No Williams. No McKirdy.

Wtf!

Ex Town trialists Freddie Sears and Shamal George starting against us as well as ex Town loanee Frank Nouble.

Garner on the radio says Williams injured and Grant and McKirdy not ready fitness wise.

White man speak with forked tongue!

Scary how light weight that team is, Gladwin in a position where he has defensive responsibilities continues to baffle me as he’s a liability anywhere inside our half. Hope I’m wrong but if they play a style anything like they did 2 seasons ago we are going to be bullied again.

Do wonder if Garner really fancies Grant to be honest, seems to be the first player subbed off and seems bizarre he’s not in the squad if not injured and it’s just fitness. Probably sees him as too conventional for our tippy tappy style.

So no injuries apart from the injuries and players that aren’t match fit. Go on Town, surprise us….

Why is the iFollow stream Radio Essex?

Mine isn't mate.

Go to the settings cog and select home audio.

Looks to be a decent turnout by Colchester, must be around 300 already in there.

See the starting XI every week & still have no idea what formation we are going to play.

4-5-1 or 3-6-1 or 3-5-1-1

5-2-2-1?

5-1-2-1-2

Definately 3 at the back I would think, but the rest is fairly flexible.

I don’t think we have a formation in all honesty.

I'm on the audio only feed on the EFL ifollow app sorry, still Colchester Comms only

Awful first pass by Gladwin there.

Wollacott misshandled a cross but collects the ball 2nd time.

Colchester are overloading our half with players but not playing a high press so far.

Poor loss from Payne but Reed wins the ball and finds Iandolo down the wing but his cross is terrible.

ffs. Go on Iandolo. Impress me just once.

Nouble beats Conroy and gets a shot in and Wollacott saves at the near post.

Waiting....

3-3-2-1-1 then I think...

Wollacot

Odimayo
Conroy
Crichlow

KKH

Reed

Iandolo


Gladwin
Payne

Gilbert

Simpson

Bloody phone call and washing to put on the line! Hope I didn't miss owt in first 4 mins?

Ref gives a foul, incorrectly it looked to me, Iandolo barged off the ball yet a foul given against him.

Yeah thats about how they have lined up so far.

I saw the same.

Gilbert pass to Simspon who shoulder barges the defender fairly it looked but the ref gives a foul, great chance.

Nah.

Silly foul by Conroy there, left his foot in, yellow card.

Shoulder barge?!  :clap: He shoved him in the back, no need and let there defender off the hook, lack of experience showed there.

Poor miss by Nouble there.

Critch puts Nouble off and Wollacott comes to collect the ball.

Don’t want Baudry on.

No, blood him back in for one of the Mickey Mouse games 1st.

He keeps doing things like this, second goal for Port Vale was the same. Needs to stop thinking about the next pass and focus on the initial ball.

Close to a handball in the box from KKH cross.

He has certainly done a few times this season already, all similar too.

Iandolo plays the ball out weakly after winning it.

Reed nice thro pass to Gilbert but he runs into trouble.

Long ball from Gilbert to Simpson but its a few yards in front of him.

Payne looking totally anonymous so far.

Simpson really leading the line well so far today.

Very poor from Gladwin who is easily beaten in the middle of the pitch, ends up with the cross going out for a goal kick.

Not the most exciting of games so far.

Payne to Gilbert finds Iandolo who loses it on the edge of the box.

Iandolo has a shot from the edge but its saved easily.

KKH wins the ball as it comes out from the corner but his shot is wild.

KKH beats 2 men in the box but loses it weakly 15 yards out.

Nice move by Town KKH, Iandolo and Reed all going close during the move.

Lovely pass from Simpson to Payne but he cant beat the keeper from wide.

Simpson looking total class, needs some support

Is it me, or do we have no shape? (As Payne bursts through and George saves)

Jeez. Whoever does these replays has never watched a game in their life.

Absolutely.

Easily our best player so far.

The game has livened up the last 10 mins.

Gilbert low shot but its saved near post.

Gilbert’s looked quite tricky too.

Nice move down the right by KKH but his cross is too deep and easily saved.

He is, his final ball needs a bit of work but hes covering a lot of ground on the ball.

Long pass nearly finds Payne in the box unmarked.

Payne still looking a bit off the pace so far for me.

Michael Doughty would dominate this type of game, sorely missed

Another lovely long pass from Gilbert.

Critch cleverly wins the foul.

I like the way KKH is getting a lot of the ball down the right too.

Poor clearance by Wollacott there and the cross comes in and everybody misses it and Mayo puts it out for a corner.

Gladwin loses it when bringing the ball out and the striker hits a shot high and wide, he got away with that.

Long ball to Gilbert down the right who beats his man and its well over the bar.

Judge scores but is well offside.

Reed lovely pass thro to KKH but his cross is hit out for a corner to Town.

Just missed Conroys head out for a Town throw the other side.

KKH should have got in a better cross there.

Good long shot by Iandolos right foot but its a fairly easy save, corner to Town.

More insipid, lifeless, uninspiring, flat football.

Just thinking it was dull

Colchester are letting us play but we lack the final finish when we get close to their goal.

Wollacott double save.

KKH final ball has been awful.

Dull doesn’t do it justice.

It has but hes got in some great positions, surely one will hit its target.

1 min added time.

really enjoyable half to be honest. much better than Northampton so far

We're always better 2nd half.

HT 0-0 Town have edged it but its not been very entertaining really.

Oh right....was just reading through the thread catching up as I'd been out and was thinking it was looking like quite a promising performance...until I read the last two comments...more of the same then...

I thought Simpson, Reed and Gilbert are playing quite well, Gladwin very hit and miss and Payne much more miss than hit.

64% possession.

Yes, get in!

Considering we had about 5 players half way through the off-season why on earth anyone is negative about this team is beyond me. They play nice stuff, have lost 2/8 and will only get better.

hmm, seems in in the minority then

I also think Gladwin is having his best game for ages.. one cock up aside

Hes definately better than he has been in recent weeks, that one cock up nearly cost us a goal though if it wasnt for awful finishing by the number 7.

That’s not the point. We have a good squad being drilled into mind numbingly, pointless possession football.

The fact things were shit isn’t relevant.

Match day threads are depressing to read these days, anyone would think Sheridan is still in charge and Power is still raping the club..

Point taken, but obviously Garner would like us to be destroying teams with his possession based philosophy and it just hasn’t clicked yet. Why the fuck are people moaning after less than 10 games after we nearly went bust?

Radio Essex seem fairly impressed with us.

....because we prioritise goals over possession but we appear to have a manager with the opposite belief.

Sure, we might still be a bit of a work in progress but on the other hand this might be Garners ideal style of play full integrated.

If it is, we won’t see many goals / wins.

I think the game is there for the taking and that Simpson will score today probably from either a Gilbert or KKH throughball/cross.

...and the fact we almost went bust has fuck all to do with attacking during football matches.

Simpson tries to chip the keeper but it goes wide after a long run by Conroy.

Poor touch by Iandolo as we are attacking.

Of course it does, the fact we nearly went bust means the new manager had no time to assemble a squad and then have a pre-season to coach how his possession philosophy can create chances.

At least we're not Bristol Rovers  :)

Hopefully we can get the ball to them.

When we build the final ball is rarely good enough

KKH slip up at the back and nearly lets Sears score but the ref gives a handball luckily.

Good claim by Wollacott fromt he free kick, came out quickly.

Conroy fouled and he takes the FK quickly finds Gilbert but he drags his shot well wide from 20 yards,

KKH nearly gets a shot in and Gilbert does and its cleared.

No, it doesn’t.

You could put together a match day squad of fans an hour before kick off and they’d still try and attack.
They might not be very good but they’d still attack.

I could understand the ‘we were nearly bust’ and the ‘we had no preseason’ and ‘the manager only had 5 minutes’ if we had a team lacking quality or a team that was unfit or a team that wasn’t match sharp or a very small squad but none of those are true.

It’s not about how long we had or how much money we had. Despite those facts we have put together a very good squad.

It’s the style of play & tactics letting us down - which is down to the manager not our finances

Nice move that ends with Gilbert shooting high and wide from 25 yards.

Have we improved in the second half or is it still slow slow pass pass?

Its definately better.

Iandolo beginning to be much more threatening now.

Hes getting a lot more time on the ball without being challenged this half.

Payne bing more influencial this half too.

KKH down the right his low cross doesnt quite find Simpson.

Reed wins it twice really well.

Reed like a little Tasmanian devil there twice.

Critch brings the ball forwards and has a shot from 30 yards but its wide.

Looking like a 0-0 but it could go either way if any team can fashion a chance

Gilbert not quite as good this half I would probably get JML on for him soon.

Att: 8,436

That was the one...

Great cross from KKH onto Simpsons head and its just over the bar from 6 yards out.

Best move and final ball of the game from KKH. Simpson should have buried it with his head, but put it high and wide.

My crystal ball was inches out ;)

Chalk and cheese 2nd half. Some great stuff.

A miss is as good as a mile ,😎

Colchester do look to have settled for a point.

Definately stepped up a gear or 2 this half.

Time for JML on for Gilbert.

Crystal Ball working this time ;)

We are dominating the team sheets with double barrelled names!

KKH shot deflected into the keepers hands.

Is that the first save for George?

3rd.

5 shots on target for Town.

No, couple off saves against Iandolo in the first half

Seems a long time ago!

About an hour

Wollacott save at the near post.

4 mins added time.

Simson shot saved at the near post.

Payne shoots defelcted wide for another corner.

Payne header over the bar from a Simspon cross.

Three chances in an exciting injury time.

FT 0-0

Simpson cross for a Payne header tells you we’ve lost a bit of shape.

Difficult to call a MotM for me, Simspon would have got it easily if his header went in, but Reed and Critchlow hardly put a foot wrong all game. Wollacott as well did well again.

Far better 2nd half than 1st half too, controlled the game even if we were a bit powder puff in front of goal.

Insipid...Now there is a good word.

Didn't look like breaking Colchester down or scoring today.

Reed edges it for me..  Simpson worked his balls off though

Yeah Critchlow did really against Nouble who is a massive handful, who he kept quiet all game.

I can't call it between Critch and Reed, if only Simpsons header went in then he would easily have been the top man today, he grows better with every game.

Agree it was difficult to call as noone excelled. Of the ones you mentioned, Wollacott took a few too many chances at the back and was nearly caught out twice. Critchlow's distribution was awful at times, but defended stoutly. Reeds final ball was not good. Defensively he was good.

It feels like we're getting there. Lack of a real cutting edge is the obvious weakness, but not much we can do about that until January.

[nevillew]

It’s Crichlow, it’s Crichlow

[/nevillew]

I thought they all did ok today TBH, 1st half was a bit poor but 2nd we controlled the game all over the pitch, I don't remember Critchlow playing any really poor passes today unlike normal. Reed looked a proper player IMO today all over the pitch.

The only poor performers for me was Iandolo and Payne (1st half), otherwise they were all decent standard today.

Still 3 points out of the last 12, though.

"Three draws are a win........................."

We all laughed at the Gas shit show this season, only 3 points off us now.

Garner:
- Disappointed not to win. Overall, prob best performance of the season.
- Restricted them to very little
- If we'd got one then we would have probably got more
- Increase in tempo over previous games
- We are getting fitter and stronger
- Starting to get up to speed with fitness and strength
- Loads of opportunities around the box but didnt always make the right decision
- Made enough opportunities to win the game
- Complete control. Couple of counter attacks from them. Pressed really well second half
- Wasnt from lack of effort that we couldnt get the goal
- Wollacott has worked hard on his distribution and Garner is pleased with his progress
- Great platform to build from
- Lots of areas to improve
- Aside from PV we have played well at home. Could have come away with wins rather than draws
- That performance today should warrant 3 points
- Williams was in squad but blow to back of head after training. Mild concussion protocol
- Grant came back in. Picked squad on who looked fit and sharp in training. He needs to fight to get back in the squad
- McKirdy will be available again next week
- Those that perform in training and on the pitch will be selected
- Length of time Grant has been away and in quarantine would effect anyone. He's missed 4 games
- Had correspondence from FA on quarantine in future
- Bristol Rovers: Looking forward to it. Will prepare in the same way. Can't wait based on this performance.

We certainly got two testing away games coming up and need to win one of them

Reed mean of the match. easily

carried on enjoying the game. in a good mood so maybe that helped

the obvious issue is while we nearly created a few chances, clear cut ones are hard to come by right now. You need to take them when they present. Hard to get a player like that in league 2

We were spoilt previously with Doyle & Yates but that's exactly what we need to finish off our good play.

A rather dull affair

A bit like the weather but can't fault the effort and proves that it's a very even league and we're lacking a little quality up front

Chicken & egg.

Would they be isolated frustrated figures upfront or would we be more attacking focused if we had them?

Good point but I think Doyle would be clever enough make things happen

Without going over the same posts it’s same as every game especially home. First half a turgid non event leading to a flat atmosphere followed by a better second half but struggling to find clear openings.  One thing is for certain 3 goals in 5 home games isn’t really acceptable.

I also think Yates would carry the ball forward with more intent and speed than any of our current players.

We need him more so than Doyle. Think Simpson will get goals but needs more supply

Thought we did well, but lack the incisiveness around the penalty area. I’m not sure how much Simpson contributes to that, don’t think he quite has the instinct to find spaces like many out and out goalscorers would

Haven’t a clue why their goal was disallowed. Was slap bang in front of me, didn’t see a handball

Spot on Yates would have attacked the channels with pace as well as getting in the box.

The end of the 10 game pre season is almost upon us. Will be interesting to see how that affects things.

I don't think we need to know about games 11+ It's the Januray transfer window which is more important as we can all see how we're set up just need some extra quality up front.

Most of today's attendances check Oxfords😀

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/fixtures/_/date/20210925

He may well have but he doesn't play for us, we couldn't afford to keep him, he plays for a bigger club in a better league.

I never said he played for just agreeing with Div he's the type of player we are missing

Check out Stockport's!

I think there's s big rivalry from years back

Cannot complain with that performance.

Simpson is going to be a very good player, but today we needed a striker who could find himself half a yard just inside the penalty area to slide a ball through to or to take it from back to goal and hit it on the turn. Alternatively Twine would score 20 goals plus as so many chances to strike from 20-25 yards in this side

I struggled with that today.
Without doubt 2 points dropped.
18 shots with only 6 on target, 68% possession and 634 completed passes.
The final 3rd lack of quality, both flanks poor delivery and on the 18 yard box showed lack of experience.

I was tired and frustrated watching it and had to have a coffee or would have fallen asleep with the long drive home.

Which is why I can’t see how getting ‘fitter and stronger’ is going to make any difference. We don’t appear to be getting tired at the end of games.

There’s got to be a bit of devil in our play. It’s all so bland.

We are being managed by a coach whose career to date has mainly been about developing players.
He can get players to play football, no doubt.
He’ll never win enough football matches though & worst of all - we have already been through this before...

A talented squad is being wasted, for sure.

Is it not possible that a manager can improve like players do with experience? Garner seems like a smart guy, he's not likely to be mystified as to what the problem is with the team at the moment. Maybe he's too stubborn to bend from his principles, but he's only managed 44 professional games, this isn't a coach with decades of experience who isn't likely to deviate from what he knows like Sheridan was.

Not saying he'll definitely become a top class manager, but I think there's enough there to want to give him time. The Colchester comms were talking a lot about "pretty possession" today and that's clearly a fair criticism, but it's a decent platform to build from.

It's dull, boring and predictable, afraid of crossing and shooting.   
They were utter toss but we just didn't look like scoring.  We won't go down but we will lose an awful lot of casual fans playing like that.

We are set up to be a pretty passing side, good for player development but we should be beating sides like that.

But he doesn’t give the slightest intention of changing a thing. Every game is precisely the same.

8 non scoring 1st halves out of 9 cannot be coincidence. There is a lack of clear cut chances let alone actual goals.

I’m sorry, but we won’t get promoted playing like this.

Its mystifying how Garner thinks that's the best we've played

The best we’ve played is the second half at Scunthorpe before any flair or devilment had been drilled out of the players.

This is spades 🤬

The fact he hasn’t changed the style towards the end of games we’ve been drawing or even losing indicates to me at least - he either doesn’t know how to fix the problem or he doesn’t think there is a problem.

What’s he waiting for?
If it was purely a personnel issue you could argue his hands were tied till January but it’s not.
It’s his either inability or unwillingness to deviate from his one and only tactic.

It's a strange league table at the moment as Bradford, Carlisle, Mansfield & Salford are all struggling.

I've mentioned this before, but only Gladwin looks natural when shooting, nobody else gives me any confidence they have confidence.

Overall we were the better team, as we may be on many occasions, but we are like a very good team playing in Treacle at times.  I can't quite describe it, but we look over coached, if that is possible.  Everything is methodical, planned, there isn't anything happening off the cuff.  As a result we lack a cutting edge.

Ironically it probably is.  First 20 mins at Northampton was also the best but we didn't have a shot and could have been 2-0 down.

The style doesn't really bother me, it's the intent, slow counter attacks and Conroy having 100-150 passes every game.
Don't hoof but attack with intent, bodies in the box etc.  They all look scared, just shoot already.

First half all vey meh but the second half was the best 45 I’ve seen this season. Yes, lacking a cutting edge, yes, not scoring enough but I think today showed some individual and collective improvement.

If casual fans can’t cope with what’s being served up, then they can go do something else as far as I’m concerned.

Summed up my frustration today.
It was begging to be changed.

Just got in, and not read back but I thought we played well today. Defended well, limited their chances, passed well, there was also more movement, tempo and pressing than in previous games. The only thing missing was a goal.
There were some good performances through the side too - Conroy, despite having to manage being yellow carded after 8 mins (effectively on a tightrope for most of the game - any mistimed challenge would be a red) and Critchlow handheld Nouble well, Iandolo and KKH provided a lot of attacking threat, Reed excellent in midfield, Gladwin more mobile and had his best game so far, Gilbert provides a threat up front and Simpson’s work rate was excellent - although he should have scored with the header.
Remembering where /when we started after the takeover - I was really encouraged by today’s performance- things are starting to gel. Don’t forget that the last promotion team only really went on a run after a scrappy 1-0 win at home over Stevenage (93rd minute winner from Doyle) in early October.
I also think that the style of play helps us to get a better quality of loanee than a L2 team might normally be able to get - would Gilbert or KKH be loaned out to a team who play like Mansfield or Port Vale.

Very much this. I enjoyed the game immensely. Shame about the result.

Really wished I enjoyed it.   Not missed a game yet and it's the same every week.  Look good but no end product and too many pointless risks taken.

They were there for the taking today and we dillied and dallied like we normally do.

Really pleased we have a team to watch and there is so much potential but we just don't seem to have a plan to score goals. 

When would you say that was then, if not today?

Sent from my CLT-L09

The fact that a supposedly fit Grant is not a "shoe-in" to the squad,let alone the team is a worry to me

Would be interesting to know what remit Garner has been given and then to know what he’s thinks his remit is.

My fear is it’s all about creating a style and ‘culture’ that is all about the development of players with just the assumption that success will follow if you get a decent crop in to develop. Whilst to an extent we do need to think that way we’ve seen in recent history under Williams that if you put all your eggs in that basket it can go spectacularly wrong and fans don’t have a great deal of tolerance for this style if it isn’t at least moderately successful.

Winter on almost unplayable pitches will be really interesting as he will surely have no choice but to adapt and change our approach at times.

Williams sustained an injury on the training ground yesterday. Spent a restless night in Hospital. No idea when he’ll be back.

So if you're not 100% happy with how were playing, that makes you a casual fan? What a strange assumption...

I'm really not sure why people are complaining so much, it was a good game today.  Yes, we like to pass the ball around and keep position.  We get into some good positions but if you look at the bench today, I'm not really sure that Garner could change it too much, he is working with a limited squad.  I'm sure he would love to have an experienced striker but we don't currently have one.

Garner only wanted a squad of 18. He doesn’t want to change it. We have a whole heap of players - ‘attackers’ especially -  that are of a similar mould. Only Simpson is different.

We need some physicality. Nobody seems to want to put a tackle in in midfield.

That’s not my assumption at all.

If you read back, you’ll see Pookeman wrote “ We won't go down but we will lose an awful lot of casual fans playing like that.”

I really enjoyed yesterday’s game but by hell do we lack goals, or the killer pass in the final third.  Glad win was much improved on all the previous performances of his I’d seen, but he’s stopped shooting which I found strange.

Above anything this is 1000 times better than last season and considering where we were with two weeks to go I’m happy with the progress

He might have wanted a small squad but I'm sure he would better striking options but as we are limited on what we can pay, this is what we have

We could have Harry Kane upfront but if we don’t attack with any pace and intent he isn’t going to score many.

Sure, in an ideal world we’d have more options than just Simpson but I don’t think that’s the main issue here nor our finances that keep getting bought into it.

I thought we were good, played good football, deserved to win, but couldn’t score. Some wayward finishing, some poor movement in the box, some poor decision making at key attacking moments cost us the win.

I don’t agree with the negativity on here one bit.

he seemed to be before international duty. .

Pretty much sums it up for me, although do understand those who want the ball moved quicker on occasions, which we did 2nd half. We had 18 shots today, 6 on target, which is probably up there with our best stats this season and should be enough to win a game of football.

Dont think Grant would have made any difference today, as we had so much possession and he is not known for his incisive passing. He is far more effective when we are struggling to win the ball back or under the cosh - would have been useful in such moments at Northampton last week. We missed the option of  McKirdy and Williams from the bench as they do offer something different in their ability to take players on in the final third.

Like someone else said, I found it strange that Gladwin turned down the opportunity to shoot on a few occasions, as he is capable of finding the net from range.  Overall though very happy with the performance, unlucky not to win.

100% this.

Maybe if the later Williams period wasn't so fresh in the mind the current possession based style might be accepted a bit more by some of the support.
If Flitcroftball had been the prevalent style for the past 5 or 6 years the overall perception now might be a bit different.

It's still a million times better than last season and yesterday was good in terms of some variations as well.
Defenders bringing the ball out, some good long diagonals and some attempts at longer passes through the middle, not aimless but with a purpose.

The delivery from the wing backs needs to improve and ideally when one is crossing the other one should be in the box as well.
Would like to see the KKH cross for Simpson again to see if it was a case of just doing it and not having any time to think about what he was going to do.

I think we are getting there, albeit slowly.
Would love to see it all click into place next Saturday though.

So, let’s leave the moaning and groaning to one side.

Do people think maintaining the present style of play will improve just by dint of playing it more often or do some personnel need to change/be replaced?

Does the ‘style’ just need tweaking or a more emphatic change?

Does anyone think Garner is capable/interested in changing one little bit?

Who on earth could we bring in in January that would massively improve us given the style remains exactly the same?

Not much about the game on the Colchester forum.

Pretty much agree with this really !
Seems like a few very short memories surfacing !

I think it will improve by fact of playing it more but feel those improvements might just be more possession and more passing. I think familiarity will breed more attacking play (second half yesterday being an example compared to say the second half against Port Vale) but repetition won’t improve the pace or incisiveness imo


It needs a minor tweak but more importantly we need a plan b and the ability to mix it up.


Probably too early to say but my gut instinct right now is no.
He has no plans to deviate from what we’ve seen so far. I think Rovers fans said similar about his tenure there.


Realistically maybe a speedy ball carrier might help. Even if they have little end product. Just getting us 20 yards further up the pitch at speed *might* help. If they could play the pacey striker off of Simpson as well even better. I guess the best realistic like for like comparison I can think of is Woolery.

As the second half yesterday proved, we can play that style, just need to do so at s quicker tempo.

It has two benefits, we look more dangerous and the crowd get into the game a bit more.

Is it possible/likely that we can’t keep that up for 90 mins so we see the slow and fairly dull football in the first half?

My thoughts of it and the season so far.
When we pass the with tempo we cut teams open as proved yesterday, the goal against Mansfield, spells during the Vale defeat up at Scunny.
However if we don't score from our good spells of possession it all reverts to slow and deliberate and allow the opposition a way back in the game.
How many timea yesterday were people shouting for a shot from outside the box yet when we did it was wayward and the inevitable groans creep in.
Our football only looks good at pace, we look like a mistake is in us when we piss about at the back then the long punt is needed to clear the decks because we played ourselves in to a tight spot.
Teams know that we play about with it they press us hard and yet we don't seem to do the same for long periods of the match.
A decent side will punish us down to putting ourselves under pressure and, we will struggle to score or even break teams down if we continue at walking speed.

In all, I thought yesterday was a good game, we should have won it but missed chances cost us 3 points.

So the chances we have created in the last few games that Simpson has missed and good strikers create more chances.

The finance is key here, we are limited to £1,300 a week, what good striker are we going to sign for that?

It’s hard to break down most away teams in this division, including us when we travel. Only 2 home wins yesterday.

Have we already had more clean sheets this season than last season?

I’m raging! Two defeats in nine and three points off second.

Before I read back on the matchday thread I'll give my thoughts from Saturday.

At the moment we seem like a 'nearly team'. I personally thought we played very well especially in the second half but I thought Colchester were very poor and for me it was 2 points dropped. Some of our play was very very good, but conversely a lot of our play in the final third was extremely frustrating. Crichlow and Conroy look like they are forming a decent CB partnership and KKH looks comfortable on the right. Iandolo I think is improving but his end product is patchy at best. Reed and Payne in the midfield continue to buzz around and look to probe openings and Gilbert takes up good positions. I like that we now look to Simpson more at times, he is very strong and holds the ball up well and works bloody hard. Such a shame his one big chance ended up just over the bar, he deserved the goal for effort alone. Gladwin still frustrates at times but definitely has the ability to unlock defences.

I guess the way we play is still quite 'safe', it's very fluid in the final third with the movement of Payne and Reed looking to drag players out of position. I think we still need to move the ball quicker. A lot of the slow passing means players look static and makes it easy to defend. The fact that Tranmere (who looked pretty good) and Colchester (who didn't) have gone away with clean sheets definitely suggests we have work to do to make us more dangerous. I don't think we're too far away but currently we are probably only a top 10 side until we 'click'

can't disagree with that Bob.

The tweaks to speed of attack (with extra risk) is preferable to safe 'keep ball' for me.

I do think we need to mix it up a bit, and I'm still disappointed we haven't got an option to help Simpson up top though

I wonder if Williams in for Gladwin might have seen that increase of pace. Sadly he appears to have knacked himself. McKirdy possibly as the 'wildcard' might also be beneficial in the side?

One thing I have noticed from matchday threads is the way we are playing is polarising the fanbase at the moment.

Williams is only concussion, he’s fine but the protocol meant he couldn’t play on Saturday - so he should be fine for this coming Saturday.

Out of interest what would you have done to change it. I think the lack of personnel at the moment is really showing when it comes to changing the game

Garner has 22 players to choose from - the 18 from the matchday squad on Saturday plus Grant, Williams, McKirdy and Lyden. The problem is that too many of the ‘attacking’ players are all very similar. Not enough variety.

Agree with this, the only thing "different" that we have when available is McKirdy - all other options are like for like - this point on it's own limits our opportunities to have a plan B that is significantly different to plan A.

Yeah I think you are right here Aud. For me the only player who are likely to offer something a bit 'different' are McKirdy and Dabre. I think at the moment Garner is too cautious to risk using either of them as they are probably (and this is a total guess) less tactically (st)able than the rest of the squad.

Having only seen home games, I like the 3CBs and 2 wing backs - we look more solid defensively, which is important as we don’t have a lot of goals in the team. Also, without exception, the other teams have been packed with tall players, so we need the extra height defending set pieces.
I also feel that either (or both) of Williams and McGirdy have made us look more threatening when they have come on as subs - possibly because their pace worries tiring defenders in the last 20-30 mins.
This is a tight league - we are 5 points off the bottom 2 and 3 from the top 2. Continue to keep clean sheets and start scoring and we can move up the table.
Finally, remember where we were 2 weeks before the start of the season. To be on 13 points, 2 defeats from 9 - most of us would have taken that before we played  Scunthorpe.

Well, i feel we are a good side, without the threat of being a great one.

final third each and every time.

Glad we have a club, doing better than expected, im all good, if a little frustrated at times.

This sentence sums it up totally, of course we are happy to have a team still but frustrated as we are not THAT far from being a very good side.

Exactly. Playing well enough to get international recognition,then not even in the squad. I get the initial delay but this is a guy I think we've missed

I was tired on Saturday and disappointed that we had dropped two points at home to what to me looked like a bang average side. I was looking forward to the game having missed the Northampton one. I was hoping to see us win, but I felt we never really looked like scoring.

I think everyone has said it all already. But my summary is:
- We play possession based football
- We are sometimes a little too slow in our play
- We rely on being able to make some killer passes in the final third to create chances
- Not for the first time, our final ball was poor on Saturday
- Many of our 'forwards' are learning and their reading of play and decision making is sometimes off
- No preseason means some of our players are struggling with strength, fitness and speed of thought


But:
- We have a team
- We have some exciting players, most of whom will improve
- The style of play is more watchable than last year
- We are not fighting for survival at the bottom of the league (.....yet!)
- What we are good at we are very good at. What we are not, we are not!
- We have all got a bit excited by some excellent play from an understandably inconsistent L2 team

I will continue to be disappointed when we don't win and elated when we do. If we draw, I will rue missed opportunities. I've done the same for nearly 50 years and won't/can't change now!

Wish I'd summed it up like that! :-)

I think 99% of the fan base is of the same opinion. When we play a quick passing game we open teams up with ease. When we are deliberate and slow teams close us down to quickly and easily and we rush ourselves and make mistakes.

Its such a shame as I thought Colchester were one of if not the poorest sides we have played so far, they were poor at passing, had little or no threat in front of goal and actually created very little, they also let us have to ball and play with a certain amount of freedom without closing us down and pressing us high as Port Vale and Northampton did.

We should really have got all 3 points with better finishing by Simpson, but that said he still impressed me as he has in most games recently.

What did piss me off though was Gladwin (not picking on him specifically as I thought he did ok over all) having 2 or 3 chances to shoot from around the box but chose not to even have a pop, Iandolo and Gilbert were the only ones who risked a shot from distance when the chance arose and Iandolos was on his weak right foot and Gilberts was high and wide when they did try.

Gilbert looked eager and full of running at times but he is not a striker or natural number 10, hes a winger who is being played more centrally and doesn't offer Simpson much backup when playing in a free/number 10 role, he is far more a creator.

It was also nice to see KKH get the ball a lot more but his final ball was pretty poor unfortunately but his pace and dribbling skills got him into some excellent positions even though he was at times occupying the same space as Gladwin down the right.

It was far from poor and 2nd half we played quite well IMO but that killer edge is what is missing, blatantly, what with us having only scored 9 goals from 9 games in the league and only scoring more than a single goal just once so far in the 1st game of the season.

Although if you keep a clean sheet then you can't lose, something we have done on 4 occassions so far in the league, thats the same amount of clean sheets that we had ALL of last season already.