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It’s 3rd versus 11th at the Poundland Bescot tomorrow with arguable our most challenging game of the season so far. Mat Sadler lines his Saddlers up against DC and his Super U’s in a televised game on Sky Sports+ with an early 1230pm kick off.
Last season I went to the Bescot and it was a piece of individual brilliance that won the game for Walsall. Isaac Hutchinson has since moved on to Bristol Rovers where he signed a three-year deal. The Gas have a very fine player.
However, so do we with a more settled team now playing with a degree of verve and considerable skill.
The Bristol Rovers connection is deeper than this however with Samson Tovide and Lyle Taylor starting to remind those of us with older footballing memories of that Bristol Rovers pairing Bruce Bannister and Alan Warboys.
Between 1971 and 1976 Bannister scored 80 goals in 206 appearances and Warboys scored 53 goals in 144 appearances for the Gas.
OK I hear you say but Tovide with 2 goals and Taylor with 3 goals have not even scored five goals each this season (but I believe they are capable of 20 goals each) and would be the first Colchester players since Jamie Cureton to score more than 20 goals in a single season.
I suggested as much last season with another Taylor and our own Tovide but injury and a recall to Luton Town and onward loan to Lincoln put paid to that dream.
There is a real partnership and camaraderie between T and T (TNT perhaps) which is reinforced by the pacy Owura Edwards as a fearsome front three.
The games against Accrington, Morecambe and Tranmere have all evoked memories of a potentially explosive pairing and I am firmly of the belief that if they remain fit (Taylor) and red card free (Tovide) then why can’t they produce a superb attacking partnership which nets goals.
Tovide works so very hard and his runs down the left side and the ability to find Taylor, the archetypal goal poacher who is lethal in and around the six-yard box, have the makings of a great pairing in front of goal.
The perfect accompaniment of course is a now fully fit Owura Edwards with 2 goals so far. His pace at Accrington was frightening for their right back and this was adequately reinforced in the other two games.
Anyway, enough of our forwards. The big question remains DC and his inability to play Read, Payne, Bishop and Woodyard together in midfield. It is a difficult dilemma because Egbo is having a great run in the team and that might be the clue to the reason that Arthur Read doesn’t start in games.
Similarly at the back Goodliffe, Flanagan and Iandolo have the back three nailed down but then we have Kells and young Donnelly banging on the door for starts.
All of this suggest to me that DC is unlikely to make many if any changes to a winning side. Walsall as I mentioned offer a challenge but in fairness they played midweek and narrowly lost to Leicester City on penalties after perhaps shading the 90 minutes.
So, I reckon DC will play:
Macey
Goodliffe Flanagan Iandolo
Egbo Payne Bishop Woodyard
Tovide Taylor Edwards
Subs: Smith Kells Donnelly Hunt Gordon Read Scully
Weather in Walsall tomorrow will be 11 degrees Celsius with sunny intervals and a gentle breeze.
I reckon the game will be a classic with a Colchester victory by 3-2. Tovide, Taylor and Edwards all on the score sheet.
I will not be travelling tomorrow, instead I will watch via Sky Sports+. I am due to go to Fleetwood but that is likely to be a rearranged Tuesday night game.
Safe journey to the travelling faithful and enjoy the game.
Three points will move us closer to the top seven which has to be the first objective this season.
Up the U’s
Durham_exile
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 14:54 - Sep 28 with 2077 views
The two injuries are going to be a massive concern, we've let too many quality players go and haven't signed enough players that are anywhere near good enough.
Selling Bradley when you've got an old man up front that's never going to last 90 mins is a complete joke.
Clearly, Arthur Read, last years player of the season, is getting the Wilkinson-Jay treatment and will only start Tuesday if Bishop is out.
Is Kells injured or is he not on the 'old pals' list?
2-0 up, the Sadlers must have thought it was Christmas when we brought on a bunch of damp squibs.
The old, "but we played well", "the scoreline doesn't tell the full story", "the ref was shocking" is all a load of bollox. If they gave points for playing well, Garner would have won the league for us.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 15:23 - Sep 28 with 1978 views
Two of the Walsall goals looked way offside from my seat. Any comment from the Armchair Viewers?
Awful performance by Captain Flanagan. I wouldn’t put him in charge of the tea bar.
At 2-0, taking off Tovide and Taylor made eminent sense to me. The game was patently lost and we need to save them for Tuesday and Port Vale. Frankly, we didn’t look like scoring against a well drilled defence. By contrast, they found acres of space in front of our frigid back four that were repeatedly like rabbits caught in headlights.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 15:58 - Sep 28 with 1914 views
Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 15:55 - Sep 28 by noah4x4
On bus back….
Two of the Walsall goals looked way offside from my seat. Any comment from the Armchair Viewers?
Awful performance by Captain Flanagan. I wouldn’t put him in charge of the tea bar.
At 2-0, taking off Tovide and Taylor made eminent sense to me. The game was patently lost and we need to save them for Tuesday and Port Vale. Frankly, we didn’t look like scoring against a well drilled defence. By contrast, they found acres of space in front of our frigid back four that were repeatedly like rabbits caught in headlights.
I guess you are right, but is that what we are reduced to? 2-0 down and we give up? What happened to all the Cowley bullshit, “you can’t beat a man that won’t give up”? Two weeks ago Morecambe were 2 down with only 7 mins to play and only 10 players, they didn’t give up. We were going to learn from that, and here we are two weeks later, rolling over and letting our goal difference take a pasting. Losing by 4 goals in any league game is a disgrace.
We’ve played 8 games and by my reckoning, 6 of them we’ve blamed the ref or linos because we didn’t win. Football is very simple, if our defenders don’t let them put the ball in the net, then it doesn’t matter if they were off-side or not.
6 wins in 28 is total and utter shite. We’ve got two clowns on the touchline that jump around and scream their heads off for 90 mins with very little end product.
Walsall weren’t that wonderful and we’ve lost 4-0. We’ve got a lot more good teams to play.
#### playing well, #### blaming the officials, no more bullshit, 3 points at Port Vale is a must. We need to be clinical, win ugly, win nasty, win by whatever it takes, but ####ing win!!!!
PS: The sight of Samson rolling about on the floor like he’s been doused in napalm every time someone gets within two feet of him is getting embarrassing, does he think he’s Neymar? If his pain threshold is really that low he should consider a career change to selling make-up or something equally as girly.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 18:40 - Sep 28 with 1586 views
4-0 to a nothing special team from a carbuncle on the arse of Birmingham, is not acceptable.
Today, Chesterfield, who were level on points with us (this morning) have stuffed Donny 0-3.
Donny were 2 points above Port Fail.
It can be done.
We cannot beat shit teams when we are at home, so we do not have the luxury of 'oooh a draw would be a good result on Tuesday'
We need to win, this shit show needs to end. We cannot give the rest of the league a 10 game head start. We need to be top half of the table to stop the seemingly inevitable slide into non league. If we don't win, we must at least look like we're organised and we've given it everything and more.
This is Cowleys team, if they have any aspirations of another job in league football they need to sort this shit out. More brains, less bullshit, much more hard work, no excuses.
Started brightly and well in the game until the route one goal which was schoolboy defending by both centre half’s and goalie. Getting a equaliser was vital ,but more schoolboy defending letting guy easily to the byline in the box more crap defending. Edwards going off changed the game for the U’s, has Scully played on other side and not wide and hence those upfront lost positional play not knowing where to ball was likely to go into the box spaces. Tidy and top against shabby and schoolboy defending display. Need now to put in a performance mid week to make amends, other wise do not look above mid table has the new dawn sinks behind cloud has winter sets in .
Cowley has now confessed to the Gazette that he took off Taylor & Tovide conscious of Tuesdays trip to Port Vale, so my assumption was correct. But if Walsall can score two in added time; then surely so might we? I’m with TOOT here, what happened to “we never give up”?
Frankly, Walsall competently soaked up massive pressure in the first 20 minutes whilst we expended a massive amount of energy. After they scored, we looked pooped. They were quicker to everything. A blitzkrieg start is fine, provided we score, and we didn’t.
I reckon Walsall are the best side I’ve seen since our away trips to Wrexham and Stockport. We were punished because we were not good enough. Flanagan needs to look at his contribution and hand over the captains armband. Very poor.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 21:25 - Sep 28 with 1392 views
When l started watching football many years ago the midweek matches actually took place on a Monday evening with a 7.15 kick off.
It would be quite normal for the same eleven players who had represented the club on a Saturday ( for a full 90 minutes ) to play on the Monday evening - injuries and form permitting.
One such example was in 1971 when Colchester United played flat out in a pulsating 4th Round F.A. Cup tie at Rochdale on the Saturday afternoon that ended in a thrilling 3 - 3 draw.
I bet those players couldn't wait to get back on the pitch for the replay at Layer Road on the Monday evening ( which by then would have been a 7.30 kick off ).....it was Colchester United 5 Rochdale 0.
Those players under Dick Graham would have been more than capable of playing on the Tuesday night too should there have been a match.
When l hear of players being rested after an hour or so because they have a match on the Tuesday l can only conclude that they are not fit enough to be professional footballers.
Multiple substitutions have ruined the game for me. I don't want to see three different teams playing against one another for 90 minutes plus another 10 - partly to allow for the changes.
Additionally l wonder if the lower divisions should be regionalised as they once were. Eight hour journeys are xxxxxxx ridiculous with the state of the motorways and A roads.
I would like to see three named substitutes only. This would reduce squad sizes and save the clubs much needed revenue. If the leagues were regionalised this too would make a huge saving.
The recent Colchester United business model is utterly unsustainable. I doubt it will continue much longer.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION re. Vehicles on the road.
I just looked up some data on this and road traffic has tripled since the early seventies from around 13.5 million to 41 million.
I took the dog out for 25 minutes tonight and counted over 60 Deliveroo / Just Eat etc type riders / cyclists around the East Hill / Town Centre / North Hill and Cowdray Avenue circle we walked.
This began in lockdown and seems to have grown.
The roads are xxxxxx and so are the pavements. Had an e - scooter crash into me on Cowdray Avenue pavement on Thursday morning. The rider did apologise and appeared to be texting while on route to McDonalds.
Nandos has some kind of a hatch in Head Street where the food deliverers collect from which requires some pedestrians to step in the road into traffic flow as the pavement is over flowing with e - contraptions.
[Post edited 28 Sep 22:40]
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 23:38 - Sep 28 with 1253 views
On a brighter note, agents Moncur and Bonne are doing fine work at Sarfend, we just need agent Szmodics to ensure the binners stay in the relegation zone tomorrow.
...and a big thanks to Connor Wilkinson who appears to have stopped taking the piss, as he hasn't scored for a few games now.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 01:27 - Sep 29 with 1211 views
I have been out this afternoon and evening but have read the thread with some interest
I was critical of DC when he took Taylor and Tovide off at Morecambe and more so today because at 2-0 we still had a chance of getting back into the game.
Scully unfortunately is not the answer. The biggest potential loss is Edwards who once again played well.
The Bescot is another of our poor grounds and we haven't won there for over 10 years.
4-0 flattered Walsall and makes us look a poor side which we are not.
However I agree that Port Vale now is a must win game.
Top seven is still very much on the cards.
The best team I saw last season was Doncaster and look at them again today.
Of course I'm disappointed but like many on this board who have watched the U's for over 54 years we've seen it all before.
Bring on the Variants Tuesday night.
Up the U's
Durham_exile
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 08:22 - Sep 29 with 1142 views
Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 01:27 - Sep 29 by durham_exile
I have been out this afternoon and evening but have read the thread with some interest
I was critical of DC when he took Taylor and Tovide off at Morecambe and more so today because at 2-0 we still had a chance of getting back into the game.
Scully unfortunately is not the answer. The biggest potential loss is Edwards who once again played well.
The Bescot is another of our poor grounds and we haven't won there for over 10 years.
4-0 flattered Walsall and makes us look a poor side which we are not.
However I agree that Port Vale now is a must win game.
Top seven is still very much on the cards.
The best team I saw last season was Doncaster and look at them again today.
Of course I'm disappointed but like many on this board who have watched the U's for over 54 years we've seen it all before.
Bring on the Variants Tuesday night.
Up the U's
I thought Colchester played really well until they scored the opener. I was still very hopeful of at least a draw until the second. The defender who allowed their man to cut inside with such ease deserved a severe telling-off in the dressing room.
One side issue; I can't find Danny's normal post-match interview.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 12:08 - Sep 29 with 991 views
Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 08:22 - Sep 29 by BLACKCAT
I thought Colchester played really well until they scored the opener. I was still very hopeful of at least a draw until the second. The defender who allowed their man to cut inside with such ease deserved a severe telling-off in the dressing room.
One side issue; I can't find Danny's normal post-match interview.
Interview found now.
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 12:40 - Sep 29 with 981 views
Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 08:22 - Sep 29 by BLACKCAT
I thought Colchester played really well until they scored the opener. I was still very hopeful of at least a draw until the second. The defender who allowed their man to cut inside with such ease deserved a severe telling-off in the dressing room.
One side issue; I can't find Danny's normal post-match interview.
Don't know if the above link works, but it's DC talking to BBC Essex Neil Kelly, post-match.
He says it as it is.
I'm convinced we need a reality check. It has to work with DC/NC, they are as good or better than anyone else we are going to get, but the 'Cult' needs to open their eyes, many of the players we've signed on the cheap are just not good enough. On current form, even without injuries, we cannot put out a balanced team of 11 players that are good enough at this level. If the first half Blitz doesn't work, we have nothing on the bench to change the game for the better. Now the injuries are mounting, we could be in trouble if some of the 'also rans' don't soon step up to the mark and repay the faith that has been put in them. We have to end the madness of selling anyone we can, just to prop up failings elsewhere. Bradley wasn't world class, but it's obvious that we desperately need him this week.
If it doesn’t work at Port Vale, we have to go again and again until it starts to work. No more bullshit, no shots on target is not playing well, we are a team that cannot defend and pose little threat upfront, but in between the boxes we play lovely football, that counts for nothing.
Last season I managed to tick Holker Street off my list. It was an appalling game. Individually, the Barrow players had very little noticeable talent, but they were extremely well organised, professional and all put in a shift. They played as a team. It worked, they stifled us and ground out the good result that they deserved. Forget silky passing in midfield we need to concentrate on the simple things and stay focused.
[Post edited 30 Sep 11:02]
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 13:32 - Sep 29 with 937 views
If you can ignore the fact that it’s against the U’s, their first goal is a thing of beauty.
All this over-coached, over examined, stats driven, bollox, of trying to walk the ball into the net by some pre-determined method, goes straight out of the window. However hard they try to convince themselves overwise, with analysts, computers and fancy terms, football is still a very simple game.
If Haaland had scored that, the Prem media circus would still be spaffing over it, but because it was a nobody, ..............he got a lucky touch and it was poor defending.
[Post edited 30 Sep 11:06]
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 12:41 - Sep 30 with 621 views
Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 10:57 - Sep 30 by TheOldOakTree
If you can ignore the fact that it’s against the U’s, their first goal is a thing of beauty.
All this over-coached, over examined, stats driven, bollox, of trying to walk the ball into the net by some pre-determined method, goes straight out of the window. However hard they try to convince themselves overwise, with analysts, computers and fancy terms, football is still a very simple game.
If Haaland had scored that, the Prem media circus would still be spaffing over it, but because it was a nobody, ..............he got a lucky touch and it was poor defending.
[Post edited 30 Sep 11:06]
TOOT
I usually watch the EFL highlights each week.
I rarely bother with the Premier league or Championship but always watch League One and League Two.
Every week there are spectacular goals scored but most go under the radar because they are almost ignored by the media.
Opening up the Sky Sports+ for the next five years will raise the profile.
Their first goal was certainly down to the first touch which was outstanding. However had Macey stood his ground he would have saved it. Our defence for the first two goals was lamentable.
Chasing the game gave them goals three and four which flattered them and the scoreline.
Port Vale now becomes a must win game.
Up the U's
Durham_exile
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Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 12:58 - Sep 30 with 604 views
Saddle up for three points at the Bescot with DC and his Super U's on 12:41 - Sep 30 by durham_exile
TOOT
I usually watch the EFL highlights each week.
I rarely bother with the Premier league or Championship but always watch League One and League Two.
Every week there are spectacular goals scored but most go under the radar because they are almost ignored by the media.
Opening up the Sky Sports+ for the next five years will raise the profile.
Their first goal was certainly down to the first touch which was outstanding. However had Macey stood his ground he would have saved it. Our defence for the first two goals was lamentable.
Chasing the game gave them goals three and four which flattered them and the scoreline.
Port Vale now becomes a must win game.
Up the U's
It was not just the scorer, the monster pass from their LB was as good as anything Beckham ever hit.
I've watched the highlights of the Port Fail game. Apart from the chap nodding in the corner, I didn't see anything to be scared of.
If we concentrate for 90 minutes and can master the basics of defending, then we have a good chance. On reflection, there are 38 games to go, it's not the end of the world if we don't win. I would take a 0-0 if it means we can stop the Keystone Cops tribute act at the back.
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