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Before the MK Dons match I mentioned that last season the team that finished 7th was Chesterfield on 70pts, so if that was the target then Col U needed 17pts from the remaining 30pts available.
Remaining fixtures were: Wed 18 Mar (A) MK Dons (3) (0) Sat 21 Mar (A) Bromley (0) (0) Sat 28 Mar (H) Walsall (3) (1) Fri 3 Apr (H) Oldham (1) (0) Mon 6 Apr (A) Tranmere (1) (3) Fri 10 Apr (H) Swindon (1) Tue 14 Apr (H) Accrington (0) Sat 18 Apr (A) Harrogate (3) Sat 25 Apr (H) Notts C (3) Sat 2 May (A) Cheltenham (3)
The first brackets were the points we achieved in the first fixtures and now I have added in the second brackets the points we achieved in the second set. That is 4pts less points picked up than before with only 5 more points available (stay with me, as the win vs Swindon would add 2 to the draw we picked up in the reverse fixture, and a win vs Accrington would add 3 to the 0 = 5). Add these to the tally of 9 from the Harrogate, Notts C and Cheltenham matches would not only put us on a 6-match winning streak to end the season but also on 72pts! That would have been enough for 6th last season (depending on GD). However, this season it might not be enough for Top 10!
So, onto Swindon Town on Friday night (or Saturday morning NZT), a team (according to the BBC) we have lost just one of our last six league games against (W3 D2), scoring 12 goals across those matches! Also, Swindon have failed to win any of their last seven away league games against us (D2 L5), since a 4-1 victory in the third tier in February 2016. That all sounds promising until you read that we have failed to win any of our last six league games played on a Friday (D4 L2), since a 2-1 home win over Newport in March 2024 and Swindon have won four of their last six league games played on a Friday (D1 L1), though did lose their last 1-0 against MK Dons on Boxing Day this season.
The reverse fixture against Swindon was played on Sat 25 Oct 2025, when Swindon missed out on the chance to go top of League Two after eking out the drabbest of 0-0 draws with Colchester. They currently sit 5th with 74 pts – level on points with Cambridge Utd in 4th. However, Cambridge do have a game in hand). It is still mathematically possible for them to finish as Champions. However, more realistically a place in the Top 3 and auto promotion is the main aim for them!
Onto the ‘They played for both’ section of the blog, and two of our best players this season have also played for Swindon. Jack Payne spent two seasons (2020-2022) with Swindon playing 78 games and scoring 17 (this is Wikipedia, so I think they do league games only). The other is Ellis Iandolo who came through the Swindon Town youth system and made 137 league appearances for the club across eight seasons. Signing Ellis must have been one of the (if not the only) great things that Ben Garner (former Swindon Manager) did for us! Now according to Microsoft Copilot, other players that have played for both include Barry Corr (I challenged this and can confirm that he never played for Col U!) Gary Alexander, Hasney Aljofree and Steve Jones were also added to the list, but after the Barry Corr catastrophy, I asked Copilot again to check the records and the final result is: “There are zero confirmed players who made senior competitive appearances for both Colchester United and Swindon Town before 2010. This is not a guess — it’s the outcome after eliminating every incorrectly attributed name.” In conclusion, I think Graeson Laitt is safe from AI for now 😊
Team news. I haven’t listened to the pre-match interview with DC yet, so not sure what the latest with Samson is – last I heard was a hip injury and should be back for this match. Too early to start so a place on the bench it is. With Vincent-Young and Bishop coming off against Tranmere, this match might come too quick for them two, and so a start for their replacements (Hunt and Barbrook) would not come as a surprise:
GK: Macey RB: Hunt CB: Tucker CB: Terry LB: Iandolo RM: Anderson CM: Barbrook CM: Read LM: Edwards AM: Payne ST: Goodwin Subs: Chamberlain, Back, Kuffour, Gape, Akachukwu, Lisbie, Williams
I have swapped out Edwards for Lisbie after the former changed the game against Tranmere with his direct running and providing the cut-back for Payne to finish for the 0-1 win.
According to Copilot (so I would expect the opposite), the forecast for Colchester, England on Friday night (Friday 10 April 2026) based on the latest available data: Conditions: Cloudy to mostly cloudy Temperature: Around 8–9°C overnight Rain: Very low chance (generally under 10%) Wind: Light to moderate, around 10–12 mph, mainly from the west to south-west Overall, it’s expected to be cool, dry, and overcast, with no significant rain expected during the night. A light jacket would be advisable if you’re heading out late.
Score prediction: Copilot: Predicted final score: Colchester United 1 – 1 Swindon Town “Friday night games often start cagey, especially between two sides who know each other well. Colchester tend to be more competitive at home but don’t always convert chances. Swindon usually have enough going forward to nick a goal, even away. So I’m leaning toward: A tight first half Goals in the second half Neither side quite doing enough to win it”
Me: With Copilot being very unreliable (sorry Gerry looks like your fav 1-1 is off), I am going for an optimistic 2-1 with goals coming from the two former players mentioned above!
Nice one ghughes! We have Copilot at work, and normally it’s considerably more reliable than your experience. Outside of Jack and Ellis, the first name I thought of without AI was Jamie Cureton, but I bet there are many more.
You might not want to invest nearly half an hour of your life in this Holloway pre-match interview, but there’s something for everyone here, even his frank views on academies.
Btw - I’m not certain if he’s being tongue-in-cheek about our big wide pitch, or he’s forgotten ours must be one of the narrowest these days?
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 06:35 - Apr 10 by wessex_exile
Nice one ghughes! We have Copilot at work, and normally it’s considerably more reliable than your experience. Outside of Jack and Ellis, the first name I thought of without AI was Jamie Cureton, but I bet there are many more.
You might not want to invest nearly half an hour of your life in this Holloway pre-match interview, but there’s something for everyone here, even his frank views on academies.
Btw - I’m not certain if he’s being tongue-in-cheek about our big wide pitch, or he’s forgotten ours must be one of the narrowest these days?
Tony Thorpe was another, on loan to replace Cureton after he went back to Swindon. Sadly he never scored a goal for us but definitely did a job for the team during the promotion run-in. Swindon must've been so gutted. They signed both Thorpe and Cureton, proven goalscorers at that level and above, and it didn't work out for either player.
Swindon need to win, else Bromley are promoted if they beat MKDons. I’m expecting the Robins to throw the kitchen sink at us. Hence probably a rearguard action, all defensively digging in, U’s to sneak a 1-0 victory on the counter.
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Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 19:07 - Apr 10 with 3061 views
Excellent first half from the U's, just no goal for our dominance despite hitting the woodwork twice. Swindon sitting back since the red card, which is making things much harder to create real opportunities, but I worry it's still 0-0 against ten man.
Just a sublime performance from the U's, nothing more than we deserved, and to be frank, quite comfortable against a team playing for the automatic promotion places. 3-0, but it could have been more if I'm honest. I'm looking forward to Ollie's post-match interview.
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 21:45 - Apr 10 by wessex_exile
Just a sublime performance from the U's, nothing more than we deserved, and to be frank, quite comfortable against a team playing for the automatic promotion places. 3-0, but it could have been more if I'm honest. I'm looking forward to Ollie's post-match interview.
Totally agree. Takes hard work, and do the basics well to look like beating ten men that easy. Straight red by MOTM ref, made it all the easier. Back to back wins . Barbrook put in a shift .
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 22:21 - Apr 10 by bwildered
Totally agree. Takes hard work, and do the basics well to look like beating ten men that easy. Straight red by MOTM ref, made it all the easier. Back to back wins . Barbrook put in a shift .
Onwards and upwards .
Best performance we've seen from Barbrook by far. Could've been Man of the Match.
So when the games were important, week after week, we weren’t good enough. The players, DC/NC, the tactics, the effort, the desire, all not good enough.
Now we have half a dozen meaningless games and it turns out, we can turn it on and play football, put the effort in and out play the opposition.
I’m struggling to find any positives, quite the opposite. It just confirms that we could have made the play-offs, but we failed.
It’s not as if these games will help prepare for next season, because chances are half the squad will be gone. You could even say that the better we play now the more interest there will be in our out-of-contract players.
We can pretend otherwise, but last night and the remaining games are just a waste of washing powder, they are less important than pre-season games.
[Post edited 11 Apr 9:38]
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Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 10:59 - Apr 11 with 2767 views
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 09:37 - Apr 11 by TAFKAT
So when the games were important, week after week, we weren’t good enough. The players, DC/NC, the tactics, the effort, the desire, all not good enough.
Now we have half a dozen meaningless games and it turns out, we can turn it on and play football, put the effort in and out play the opposition.
I’m struggling to find any positives, quite the opposite. It just confirms that we could have made the play-offs, but we failed.
It’s not as if these games will help prepare for next season, because chances are half the squad will be gone. You could even say that the better we play now the more interest there will be in our out-of-contract players.
We can pretend otherwise, but last night and the remaining games are just a waste of washing powder, they are less important than pre-season games.
[Post edited 11 Apr 9:38]
Chin up chap!
Yes, there is an element of frustration. Last night confirmed that on our day we’re one of the best teams in the league, but we just haven’t been consistent enough. Yes, I can point to a catalogue of injuries, appalling officials, and not enough strength in depth because of the reduced budget, but we’re not on our own for some or all of the above.
But, it is still worth celebrating an excellent performance even if tinged with regret we haven’t been that good often enough. I still have goals for the season, the first being match or better last season’s 67pts in 10th place. My big goal is obviously straight wins to the end of the season, though I’m well aware even that won’t be enough for the play-offs. I doubt it’ll make any difference regarding our out of contract players though. Other clubs will already know who they’ll be interested in, it’ll be the same ones we want to keep - the last few games won’t make any difference to that.
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 10:59 - Apr 11 by wessex_exile
Chin up chap!
Yes, there is an element of frustration. Last night confirmed that on our day we’re one of the best teams in the league, but we just haven’t been consistent enough. Yes, I can point to a catalogue of injuries, appalling officials, and not enough strength in depth because of the reduced budget, but we’re not on our own for some or all of the above.
But, it is still worth celebrating an excellent performance even if tinged with regret we haven’t been that good often enough. I still have goals for the season, the first being match or better last season’s 67pts in 10th place. My big goal is obviously straight wins to the end of the season, though I’m well aware even that won’t be enough for the play-offs. I doubt it’ll make any difference regarding our out of contract players though. Other clubs will already know who they’ll be interested in, it’ll be the same ones we want to keep - the last few games won’t make any difference to that.
Me... be cheerful!
It's as frustrating as a new manager bounce.
Could be worse, could be a Spurts supporter. One of the best stadiums (£1 billion) in Europe and they're in a nose dive en route to the Championship, I bet their finance director is having a few sleepless nights.
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Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 11:51 - Apr 11 with 2721 views
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 11:16 - Apr 11 by TAFKAT
Me... be cheerful!
It's as frustrating as a new manager bounce.
Could be worse, could be a Spurts supporter. One of the best stadiums (£1 billion) in Europe and they're in a nose dive en route to the Championship, I bet their finance director is having a few sleepless nights.
Indeed, dropped into the relegation zone by Wet Spam of all teams - Danny apparently enjoyed that one almost as much as our result.
Incidentally, the players out of contract and loans expiring on Graeson's excellent webpage https://www.coludata.co.uk/u-s makes grim reading come the summer bring-and-buy fire sale...
On holiday games no, we need to perform has every other team expect each other to . Finishing on a positive note is vital for the start of the next season, it gives those an easier platform for club and players to do well for a decent start
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 19:21 - Apr 11 by bwildered
On holiday games no, we need to perform has every other team expect each other to . Finishing on a positive note is vital for the start of the next season, it gives those an easier platform for club and players to do well for a decent start
As most of these players will probably be off in the summer, would we not do more good giving academy players a taste of proper football?
What's the point of playing loan players when our season is over? Unless we intend to sign Akachukwu, Back, Barbrook or Goodwin (god forbid) why help their careers? Why note help our own?
As Holloway implies, academy games are a waste of time, give them some league experience alongside senior pros when the pressure is off.
[Post edited 11 Apr 19:59]
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Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 20:24 - Apr 11 with 2607 views
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 19:49 - Apr 11 by TAFKAT
As most of these players will probably be off in the summer, would we not do more good giving academy players a taste of proper football?
What's the point of playing loan players when our season is over? Unless we intend to sign Akachukwu, Back, Barbrook or Goodwin (god forbid) why help their careers? Why note help our own?
As Holloway implies, academy games are a waste of time, give them some league experience alongside senior pros when the pressure is off.
[Post edited 11 Apr 19:59]
Back will return to Wycombe, let's face it he's not exactly a challenger for the squad, never mind the starting XI. I would like to think all of the remaining three would be options we'd be interested in, but I suspect it'll depend on the fortunes of their parent clubs. I accept he's taken a while to develop here, but Goodwin more recently has been putting in some very good performances for the U's. However, if Oxford are relegated, I'd imagine they'll want to keep him for League 1 football next season.
Barbrook would be absolutely nailed-on for me, but it would probably rely on the unpalatable truth that it would be dependent on Ipshit getting promotion to the Premier League. Similarly, I'd like to sign Akachukwu, but if Southampton don't get promoted to the PL, they'll probably keep him to loan out to a League 1 side next season.
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 20:24 - Apr 11 by wessex_exile
Back will return to Wycombe, let's face it he's not exactly a challenger for the squad, never mind the starting XI. I would like to think all of the remaining three would be options we'd be interested in, but I suspect it'll depend on the fortunes of their parent clubs. I accept he's taken a while to develop here, but Goodwin more recently has been putting in some very good performances for the U's. However, if Oxford are relegated, I'd imagine they'll want to keep him for League 1 football next season.
Barbrook would be absolutely nailed-on for me, but it would probably rely on the unpalatable truth that it would be dependent on Ipshit getting promotion to the Premier League. Similarly, I'd like to sign Akachukwu, but if Southampton don't get promoted to the PL, they'll probably keep him to loan out to a League 1 side next season.
I'm pleased for Goodwin if you are nominating him for the '2025/2026 Tom Hopper good performance' award.
I would argue that it's not good performances you need from a number 9, it's goals. I'd be happy with a chain smoking, goal hanging, lard-arse if he chalked up 25 a season, but 3 in 25 (and 3 in 38 for ST) is pretty hopeless in that position. It's more like the numbers you would expect from a centre back.
As always, a centre forward must be top of our shopping list this summer (after retaining the services of Payne, Lisbie, Anderson, Read, Edwards, Tucker, Iandolo & Macey).
Barbrook and Akachukwu would be a bonus but I think they are both destined for higher leagues.
[Post edited 11 Apr 21:03]
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Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 21:18 - Apr 11 with 2569 views
Robins to go bob-bob-bobbing along home with 0 points.... on 19:49 - Apr 11 by TAFKAT
As most of these players will probably be off in the summer, would we not do more good giving academy players a taste of proper football?
What's the point of playing loan players when our season is over? Unless we intend to sign Akachukwu, Back, Barbrook or Goodwin (god forbid) why help their careers? Why note help our own?
As Holloway implies, academy games are a waste of time, give them some league experience alongside senior pros when the pressure is off.
[Post edited 11 Apr 19:59]
As an example, Man City played our former academy star Ryan McAidoo in the FA Cup alongside seasoned pros, when he was aged 17, and he scored. What must that have done for his confidence?
If we have 1 or 2 kids that are half decent why not give them a run out in a proper game alongside experienced players. If we haven’t got anyone that’s worth a punt then why have we still got the academy?
We know what our first team can do and the loanees, we’re not going to learn anything about them.
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