| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's 17:12 - Feb 28 with 1816 views | durham_exile |
After last week’s thoroughly deserved victory at Moor Lane against Salford City, the Super U’s are playing hosts to Cheltenham Town, who played Northampton Town on Tuesday night and secured a 2-1 victory in front of JM, SB and Harry Pell. The Robins are playing very well, and this should be an intriguing encounter at the JSCS.
Cheltenham played 4,4,2 on Tuesday, something like this:
Evans
Raglan Boyle Long Hussey
Broom Thomas Tozer Doyle-Hayes
Reid May
Of the playing staff the one player that I cannot stand is Reuben Reid. A slightly corpulent figure he invariably does well against us (he always did for Exeter) and I will be pleased if he is quiet at the JSCS.
It looks increasingly like 7 from the top 9 for the vital automatic and play off positions.
Swindon 34 66
Crewe 34 64
Exeter 34 63
Plymouth 34 62
Cheltenham 34 60
COL U 35 55
Northampton 35 55
Port Vale 35 55
Bradford 35 51
So, a vital game on Saturday and one of our 11 Cup Finals. Now forget all about the opposition, every game from now will be difficult, exacting, challenging and momentous in equal measure before the FGR match. We will secure points at some games and may drop points at others, but so will our opposition, as the pressure starts to bear.
A total of 33 points up for grabs and 20 will guarantee the play offs, 30 possibly an automatic spot. The latter will require almost superhuman effort, but it is still mathematically possible.
Cheltenham H
Carlisle A
Scunny H
Crewe H
Newport A
Mansfield H
Bradford A
Northampton A
Oldham H
Walsall A
FGR H
Cheltenham, led by Michael Duff, will be formidable opponents and have hit form at the right time. Tomorrow will demonstrate whether we have corrected our “wobble” and are back on track. We drew 1-1 at Whaddon Road earlier in the season, but three points are required tomorrow.
JM made a brave call at Salford and played 4,4,2 I would adopt the same formation and personnel tomorrow, but there are question marks over the fitness of Ryan Jackson, Chuck Norris and Callum (Ainsley) Harriott after the robust challenges that all three were subjected to at a sodden and wind-blown Moor Lane.
Gerken
Jackson Sowunmi Prosser Bramall
Poku Pell Stevenson Harriott
Robinson Norris
Subs:
Ross Clampin Gambin Senior Nouble Comley Eastman
Moore or Welch-Hayes could be deployed if Jackson is not fit and Senior would come in for Harriott if he is unable to play.
The more times I watch the Kwame Poku goal at Salford the better it looks. A superb piece of play and he would have almost matched it had his strike that went narrowly wide of the upright had gone in minutes later.
Although it may not be popular, I would rest Tom Eastman again. Not because he has suddenly become a bad player, but Omar Sowunmi was simply outstanding against Salford and Tom Eastman will benefit from the rest. It is the reason why we have a squad of players and JM must utilise them well over these energy sapping games on heavy and difficult pitches.
Twin strikers with Big Frank on the bench worked well against a physical Salford side and I expect that Cheltenham will also play with two up front and so although they are not such a physical side, they are nevertheless a good footballing side and matching up formations is highly recommended on Saturday.
The weather tomorrow is likely to be 7 degrees Celsius and breezy with sunshine and up to a 30% chance of precipitation. We have had sleet, snow, strong winds, rain and power cuts in Durham this week so anything else will be a bonus in North Essex.
The 430 supporters who made the journey last week will hopefully have liked what they saw and should be joined by up to 3,600 others to produce a 4000+ crowd at the JSCS including 250 from Gloucestershire. The game deserves it and a Colchester victory will cheer the faithful after the disappointment of the Grimsby home match.
Enjoy the game. Safe journey.
Scoreline: 3-1 to the Super U’s
Up the U’s
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| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 11:55 - Mar 1 with 529 views | bwildered |
Like the Robins on my bird feeder, pecked away when required and disappeared full bellied. U's lived like a pigeon, tapped away living on morsels aimlessly thrown on the ground . |  |
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| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 12:14 - Mar 1 with 520 views | wessex_exile |
| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 17:06 - Feb 29 by Moor_Pinot |
Better side for first half hour. Nothing afterwards. One shot entire second half. Cheltenham defensively excellent, far too much experience for us but why oh why are we not more direct when playing ten man defences? Nobody takes anyone on, nobody has a shot from outside the box. Opposition just had far too much clout, loads of time wasted and defensively very confident.
Our substitutions made no difference.
Ultimately feel sorry for Wessex who made a long journey to see us offer very little.
Referee not up to the level nor linesmen. First goal offside. Sending off correct.
Only Deano had saves to make after half time.
A season defining game and result?
Yes. |
Don't worry Pinault, travelling in hope and returning in dismay is an occupational hazard for a U's exile, I'm used to it unfortunately.
Very frustrating, because for the first 40 minutes Cheltenham looked rattled, making lots of unforced errors, but we didn't make them pay for it. We had a few decent chances, and with luck could have been ahead at that point. It's telling that virtually the first meaningful contribution Gerken had to make was picking the ball out of the net. I haven't yet mentally prepared myself enough to watch the highlights, but it looked so far offside that I began to wonder whether there was something I'd missed that the linesman saw - surely an accredited official couldn't be that inept? But, you play to the whistle, and too many of our players seemed to stop, waiting for a flag that didn't come, and by then it was too late. Credit to Gerken for at least getting a hand to it I suppose, but nothing more he could do.
As for the second half, the least said about that the better. We lacked imagination and creativity, incapable of really getting around their wingbacks to make decent deliveries into the box. Our strength is pace, and far too often we just held the ball up and lost any momentum going forward. Cheltenham were very well drilled, with two banks of four (sometimes five) coping easily with anything we had to offer, and carried a far greater threat than the lacklustre U's when they broke - ironically with pace and momentum.
From the opposite end of the ground their second looked world-class, the frustrating thing being they'd bought the chance suckering us into a cheap needless foul on the edge of the box. No argument about the red card, although Sowumni comes out of the game with some distinction, he took one for the team there with a move that would have graced a volleyball court. Likewise, I thought Stevenson also deserves credit for his performance, just a pity he scuffed his chance from the edge of the box late in the second half. If the linesman was inept, the referee was atrocious, and really should hand in his badges after this performance, but you can't blame this result just on him unfortunately.
Not just a bad day at the office, but a very bad day elsewhere, with most results going against us, so we're back to square one, and now with only Objective #1 still alive for us. We can still do it, but not with another performance like this. |  |
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| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 13:22 - Mar 1 with 507 views | mfb_cufc |
First goal was definitely offside. As screenshot below shows May running back was still a good foot offside when the ball was played forward.
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| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 13:57 - Mar 1 with 500 views | wessex_exile |
| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 13:22 - Mar 1 by mfb_cufc |
First goal was definitely offside. As screenshot below shows May running back was still a good foot offside when the ball was played forward.
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Thanks mfb, clear as day. It gives no satisfaction knowing my first instinct was correct and the linesman was indeed inept. | |
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| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 11:07 - Mar 2 with 426 views | thrillseeker |
| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 13:57 - Mar 1 by wessex_exile |
Thanks mfb, clear as day. It gives no satisfaction knowing my first instinct was correct and the linesman was indeed inept. |
Not sure that picture is conclusive
Just been watching SKY highlights and at time ball played Bramall is playing their striker onside
I would hate to be a linesman |  | | |
| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 14:06 - Mar 2 with 409 views | Moor_Pinot |
| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 12:14 - Mar 1 by wessex_exile |
Don't worry Pinault, travelling in hope and returning in dismay is an occupational hazard for a U's exile, I'm used to it unfortunately.
Very frustrating, because for the first 40 minutes Cheltenham looked rattled, making lots of unforced errors, but we didn't make them pay for it. We had a few decent chances, and with luck could have been ahead at that point. It's telling that virtually the first meaningful contribution Gerken had to make was picking the ball out of the net. I haven't yet mentally prepared myself enough to watch the highlights, but it looked so far offside that I began to wonder whether there was something I'd missed that the linesman saw - surely an accredited official couldn't be that inept? But, you play to the whistle, and too many of our players seemed to stop, waiting for a flag that didn't come, and by then it was too late. Credit to Gerken for at least getting a hand to it I suppose, but nothing more he could do.
As for the second half, the least said about that the better. We lacked imagination and creativity, incapable of really getting around their wingbacks to make decent deliveries into the box. Our strength is pace, and far too often we just held the ball up and lost any momentum going forward. Cheltenham were very well drilled, with two banks of four (sometimes five) coping easily with anything we had to offer, and carried a far greater threat than the lacklustre U's when they broke - ironically with pace and momentum.
From the opposite end of the ground their second looked world-class, the frustrating thing being they'd bought the chance suckering us into a cheap needless foul on the edge of the box. No argument about the red card, although Sowumni comes out of the game with some distinction, he took one for the team there with a move that would have graced a volleyball court. Likewise, I thought Stevenson also deserves credit for his performance, just a pity he scuffed his chance from the edge of the box late in the second half. If the linesman was inept, the referee was atrocious, and really should hand in his badges after this performance, but you can't blame this result just on him unfortunately.
Not just a bad day at the office, but a very bad day elsewhere, with most results going against us, so we're back to square one, and now with only Objective #1 still alive for us. We can still do it, but not with another performance like this. |
Yes, I appreciate the exile bit Wessex - I once went four seasons and 27 away games from my Somerset home without a win - it's just that Saturday could well have genuinely defined our season and i felt especially for you.
Of course it has done that. I believe Cheltenham showed with alacrity precisely why we will not go up automatically and maybe not anyway. They were well equipped to deal with us, although I agree with you they looked shaky for half an hour, made errors but we had no clear chances to capitalise and Robinson had no service as usual. After that they were untroubled and massively better. Inded the balance of their side would probably hang in there pretty well in the bottom half of league one along with Rochdale, Ipswich and Shrewsbury next year. We do not look that real deal. We were slow and indirect and put the massive defence erected by Duff under no pressure. The first goal was offside, though as I saw it, maybe only slightly, the second was a great goal, power, intent and accuracy the result of our multiple fouling policy. It was 'world class' as you said. We do give a terrific number of unnecessary cheap free kicks away - 50% by the over rated but whole hearted Pell.
The officials were as poor as it gets but no excuse, which was unfortunately how Colchester ended the first half, moaning and creating zilch. It made me wonder how the 15 minutes passed at half time - was it all moan about that or was it "what we're going to do different is.........................." With the manager we have I suspect the former.
It was bad day at the office, but we have them pretty much every other game and that includes the unbeaten run which had a few wins in it and cracking performances against Swindon, Plymouth Exeter. Incocnsistent as ever we court 8th place yet again without anyone seemingly able to alter the situation. We remain not grown-up enough to be genuine contenders and given the reasonable quality of half our squad that'a a damn shame. The main disappointment I felt was that although this managment are known to have only plan A when he did make changes they were a] too late & b] massively ineffectual. I will be very surprised if either Norris or Senior remain at season's end. Frank was hopeless too and he's usually far better than that. Stevenson did OK but our minimal movement and lack of pace works against him. Sowumni is a decent div 4 centre half but doesn't distribute as well as our other two. P'raps Kensdale will get a game or two. The sending off was correct but he should never have been booked the first time.
A defining day, as we all suspected, but just not in the way we'd hoped. |  |
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| Robins to have their wings clipped at the JSCS by Super U's on 21:28 - Mar 2 with 366 views | ghughes11 |
Not sure I can add much more to this after watching on iFollow.
Same team (roughly) and formation to the one that played Plymouth off the park and the same (or similar) changes to the ones made versus Swindon at home too - so what went wrong?!?
After a relatively bright start and a great run and attempted chip over the goalie from Ben Stevenson, the game fizzled out quite soon after that.
Robinson, I don't think touched the ball all afternoon. Comley was ineffective and not needed in a match where we dominated possession (60-40 according to the BBC).
McGreal got rightly praised after the changes that he made versus Swindon - however, like against Cheltenham, this was only after going a goal down.
I have no complaints about the starting line-up or formation and would argue about making changes for changes sake. However, when you can see that things are not working, PLEASE change it before it is too late!
Anyway, we move onto the next one!
Please not an eighth place finish again!
Up the U's  | |
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