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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show 15:54 - Feb 2 with 744 viewsdurham_exile

Criminal, short-sighted, diabolical, pathetic, exercising poor judgement, weak, spineless — no not the result yesterday, but the decision to send Junior to Hapoel Hadera in Israel until the end of the season. As his contract is up then he has most definitely played his last 5 minutes for the U’s.

Is Ed Woodward now responsible for the transfer dealings at Colchester after this latest farcical decision. We brought in no replacement for Jevani (Panenka) Brown and no new striker during the transfer window and must be so awash with strikers that we can afford to let Junior go. It is simply unbelievable.

What it all means is that what we have we must make the best of until the end of the season and on yesterday’s evidence, we are going to come up short - again!

The match yesterday, well I certainly know how to pick them. Worst performance for many a season yesterday. Frankly only Cohen Bramall and Chuck deserved their salaries yesterday the rest should give their wages to the Colchester new striker fund!

Personally, I blame Gerry for having the foresight to predict a 0-0 bore draw. Only joking!!!!!

But I might have guessed that it was going to be a bad day when the A66 in Durham and North Yorkshire was closed for the second weekend running and then the A14 partially in Cambridgeshire for the weekend for the ongoing road works. Encouragingly though I still managed to stop at Cambridge Services for some food and get to the park “n” ride by 2pm.

Having waited in the queue for just over 10 minutes with 100 other hardy souls, we were told the bus would be another ten minutes and so several of us walked to the ground. Arriving just as the bus arrived! Fortunately, the walk was neither arduous nor difficult and the weather was relatively warm and dry.

The Police presence was far greater than I had anticipated, and the search procedures employed at the ground were I suppose sadly necessary, but only added to the delays in gaining access to the ground. It is many years since I was last at the Abbey Stadium, but it had not changed much. The faithful were present in very good numbers (1,232) out of a crowd of 5,015.

But strangely the atmosphere was largely sombre, and the singing truncated by periods of silence especially in the first half. Some of the faithful didn’t arrive until almost 25 minutes into the game such was their delay or difficulty parking, or train connections and it was a bizarre scene with people standing in the aisles and becoming increasingly frustrated as the game wore on.

JM the “tinker man” had changed the team again from Tuesday night. It is incredible to think that we have beaten the league leaders three times and lost to a poor Cambridge team twice this season. Still the league leaders elect Plymouth Argyle come to the JSCS next Saturday. Happy days!

The team lined up:

Gerken

Jackson Eastman Prosser Bramall

Pell Comley

Senior Poku Nouble

Norris

Subs:
Sowunmi Clampin Stevenson Ross Gambin Harriott Robinson

Just penning these words, I can feel the anger sharks swimming in my head to quote from a classic film comedy, but I’m certainly not laughing.

The pitch was a bit threadbare in parts but otherwise ok, the wind was swirling, and Colchester were asked to attack the end populated by the faithful in the first half. Never a good sign of course.

Now the team collectively played poorly with the two exceptions already mentioned. Jackson is not 100% fit and even the imperious Eastman had an off day. Prosser was generally poor and lucky to escape after a serious first half error.

In midfield Pell and Comley were often so far apart on the field as to be constantly isolated. I fail to understand why JM will not play Pell, Stevenson and Comley together because our midfield is often overrun or almost non-existent. His obsession with wingers, who are forced to play as covering defenders is ridiculous and weakens our forays when we do go forward.

Senior had no product and backed out of several challenges yesterday. Poku worked hard but had no support. Comley was isolated as mentioned earlier and became less effective as a result.

Big Frank was feeding off scraps and Chuck cut a forlorn figure having to work his socks off just to pick up the ball or shield it whilst support was garnered.

Cohen Bramall would have been disappointed not to have transferred to Wigan after their win at dirty Leeds (sorry LB). He was our stand out defender and some of his forward runs were simply brilliant, pity he had no support from teammates.

This was a far worse performance than even Stevenage and Morecambe and has cost us big time in the league. Not just the loss of three points, but the inconsistency has returned. Our long unbeaten run which was becoming an albatross around our collective necks has gone but at the worst possible time with Plymouth in town next weekend.

Make no mistake Cambridge are poor (in fact worse than Morecambe) but they have done the double over us in a season where we now face a real struggle to get out of this wretched league.

Nothing of any note occurred during the first half and the queue at half time for the refreshments was to be expected, but after the 15 minutes had elapsed, I gave up and retired to watch the second half. Some toughed it out and got back to their seats or standing areas some 15 minutes later.

The faithful at last struck up some rhythm and a couple of flares or smoke bombs were let off on the right-hand side behind the goal. I was on the left-hand side in line with the edge of the penalty area and could still smell the cordite and saw the drifting smoke.
JM made his first change on 53 minutes with Callum Harriott replacing Kwame Poku and then on 65 minutes Gambin replaced Senior.

Now Cohen Bramall delivers a wicked set piece and corner and from one of the four that we won he floated in a ball which was headed on by Leon Davies in the Cambridge defence to Chuck who headed powerfully past the keeper. 67 minutes 1-0 to the U’s and job done.

Sadly not, we failed to capitalise on our good fortune and Cambridge didn’t look like a team that hasn’t won since Christmas and had lost their last two home matches 4-0. They upped their game and we sat back. Their substitutes Dallas and Knibbs were to play a significant part in their turn around but we didn’t look to build on the goal and had clearly forgotten that we had just defeated the league leaders.

On 82 minutes JM made his final substitution and brought on Robinson for Norris. Norris had been our second-best player and was unlucky to go off. But when you are 1-0 up with 8 minutes to play why not go for the jugular and take off the tiring Big Frank and play Robinson and Norris up front.

Cambridge found inspiration in the form of a pin point cross and Dallas shot which was deflected past Gerken then 70 seconds later Knibbs was picked out and headed past Gerken for 2-1 to Cambridge. Capitulation was total and complete.

The fact that we managed only 5 shots and 3 on target and only 4 corners says pretty much all you need to know about such a lacklustre and disjointed performance.
I am incandescent with rage at such a pathetic performance and the bragging rights have been needlessly handed to Cambridge.

JM must change things around for Plymouth. Beef up the midfield must be the cry.
I would favour 4,3,3 something like this:

Gerken

Jackson Eastman Prosser Bramall

Stevenson Pell Comley

Harriott Norris Nouble

Subs:
Ross Sowunmi Clampin Poku Senior Gambin Robinson

Make no mistake if he does not, we will lose next Saturday and will lose further ground in what is fast becoming an increasingly tough battle for promotion.

Northampton are emerging as a force and Plymouth look at long last like Champions. Crewe have not folded, and Cheltenham have two games in hand. The simple truth is that there were far too many drawn games in that unbeaten run and then it was not good enough to get us into the top three.

Swindon 31 59
Crewe 30 55
Plymouth 29 54
Exeter 30 54
Northampton 30 52
COL U 31 49
Cheltenham 29 48
Bradford 31 47

We must be seeking to catch and overhaul the third placed team. On yesterday’s performance we will be lucky to finish in the top seven and then it becomes a play-off lottery. Worse still eighth place beckons on this form.

The club has badly miscalculated over Junior and in not bringing a replacement for either Brown or signing a new striker we have left ourselves short of playing staff.

I am very disappointed with the performance yesterday and the faithful were badly let down. It is up to JM to sort things out and he has seven days to do it. He talks about lack of quality after yesterday but explain this, how do you go from the euphoria of Tuesday night to the abject display yesterday clearly, he doesn’t know.

If our Farmer friends are truly keen to get rid of Lamburke and install JM, then I will drive him to Poorman Road myself. After all Cambridge are manager less at present and they won a poor game by scoring two goals in 70 seconds against a team embarking upon their third longest unbeaten run ever!

Journey home was uneventful, I stopped at Peterborough services and sought out Szmodics to ask if he would like to come back for the last games!!!!

Up the U’s


[Post edited 2 Feb 2020 17:54]

Durham_exile

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 18:16 - Feb 2 with 691 viewswessex_exile

Sorry your epic journey didn’t get the reward it deserved Durham. Thank god I’m not too bothered about the 6 Nations, or this weekend would have been a complete disaster. There’s an interview with Sammie on YouTube after yesterday’s match at Poorman Rd, very obvious he still cares a lot about Col U.

Up the U's
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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 18:22 - Feb 2 with 684 viewsdurham_exile

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 18:16 - Feb 2 by wessex_exile

Sorry your epic journey didn’t get the reward it deserved Durham. Thank god I’m not too bothered about the 6 Nations, or this weekend would have been a complete disaster. There’s an interview with Sammie on YouTube after yesterday’s match at Poorman Rd, very obvious he still cares a lot about Col U.


Wessex what I didn't write in my report was that there was a young couple sitting next to me and when we scored they were naturally elated then the 70 seconds of hell occurred and he decided to attempt to break the seat (without success I should add) .

I sat there impassive (unusual for me) sadly like you I've seen it all before.

But somehow this season it hurts more!

UTU's

Durham_exile

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 08:29 - Feb 3 with 613 viewsMoor_Pinot

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 18:22 - Feb 2 by durham_exile

Wessex what I didn't write in my report was that there was a young couple sitting next to me and when we scored they were naturally elated then the 70 seconds of hell occurred and he decided to attempt to break the seat (without success I should add) .

I sat there impassive (unusual for me) sadly like you I've seen it all before.

But somehow this season it hurts more!

UTU's


Can't disagree with much of your report Durham. I am baffled by the way our squad is managed. Knowledge of any injuries is of course not in my gift but, average striker though he is, Robinson is at least a striker, one of the two we still have along with the carthorse who had a decent game, now that Macauley Junior has gone to Israel. Given the excellent Tuesday show where management finally responded to the obvious need for 442 why the heck was the methodology changed and why did Robinson get eight minutes?
These are young men, they need teaching, cajoling, motivating and encouraging, ie, managing. I was not blinded by the 16 game run because we won less than half anyway and at times we clung on to a fortunate point.

Once again we are heading for the clearly successful league aim of eigth. Oh, and we had a good Cup run. I am at a loss to understand who is actually managing but if Humes is involved in the process then too many cooks creates inconsistent cakes and might account for the inconsistent performances these last three years or so, either way the intelligent members of the support from the team in Suffolk who want our manager must be tearing their hair out.

In the end is it all about our football club's genuine aims? There appears to be little joined up thinking, tinkering you called it Durham and it doesn't work. Even the unbeaten run failed to get us near the top three. Players can never know who they are playing with. Comley has lost form - why. Because he was dropped after his goal at Field Mill lost his place to Pell who is an average footballer who like Senior hasn't a clue how to pass or who to. No wonder Comley has slid down, Stevenson too. No consistent selection, nor formation. Cambridge were the poorest side I've seen this season - twice--yet they've done the double, we got one point against Stevenage, one more against Morecombe. Who is analysing all this because the pattern is plain. No correct preparation beforehand and these young lads do not seem to be told how lucky they are and how important their input is. Prosser, an older lad, was awful on Saturday but at least he usually has the aura of someone for whom it matters.

A change in strategy is overdue. You're incandescent Durham I'm just frustrated and fed up because we are better than eigth, potentially.

Moor Pinot

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 21:29 - Feb 3 with 523 viewsRSCOSWORTH

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 08:29 - Feb 3 by Moor_Pinot

Can't disagree with much of your report Durham. I am baffled by the way our squad is managed. Knowledge of any injuries is of course not in my gift but, average striker though he is, Robinson is at least a striker, one of the two we still have along with the carthorse who had a decent game, now that Macauley Junior has gone to Israel. Given the excellent Tuesday show where management finally responded to the obvious need for 442 why the heck was the methodology changed and why did Robinson get eight minutes?
These are young men, they need teaching, cajoling, motivating and encouraging, ie, managing. I was not blinded by the 16 game run because we won less than half anyway and at times we clung on to a fortunate point.

Once again we are heading for the clearly successful league aim of eigth. Oh, and we had a good Cup run. I am at a loss to understand who is actually managing but if Humes is involved in the process then too many cooks creates inconsistent cakes and might account for the inconsistent performances these last three years or so, either way the intelligent members of the support from the team in Suffolk who want our manager must be tearing their hair out.

In the end is it all about our football club's genuine aims? There appears to be little joined up thinking, tinkering you called it Durham and it doesn't work. Even the unbeaten run failed to get us near the top three. Players can never know who they are playing with. Comley has lost form - why. Because he was dropped after his goal at Field Mill lost his place to Pell who is an average footballer who like Senior hasn't a clue how to pass or who to. No wonder Comley has slid down, Stevenson too. No consistent selection, nor formation. Cambridge were the poorest side I've seen this season - twice--yet they've done the double, we got one point against Stevenage, one more against Morecombe. Who is analysing all this because the pattern is plain. No correct preparation beforehand and these young lads do not seem to be told how lucky they are and how important their input is. Prosser, an older lad, was awful on Saturday but at least he usually has the aura of someone for whom it matters.

A change in strategy is overdue. You're incandescent Durham I'm just frustrated and fed up because we are better than eigth, potentially.


We’ve taken four points off of Stevenage and one point off of Morecambe.

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 21:34 - Feb 3 with 520 viewsRSCOSWORTH

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 21:29 - Feb 3 by RSCOSWORTH

We’ve taken four points off of Stevenage and one point off of Morecambe.


We’ve also taken six points off of Swindon but let’s just focus on the negatives eh?

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 08:05 - Feb 4 with 488 viewsMoor_Pinot

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 21:34 - Feb 3 by RSCOSWORTH

We’ve also taken six points off of Swindon but let’s just focus on the negatives eh?


I tried to be slightly more positive than Durham but I personally I had to be realistic. I didn't think we played very well.

Moor Pinot

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 10:18 - Feb 4 with 466 viewsdurham_exile

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 08:05 - Feb 4 by Moor_Pinot

I tried to be slightly more positive than Durham but I personally I had to be realistic. I didn't think we played very well.


I stand by every word of my report from the Cambridge debacle and that includes the treatment of Junior.

Enough is enough I paid tribute to defeating Swindon three times but also losing twice to Cambridge.

It is that inconsistency that is in danger of costing us promotion again

League two is shocking, the teams, grounds and quality is poor.

We must get back to league one and stay there whilst we consolidate.

Anymore performances like last Saturday and we will not achieve promotion and more quality players will leave.

After almost 50 years I have witnessed it all.
But as I said earlier it hurts more this year because we should be in the top three not skirting around the top eight or so.

Angry you bet too many players failed to perform and JM criticised them after the game but it is his fault for poor team selection and tactics. What tactics.

Angry words exchanged in the dressing room quite right at least it shows there is some pride and passion left.

Plymouth must be defeated on Saturday anything else and we will fail again this season.

Reality no pragmatism.

I am still incandescent after Saturday it simply was not good enough

UTU's

Durham_exile

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 10:58 - Feb 4 with 461 viewsMoor_Pinot

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 10:18 - Feb 4 by durham_exile

I stand by every word of my report from the Cambridge debacle and that includes the treatment of Junior.

Enough is enough I paid tribute to defeating Swindon three times but also losing twice to Cambridge.

It is that inconsistency that is in danger of costing us promotion again

League two is shocking, the teams, grounds and quality is poor.

We must get back to league one and stay there whilst we consolidate.

Anymore performances like last Saturday and we will not achieve promotion and more quality players will leave.

After almost 50 years I have witnessed it all.
But as I said earlier it hurts more this year because we should be in the top three not skirting around the top eight or so.

Angry you bet too many players failed to perform and JM criticised them after the game but it is his fault for poor team selection and tactics. What tactics.

Angry words exchanged in the dressing room quite right at least it shows there is some pride and passion left.

Plymouth must be defeated on Saturday anything else and we will fail again this season.

Reality no pragmatism.

I am still incandescent after Saturday it simply was not good enough

UTU's


Thanks Durham - I don't feel so "negative" now, just reassured that the rubbish I witnessed was just that. I remain a realist.
A debacle indeed and we have little time - 15 games - in which to discover said consistency and get out of this league. What's going on behind the scenes has troubled many of us on here for some time. Players (eg Comley's deterioration) react to their treatment by management and like you Durham I find the despatch of Junior after five minutes baffling. Obviously there is much we are not privy to and I accept that but a 442 start on Saturday would have been an interesting experience just to see if there is any plan B.

I suppose we could always beat Plymouth to qwell Saturday's anger!

Moor Pinot

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 14:34 - Feb 4 with 441 viewsnoah4x4

I think we need to take a look at this holistically. The wind and conditions were awful. Cambridge got lucky with their first goal. The second goal was an individual error by Comley (who was shocking). But I recall Harriott having a mare at Morecambe then playing a blinder in his next two games.

The overall team performance wasn't great, but on another day we would have seen out a 0 - 1 win. Unlike rugby, the best team on the day doesn't always win (example Spurs beating Man City). This result was about a lack of concentration during a minute of madness by two players.

Junior has featured in U23 matches and has not sparkled. However, we have a number of young lads on the brink of breaking into the First XI squad. Recent good U23 performances in the last seven days against Reading and Ipswich suggest to me we have firepower in reserve without Junior. But guys that only watch the First XI won't see this.
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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 15:06 - Feb 4 with 434 viewsMoor_Pinot

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 14:34 - Feb 4 by noah4x4

I think we need to take a look at this holistically. The wind and conditions were awful. Cambridge got lucky with their first goal. The second goal was an individual error by Comley (who was shocking). But I recall Harriott having a mare at Morecambe then playing a blinder in his next two games.

The overall team performance wasn't great, but on another day we would have seen out a 0 - 1 win. Unlike rugby, the best team on the day doesn't always win (example Spurs beating Man City). This result was about a lack of concentration during a minute of madness by two players.

Junior has featured in U23 matches and has not sparkled. However, we have a number of young lads on the brink of breaking into the First XI squad. Recent good U23 performances in the last seven days against Reading and Ipswich suggest to me we have firepower in reserve without Junior. But guys that only watch the First XI won't see this.


True enough Noah I don't see the U23 but I do recall Hassanally having an excellent preseason then got three minutes at the end of the first game and nearly scored. Has he made progress? It's sad if Junior hasn't because I remember how you told us how well he and Gondoh had been.
There is little doubt that we need a striker and goals. Lack of both was why a long unbeaten run failed to forge major progress up the league to hovver around 7/8th.

Moor Pinot

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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 17:50 - Feb 4 with 410 viewsnoah4x4

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 15:06 - Feb 4 by Moor_Pinot

True enough Noah I don't see the U23 but I do recall Hassanally having an excellent preseason then got three minutes at the end of the first game and nearly scored. Has he made progress? It's sad if Junior hasn't because I remember how you told us how well he and Gondoh had been.
There is little doubt that we need a striker and goals. Lack of both was why a long unbeaten run failed to forge major progress up the league to hovver around 7/8th.


Junior seemed to thrive with Gondoh. But he too fell from the radar and got loaned out. I sometimes wonder if the sports scientists know stuff that we don't? Maybe some skilful guys just don't have the required stamina? The Irish league is perhaps far off the pace of League Two.

Occasionally, discarded players prove us wrong (Bonne, Lapado), but it might typically take three years for some to mature, which we don't have. Sounds like Junior is deemed not ready. More often, Club management is proved right (example Vose, Craig Eastmond, albeit he played 49 games). Few of the released under 23s have gone on to better things, whilst we have enjoyed a number of financially productive home grown products (Szmodics, Kent etc).

Hassanally is indeed looking good. But there are a number of others. To be fair, since fan parking was prohibited at Tiptree, this season, I have only seen the under 23s when at JCS, but we have a great crop of youngsters.
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Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 22:24 - Feb 4 with 377 viewsGOSBTS

Abject U's lose at the Abbey Stadium in horror show on 14:34 - Feb 4 by noah4x4

I think we need to take a look at this holistically. The wind and conditions were awful. Cambridge got lucky with their first goal. The second goal was an individual error by Comley (who was shocking). But I recall Harriott having a mare at Morecambe then playing a blinder in his next two games.

The overall team performance wasn't great, but on another day we would have seen out a 0 - 1 win. Unlike rugby, the best team on the day doesn't always win (example Spurs beating Man City). This result was about a lack of concentration during a minute of madness by two players.

Junior has featured in U23 matches and has not sparkled. However, we have a number of young lads on the brink of breaking into the First XI squad. Recent good U23 performances in the last seven days against Reading and Ipswich suggest to me we have firepower in reserve without Junior. But guys that only watch the First XI won't see this.


Must say I 100% agree with this Noah.

Shouldn't be forgotten that we'd just come off the back of 3 incredibly hard-fought results against Bradford, Exeter and Swindon.

Personally, I'd be quite chuffed with a point against Plymouth this weekend, seeing as they are the in-form side in the league at the moment. I'm very positive about the U's chances this season (probably helps that I'm a more recent fan) but even I'm fearing the worst on Saturday!
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