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Report: Dale 1 Colchester 2
Report: Dale 1 Colchester 2
Sunday, 22nd Aug 2010 10:39 by Col

So after an absence of thirteen years, rivalries with Colchester United were resumed at a rather Sunny Spotland but it was the visitors who left with the points. Full report now online.

In front of a crowd which must show concern to the powers that be, Dale went into the game making their first change of the season, with a full debut for Anthony Elding who came in at the expense of JLAA. Despite the signing of a second J. Thompson from Celtic, Holness retained his place alongside Craig Dawson at the back as we looked to chase down our first League victory of the season.

Visitors Colchester had this little blond haired lad within his ranks, and even now, it still doesn't feel right seeing him in an opposition shirt. Those sort of feelings shouldn't really be attributed to someone who was only with us a year and a bit, but the fact that it does perhaps tells you the mark Perkins left at Spotland.

Kicking towards the Pearl Street end of the ground in the first half, Dale were straight out of the blocks looking very fired up. The possession stats which never really tell you anything about a game must have had Dale with close to two thirds of possession in these opening moments.

With Elding leading the line, there was an element of danger to our attacks without becoming overly threatening. Again with Elding, his mere presence creates problems and as his fitness improves, he will only get better. There was one moment where a fully fit Elding would have left the defence standing following a good ball over the top. There's more to come, but I like what I see so far.

The visitors weren't offering much as an attacking threat at this point in the game, and the closest they came was a long range deflected effort that was the most obvious corner you'll ever see all season. The U's players were incandescent to see referee Nigel Miller award a goal kick, and rightfully so.

Fans behind the goal were up celebrating at one stage, but the celebrations were in vain for the offside effort which never even crossed the line in the first place. I hate moments like that.

But as the half wore on, Colchester grew in confidence and really took a stronghold on the game and that last fifteen minutes of the first half saw them look very dangerous with a string of chances. There was one effort which hit the side netting, another where debutant Mooney's movement left Dawson in no man's land, and he really should have done better with his free header at the back post.

But if Colchester were carving out chances, we weren't doing much to stop them. A failed attempt by Holness to clear the ball saw Henderson who had run untracked from his own half nick the ball off him, and we had the woodwork to thank as his chip cannoned off the cross bar. We were most definitely on the back foot at this stage, and it took a flying save from Josh Lillis to prevent us going behind. A long range effort was whistling towards the top corner before a flying save tipped it wide.

A comment within earshot of where I was stood said that Dale could really do with half time soon. Within five seconds of that being said, we were behind. A headed clearance landed at the feet of U's midfielder Bond four or five yards outside of the Dale penalty box and his speculative shot took a wicked deflection of Jason Kennedy, wrongfooting Lillis to settle in the back of the net. The goal had been threatened.

A mix up between Holness and Lillis as they attempted to deal with a difficult ball saw one effort having to be cleared off the line by Dawson, and from the resultant corner, the U's again went close. Even trailing at 1-0, the half time whistle was welcomed around Spotland.

Second half, no changes, and it was shades of last season within the opening minute, as Dale found themselves back on level terms. Brian Barry-Murphy took a corner from the pie hut side as we attacked the Sandy Lane end of the ground, and Craig Dawson got himself on the end of it with a neat finish to add another chunk of cash to his valuation. His ability to read the ball from corners is as good as any player I have ever seen wearing a Dale shirt.

With parity restored, there was only ever going to be one winner and Dale suddenly seemed to find an extra yard of pace in all areas of the field. The goal had certainly restored confidence, and whilst clichés dictate that just before half time is the best time to score, there's nothing like the scoring in the opening minute of the second half to destroy everything that the opposition manager has just spent the last fifteen minutes talking about.

There was much to be positive about as Dale took the game to Colchester, and there were shades of a certain Tony Ellis to Athony Elding's performance in the second half as his body movement created space and had the opposition chasing after him. Time and again, he was able to chest the ball and turn at the same time to create a yard or two of space that perhaps with better support could have led to brighter things.

However, Elding was soon brought off with JLAA on as his replacement in a double substitution which also saw City loanee Andrew Tutte get his professional debut replacing Joey T. That change saw O'Grady given his more usual central role, with JLAA much wider.

The change almost came to immediate fruition, as JLAA's twisting and turning created a space before he unleashed a wonderful effort that was deflected onto the cross bar. Hearts were in mouths as the ball came flying over but the woodwork was called into action again. It was a busy afternoon for that cross bar.

Dale were most definitely on top at this stage and in fairness you could only see a Dale goal coming. That Colchester spell in the first half was looking to be their sole period of attacking threat within the game. That said, they probably felt as comfortable as we did at Brighton and at Barnsley. For all our possession, their keeper wasn't tested.

And so with around five minutes remaining and Perkins being given another Spotland standing ovation as he was brought off by U's boss John Ward, Dale were punished by a counter attack that we had no answer to. A marauding Henderson was put through as he raced down the right hand side and unlike the first half, his chip over Lillis was low enough to land in the back of the net. 2-1 to Colchester and the game in the bag.

Redshaw was thrown on for the last few minutes but the game was controlled by United as they saw out time. It took yet another flying Lillis save to prevent it being 3-1, but that aside, they were intent on winding down the clock as much as possible even to the extent of someone smack bang in the middle of the penalty box taking the ball towards the corner flag. Ruthless, professional but undeniably horrible if you are on the receiving end of it.

The final whistle brought disappointment at the result, but satisfaction at what was a battling performance. It was greeted with applause from all home areas of the ground and there'd been no let up in effort at any stage, and there was a real feeling that we had more than matched our visitors, and there were plenty of positives to be taken from this game - with many a muttering of "we should have won that" on the way out.

But further reflection of the game as he trudged my way back up Sandy Lane was one where in terms of actual chances within the game, there could be no questioning at all of the result. For all of the positives that there may have been, its reality rather than negativity to state that Colchester had five or six proper goal scoring chances, whilst for all our possession, there was probably only the JLAA chance which threatened to add to the Dawson goal.

Again, I had the same feeling that I had at Brighton that we had shown enough throughout the game that when we wanted to we could cause real problems for the opposition, and I never felt that there was a gulf in class between the sides. But we do seem to be approaching this season with the mindset similar to a plucky Play Off winner side promoted to the Premiership, cautious to the extreme with too much fear of preventing what the opposition could do to us rather than dictating what we could do to them.

I know patience is important and as we find our League One feet we may start to throw that caution to the wind, and there will be games this season where there will be a gulf in class between the two sides - wage budgets of other sides make that inevitable - but we must remember all that was good that got us here in the first place. Last six weeks aside, the way we played last season would have brushed many a League One side aside. We may have lost a 20 goal a season man to Scunthorpe, but we've lost another to the midfield.

But positives remain, and there will be better sides than us who lose at home to an unbeaten Colchester side who came within a whisker of making the League One play offs last season.

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nigelcass added 07:13 - Aug 23
Agree with your general thoughts, but two comments:
1. The two strikers must play closer together and show greater movement. No good one playing on the left wing, when the central man controlled the ball, there was no-one to lay it off to. Look at our ratioof possesion to goal attempts and then compare it to Colchester (or Brighton).
2. Central defenders must get tighter to their man in this league, the opp. strikers are faster and move better ie. C'chester's second goal.
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