Just back

Hate the phrase but definitely a 'game of two halves'

After 45 minutes I was concerned what the final score might be but after a great header by Dizza we saw a totally different team. Boyce was by his own admission awful. Pearson was his usual reliable self but as far as defence was concerned Gowling was superb, tidying everything up especially in the second half.

Unfortunately left it too late before getting the second to threaten actually getting a point although the Colchester lot I was sitting with were getting twitchy. Once we played it to feet on the ground and stopped hoofing it up to the front two we looked good.

I thought the front two were poor Bogle did nowt all night until his deflected shot for the second and Jackson is just too lightweight and would like to have seen Vernon come on. Chambers was in and out of the game and Bolarinwa was fast but often failed to take the ball with him unfortunately.I like the two new full backs and Summerfield.

Colchester look very useful going forward but then in the first half we let 'em.

Nice ground, great facilities in the executive bar / restaurant but no jumbo haddocks. Had a long chat with Fenty again, in the car park not the bog this time, he really is a nice bloke and perhaps deserves better than he gets from us (me) on here.

Some unpalatable truths, I'm afraid.

Andrew Boyce is not a League Two footballer anymore. Just awful. I was in the long queue for tickets when their first goal went in. After that within twenty minutes Boyce made gaffe after gaffe, one having two easy chances to clear the ball but somehow managed to give the ball away and have to pull their striker back and got a booking. Then another rash challenge after a miscontrol followed when he could have easily got a second yellow. Then totally left the ball for Guthrie to score the second. I'm not kidding when I say that it was the worst thirty minute appearance in a Town shirt, and I've seen some bad ones. Not only was his performance bad it also pulled the rest of our back four out of position covering him. Shaun Pearson, any battle in a confined space there's no one better. Left on his own in a lot of space, he's very vulnerable unfortunately as I love his attitude.

Our central midfield is nowhere near good enough. Berrett and Summerfield neat and tidy but we've got what we've bought, a midfield pair from a relegated League Two side. Not quick enough, not strong enough, not disciplined enough when marking without the ball, and not clever or penetrative enough with the ball going forward. Dis, magnificent header for the goal, but I don't think he's going to be up to this league. Looked very slow compared to the Colchester midfielders. (Edit - Agree with Caesar, Post Number 6, in the fact that Dis did bring a bit of leadership and control second half to the team, just lost out on a few foot races though.)

And finally, we just don't look organised as a team. Without the ball we weren't picking up runners, with the ball we couldn't string too many passes together and resulted playing poor and hopeful balls to the front two. Not enough movement or guile. Not enough bravery on the ball. As a guide I'm guessing Colchester will finish around 6th to 11th this season.

We have to sort these areas out, if not I can't say for definite that we'll be safe. If we can sort these areas out we could have a really good and dangerous team for this level.

The positives, we've got a good keeper and full backs, Gowling superb, Chambers is a player, Bolinwra will be a good impact sub only for now, too raw at present, Jackson and Bogle ran their nuts off and showed glimpses of being unplayable on the rare occasion they got some decent service. On the whole the service they got tonight was woeful, we just weren't good enough to play through midfield consistently.

Having said all that, if the ref and linesman who were poor and one-sided all night, had like everyone else in the stadium seen the push on Bogle in the box at 3-1 with twenty five minutes to go, we might have wobbled them enough to get something undeservedly out of the game.

Colchester's new stadium is quite impressive, four individual stands with open corners that seemed to have a bit more character than the endless new stadium bowls that are getting built. Major traffic problems with only one road in and out of the stadium. Hopefully our new stadium if or when it happens will be designed better from an access point of view. Only three ticket windows open with a few hundred fans queuing as the game kicked off another bugbear.

Decent numbers of travelling support from Town fans again. Three away games in a week and I'm guessing around 400-500 made the trip. Magnificent for a long midweek journey.

Sorry I can't be more positive about the performance but i always try to say it how I see it.

Yes - that sums it up really well.

The Town support was penned into a small area on the side of one corner. The ground was pretty empty, having found how difficult it is to get into the ground you can understand why the people of Colchester don't go to watch their team play.

We thought we had scored right at the start with a well taken corner, but the problem was all about the defence. Just more dire defending meant we were 3-0 down, and there was a complete lack of leadership in the first half. If you were there on Saturday you'll know what I mean.

Come the second half Disley arrived and made such a difference, scoring within 3 minutes and getting us to play football. Much better, but all too late.

All the former York players make it obvious why York got relegated by the way.

The truth is that some of the current team aren't up to this standard. Bolinwara is just too raw and inexperienced at this level, Berrett goes awol too often and Jackson may be quick but he gets eased off by defenders too easily.

It's becoming obvious that we need two or three stronger players otherwise it will be a long hard season

At hotel in Bury St Edmunds

First half just awful, I thought it was going to be Braintree away again (the 5-0 one)

Don't let people blaming the ref fool you, true he wasn't great, and not helped by the linesman on our side who was often not up with play and thus missed a number of clear offsides, but that made no difference to the end result, and he could've sent Boyce off for a second yellow before he was subbed.

The key point to the shambolic first half defending was our attempt at zonal defence, which basically consisted of the back four standing in a narrow line across the 6 yard box allowing any number of tall players to get a run at them and set up chance after chance. It could well have been 5 or 6 nil at half time.

Second half better, more commitment, but still often second best man v man.

it's been said time after time, but we need a nasty full of energy centre midfield warrior, not easy to find I know  

Special mention to the travelling fans, fantastic again (loved the "your perm is shi*t" chant to one of their stewards, who did give a smile in response)  
They also gave the players a decent round of applause at the end, and to be fair to the team, subs, and PH they all came over and applauded the faithful

Hey, it's not the end of the world, but we need to learn fast or it might be a long and worrying season.

Seen all three games in the league and we seem to be getting worse or maybe the opposition are getting better.

I can only say the same as previous posters,

1ST half we were terrible much improved in the 2nd half,

We have got a lot to learn if we want a successful season,

Good points about tonight Davies is class,

I thought Bogle worked hard tonight without looking dangerous until his goal,

In fact if he had scored it 10 mins earlier we might have got something out of the game,

Nice ground we could do with one like it,

Highlight of the evening was Luna my 7 year old great granddaughter enjoying her 1st ever Town game and she is looking forward to her next game,

So another mariner joins the club.  FISH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in London and a very disappointing game.  We can point to the final scoreline but in truth the game was dead at half time and I know I was lucky enough to see us turn around a 2-0 deficit at Aldershot last year but it was never going to happen tonight.  

The first 2 goals we conceded were soft in every way.  From a corner we didn't clear the first or second ball and so when it popped up to a player free on the edge of the area it wasn't a surprise sadly.  Their 2nd coming straight from a throw in was embarrassing although not as embarrassing as Guthrie having to taunt Town fans.  I can get being frustrated at losing a playoff final but if you sod off to pastures new at the first chance you get you don't get to carry those scars with you imo.  Their 3rd came from some good play to be fair but they had all the confidence in the world by that point after we gave them 2 cheap goals.  I think we will concede many goals this year, we are a level up and seem to be trying to press higher,  I can accept that, but conceding the first 2 the way we did was so poor.  

In the 2nd half Dis gave us some much needed fire and was class. Don't agree with Bigdog that he was slow compared to Colchester's midfield tbh and thought he added a control to our team.  A friend who sat in the Colchester end was bemused why he didn't start until I explained the injury.  Thought we had a clear penalty denied that could of made it 3-2 but if we had got that think Colchester would still have won as pace on the break would have undone us sooner or later had there been more riding on it.  

I think we will be fine this season but need to work out our first choice team and stick to it a little, we seem to be a team of many good individual parts at times, but who don't know how much we can rely on each other as a team at times.  Think that will come though.  

The atmosphere was very flat even before Colchester's goals but did pick up in the second half, that was another disappointment to me although think 3 consecutive away trips probably had an impact on that.  

Finally the ref was awful I thought, only gave home decisions all night long.  He has not improved since the Scott Nielson sending off at all although he was arguably lenient with us in not sending off Boyce before he got subbed.  I don't think he was directly to blame for the result as even if he gives us the peno claim I think Colchester could of won, but he was very poor.

So a very disappointing night but still on we go! UTM

Disagree about the OP's comments on Bogle. For me he got a good share of the balls up against a very close (and 'overly-familiar' centre half - in most walks of life Bogle would have been able to make a sexual harassment claim). He did do his thing of moaning to the ref when badly done to instead of chasing back (leave that to us Omar, that's our job).

Chambers seemed to be occupying the Mackreth role with that invisible elastic not stretching far beyond the half-way line. Bolarinwa just made me think 'why?' - I've not seen much evidence of his vaunted pace in the 3 league games. Berret and Sommerfield were 'meh'. Jackson was subdued.

They ran rings round us for much of the first half, and when they couldn't they fell over and the ref gave them everything they appealed for.

Disney came on and changed things. Wow! Great header!

The ref and lino 'missed' an obvious push on Bogle in the six yard box soon after Dizza's goal. I say 'missed'. They must have ignored it but somehow forgot to book Bogle for diving - maybe not even this ref ha that much front. In fact I'm not saying he's a lady part but I bet he's had some smoke bombs stuffed up him.

Just back and many on here are not going to like this. We are going to struggle this season if this performance  is anything to go by. Boyce was ok while on loan in none league and that is about his standard. We have signed players who got relegation and you can see why. A forward line who are too in experienced. On a positive we have a good right back and fair keeper who needs an understudy to push him not the coach.we have a few others who can hold their own, in my eyes holding their own isn't good enough.
PH signed this shower so only his self to blame. Unless he can sort things out by Christmas his present could be his P45.

You can't give 2 goals away as we did to a side which was more together front to back and pacy with it
They played thro midfield not hoofed it to a centre half who won just about every header he got
Our 2 goals were fantastic - Dis's in particular and I thought then if we nicked another could be game on but they just kept the ball in our half mostly and Omar's was just a consolation unfortunately