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Scunny away - Durham's view 08:25 - Oct 19 with 344 viewsdurham_exile

Colchester under TH are fast emerging as a talented young side with bags of potential and yesterday should have resulted in another Away win. Profligate finishing was the reason why one point was not turned into three.

Glanford Park in mid-October in 19 degrees of warm sunshine, the seasons really are mixed at the moment.

The journey south was very pleasant, motorway clear and I arrived in good time to meet up with Gerry for a superb all day breakfast in the Old Farmhouse — Fayre and Square.

Our waitress informed us that they operated a no quibble guarantee, any problems let us know. Well the food (once again) was superb and set us up for the match ahead.
Glanford Park was the first of the new crop of stadia constructed out of town and where a thriving retail outlet has grown up around. The newest addition is a large M&S which looks to be opening in time for the pre-Christmas trade.

The pitch was in splendid condition and the faithful were present in good number (230).

Colchester lined up 4, 5, 1:

Walker

Hewitt Kent Eastman Clohessy

Massey Gilbey Fox Moncur Watt

Sears

Subs:
Lewington Gordon Magnus Eastmond Bonne Szmodics Healey

This was a disappointment because I would have preferred to have seen Sears and Healey up top in a 4, 4, 2 formation.

The hosts started brightly in front of their new manager Mark Robins. Many has questioned his appointment given that his managerial career had seen him at Championship level clubs but he had wanted the Scunny job and at 44 he obviously harbours intentions of returning to a higher level.

Now the iron keeper was Bobby Olejnik and in spite of his rotund figure (more of that later) he proved to be a good shot stopper.

Fox, who had an impressive game in centre midfield stung Olejnik’s hands with a fierce shot which 2 yards either side would have found the back of the net. However on 16 minutes the U’s should have taken the lead. Walker bowled the ball out to the energetic Massey and he made strides down the right hand side before delivering a pin point cross to the eager Freddie Sears. Now this was one of those balls where you could either head or wait for the ball to drop, Sears elected to do the latter and his outside of the foot shot cannoned off the underside of the bar and away to safety. It deserved a goal and should have put the U’s one up.

Now at this level profligacy in front of goal is often punished and so it was. The dangerous Myrie-Williams was adjudged to have been tripped by Kent on the edge of the box. Davis Coote the referee who otherwise had a very good game throughout gave the direct free kick.

Gary McSheffrey took a perfectly flighted free kick for Rory Fallon to enjoy the freedom of the U’s penalty area and he headed powerfully past Walker from 4 yards out right in front of the faithful who were stunned.

Now TH has motivated the team and they redoubled their efforts on the Scunny goal. The passing from the back started with Walker bowling the ball to either full back and several passes resulted before the midfield got a grip and sought out either Massey or Watt.

Paddy Madden spurned a chance for the Iron as Walker made himself even taller than his 7ft frame and watched as the ball cleared the bar.

At the other end Colchester finally produced a telling result on 33 minutes. Fox and Sears exchanged passes and when Freddie received the ball on the edge of the penalty area he sidestepped two defenders with a smart turn and hit an accurate right footed shot into the far corner of the goal. It was a stylish finish from the U’s top scorer so 1-1 and the U’s were good value.

Colchester bossed the remainder of the half always working the ball from the back with smart interchanges of passing and unfortunately no positive final result.

After our all day breakfast only a coffee was required from the eatery. This was roasting hot and required some time to cool down.

Robins decided to make to changes at HT. Osborne and Taylor for McAllister and Fallon. He stated after the game that he wanted to make changes because “Colchester are a side who came here and wanted to play and make things difficult for us.”

Now from a distance Bobby Olejnik looked like something that had emerged from the Gdansk ship yard but up close he was a real super tanker with his skin tight top only accentuating his excesses (allegedly). Of course towards the end of the match one the Scunny young ladies walked past with a tray full of pies, order for Olejnik was the cry!

The stats show that we had 15 shots but only 4 on target. Massey, Watt and Gilbey were all guilty of wasting opportunities to give the U’s the lead.

Scunny were confined to limited opportunities, a half-hearted shout for a penalty after Madden went down in the box was rightly waved away by the excellent Mr Coote.

Now on 72 minutes the tiring Watt was taken off by TH and Rhys Healey arrived on the scene. Healey in my view should have started the game with Freddie Sears, but his presence made an instant impact. He is lively, pacy and with a keen eye for goal.

The Scunny goal led a charmed life with Moncur guilty of a bad miss from 6 yards out. He blazed over good work from Massey. Moncur was substituted immediately afterwards and Sammy Szmodics entered the fray.

Healey chipped towards goal but it went over and Gilbey dragged a shot wide as the U’s dominance failed to produce a second and winning goal.

In the last minute Healey bore down the left wing cut inside and struck a goal bound shot which the super tanker got down to and his fingertips pushed the ball onto the outside of the far post and away and that was it.

Honours even and a very entertaining draw but we should, on the balance of play, have come away with all three points.

The faithful sang Tony Humes blue and white army, the manager beamed and applauded them in turn.

His young team are moving in the right direction, they need to improve their goal scoring and have Chesterfield at the WHCS on Tuesday to attempt to do just that.

It seems churlish to criticise the positional formation but the excellent Clohessy is wasted on the left side. Young Hewitt has been given the right back position and so the Captain has moved to the left. Gordon is on the bench but TH’s problem is how to include all three players, which at the present time he is unable to do. Clearly this requires careful thought.

But the team is so full of talented young players — Hewitt, Kent, Moncur, Massey, Watt, Gilbey, Sears, Drey Wright etc. It is a pleasing problem for TH to have.

It was good to see Gerry and the journey home was made all the easier when considering just how far this young team could go and how much they could achieve this season.

Up the U’s



Durham_exile

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Scunny away - Durham's view on 09:04 - Oct 19 with 334 viewsthrillseeker

A good report but I feel more should have been made of the awful miss by Moncur

I think having Clohessey on the left unbalances the defence and I would prefer him back on the right.

I haven't been overly impressed with Hewitt and it was he who lost Fallon for the goal when the ball was crossed

I can't be too critical as I actually really enjoyed the entertainment served up yesterday.

I, too, am also concerned at our poor finishing which is costing us a lot of points
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