Revenge over Stevenage……and “now you are going to believe us…”; as the U's wipe out memories of the ghost of Christmas past.

It is now nine points from twelve since the Irish Messiah took over and not one draw in sight. Somehow, when under John Ward's stewardship, you always suspected that a slim 1-0 lead might capitulate into a draw as the final seconds ebb away. But here, I never once felt that the U's wouldn't make it to the final whistle as they always seemed in total control. I reckon this was the best U's performance in many a year, and against opposition that probably deserves its current automatic promotion place on past merits. At last, the proof, both here and against Swindon, that Colchester United is a team to be feared.

Once again, we saw an adventurous 4-3-3 with Wilson and Rose playing as proper full backs rather than pseudo wingers, and only getting forward when the U's were overwhelming the opposition. We hence looked solid at the back and deserved a clean sheet. The U's progressed forward with the neat passing style out from the back that we are now accustomed to enjoying. Here, it would be easy to slot in a few paragraphs from previous reports; merely adding that growing confidence and improving skill levels were now producing footwork that would grace Strictly Come Dancing, but this is my cue to look at another feature of Saturday's game, the performance of the referee, and offer another different perspective from other available match reports.

Referee Mr Salisbury soon became the focus of U's fans attention, but there's nothing unusual in that, given that he had a whistle, and wasn't shy of using it. Very early on, indeed so early that my match day colleague was still slurping gravy from his pie, I remarked that the ref's over fussiness might be to our advantage, and so it proved. Stevenage had built their long unbeaten run on the back of robust tackling, big defenders, clean sheets and few goals scored. It didn't take long for Stevenage to attempt to break up the U's stylish play with some X Factor tackles. Grant, Dunne and Morais all quickly became details in the referee's book. My guess is that had Izzet and O'Toole also been on the pitch, the referee might have had rapidly had five new “fiends” for his Facebook list of (overly robust) contacts. It was quickly obvious that any physical contact was likely to produce a ‘peep' and a free kick, and that set the tone for the rest of the game. I believe that this worked for the benefit of the game, as both sides then settled to play some excellent watchable, honest, on the deck football. The referee's stance was distinctly to the U's distinct advantage, as the silky skills of Watt, Massey, Ibrehe and Eastmond were now far less likely to be met by rough handling and thuggery.

It seemed inevitable that one Stevenage shirt would eventually depart the pitch and that ignoble exit came soon after half time, with the sides still deadlocked. Grant sent the ever teasing Watt sprawling and simply had to take an early bath for a second offence. Momentarily, Stevenage became disorganised, and two minutes after Grant's departure, Watt jinked and shot to score a magnificent goal to send the U's faithful into raptures. Then, as is often the case, the ten men regained their composure and became even more resilient, but with the luxury of a full eleven, the U's could simply widen play and stretch Stevenage, who to their credit, continue to battle and defend when many others would have crumbled. There followed an entertaining twenty minutes as Watt and Massey ran their legs off, and Stevenage robustly, but fairly defended, whilst throwing on fresh legs when due. That was the cue for Joe Dunne to (rightfully) replace Massey and Watt with Henderson and Sears before the hard working duo were also running on empty.

Then Henderson soon broke free, one on one, only to be pole axed by goalkeeper Arnold. A Second Stevenage shirt should have left the field, but having already dismissed one, the referee lost his bottle, not helped by a linesman only feet from the incident who claimed he saw nothing. Play was meekly waved on. However, the ref then drew his yellow card out of its holster faster than Wyatt Earp to book Henderson for dissent, soon followed by Woody as the U's continued to protest the injustice. It seemed such a contradiction that early in the game, one only needed to breathe on an opponent to concede a free kick, yet here, Arnold went unpunished for a Twickenham style body check. It made for a few worrying moments, as the U's did lose some composure, and I guess Joe Dunne will have a few things to say about that given that a fussy referee probably benefits us given our new style, skills and formation. That one incident apart, a clear error, I thought the referee had an excellent game and fairly officiated. I reckon the U's players and fans should now welcome officials that are happy to blow when any over physical contact has taken place. After all, we are now a side that wants to play football not rugby.

Photo: Action Images

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