Dropping like a stone. Yes 9 points ahead but we have a game in hand and we have to play them at home

They do say always 1 that gets dragged in and yes we can only control our own fate but over the next month we have some HUGE games, the barrow one of course, some winnable home games and tricky away ones. Gonna be a bumpy ride but we can do it. i believe

Stevenage aren't out of the woods and we have 3 in hand in them

Well said mate. UTM!

A new beginning, a new dawn and the only way is up

We need at least 2 teams as candidates for “the team that drops like a stone”.  Good.

Been keeping my eye on Colchester for weeks and they just keep losing. Mansfield and Port Vale have started to slip again after decent runs too.

It's all about keeping your nerve. Fans tend to look at the plight of their own team and always seem to overestimate the prowess of others down there in the mix. We don't have to improve by a massive amount to pull clear, because the other teams down there will lose far more than they win and we most likely will too.

What's done for us more than anything is not nicking enough draws to keep our heads above water. There are plenty of teams with only 6 or 7 wins all season, but they are not losing as many as us. It's so tight down the bottom that a couple of wins and draws will see any team rise quickly.

I'm still nowhere near the panic stage yet. Plenty of games to go and lot's of twists and turns to come.

Scunthorpe will start to drop now. They will soon start getting squeaky bum after their little bit of an upturn

They’ve sacked their manager tonight.

Arses twitching all over League 2 at the minute.

Quoted from Fillipe Noche

Scunthorpe will start to drop now. They will soon start getting squeaky bum after their little bit of an upturn

Little upturn? If WE won 4 on the trot I’d be doing cartwheels. They might have lost tonight but they’re safe as houses.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

They’ve sacked their manager tonight.

sodomist.

Now they will no doubt get a new manager bounce. :(

Still think it’s us, Barrow and Southend for the drop ( 2 from 3).
Paul will ensure it is not us imo - kip

Stevenage are dreadful. They are nowhere near safe.

So we need to see the big picture - not panic if we lose one (we will!) but steadily amass points and keep our eye on the total we need to stay up. If we get a win, a draw and a loss out of every set of 3 games we'll survive.

Every loss for Barrow and Southend is a bonus for us. And Colchester do look like they're doing their best to make the relegation picture more interesting.

UTM

Although the gap between the last relegation spot (us) and 16th (Scunthorpe) is 11 points, that's not a lot over a potential of 54 points to win/lose.  A few wins on the bounce and you're feeling pretty, as is the case up the M180, or a few defeats and you're looking over your shoulder nervously.

Glad there's a bit more positivity about the place after last night, but our horrible goal difference is effectively another point we need to make up.  Would be some effort to claw that back to those around us. Oddly, everyone else in our league seems to have decent goal differences when you compare across other leagues.   Ours and Southend is about what you would expect for teams in the bottom two. The three places above us are -6, -8 and -7 respectively.  In League One the bottom six have all got goal differences of -20 or worse.  In the Championship it's only rock bottom Wycombe who have a goal difference that's cast adrift from everyone else.

I don't think we're going to drag our goal difference back to a position that it matches those around us (Southend aside), or if we do then I'll be amazed if we end the season even giving relegation a second thought.  Essential we get points on the board and pull away from those places.  I can't stomach the final games worrying about how many we need to score or someone else needs to concede.

Playing Barrow is a critical game.  High stakes.

New Colchester Manager Wayne Brown was the manager of Isthmian League North Division side Maldon & Tiptree. Looks as if U's chairman took a leaf out of Fenty's book and went for a cheap option!

The league is terrible, top to bottom, all that has varied is the level of shitness and some teams have the ability to develop some consistency.

Colchester look to be desperate to join the relegation party; coincidentally, I may be wrong but didn’t they make some very knee jerk type decisions related to Covid much like us? Like I say I may be wrong but I seem to remember them furloughing everyone and his dog and essentially abandoning their youth system or something like that...

I suppose one thing we can be grateful to Ollie for is that he went when he did. Timing wise it allowed Hurst to delve into the transfer market. With the current game of Manager bingo in our league, any new incumbents only have the players they inherited to work with. Small mercies I suppose.

The best thing about Colchesters slide into the abyss is that they now have no choice but to play with what they have.

At least we knew we were shite early enough to at least do something about it in January

Suppose what we have to go and do now is get a result at harrogate. Credit to both barrow and southend who have gone away from home and picked up 3 points. Now we have to do the same

At the end of the day, if we win all our remaining games (Not going to happen, i know) we will stay up, no matter what others do.

It's about us getting enough points to stay up.

I understand the more teams in and around us, the better chance we have, but for now, we just do what we need to do, then worry about others when 4/5 games left IMO

Isn’t Wayne Brown the fella who came out with his support for the BNP when he was playing?

18 games left for us win 6 draw  6   lose. 6.  48 points will keep us safe.

I think we might do a little better than that.

Stay positive. :)

Quoted from grimsby pete

18 games left for us win 6 draw  6   lose. 6.  48 points will keep us safe.

I think we might do a little better than that.

Stay positive. :)

Begins at Harrogate, definite win for us. Crawley was the start of a good run. The team will know how bad the match was on Tuesday but get that win will give them a massive confidence boost

Quoted from DB

New Colchester Manager Wayne Brown was the manager of Isthmian League North Division side Maldon & Tiptree. Looks as if U's chairman took a leaf out of Fenty's book and went for a cheap option!

He's been at Colchester in the past as a coach to the under-18's and under 21's as well as being a former player there. I'm afraid it might be a rather good appointment and bad news for Barrow and Grimsby.

Quoted from pontoonlew

The best thing about Colchesters slide into the abyss is that they now have no choice but to play with what they have.

At least we knew we were shite early enough to at least do something about it in January

they can sign free agents .Southend signed 2 this week and beat FGR

Quoted from headingly_mariner

Isn’t Wayne Brown the fella who came out with his support for the BNP when he was playing?

Yes he is. I wouldn't have known but google reveals the story.

Quoted from Norseman

they can sign free agents .Southend signed 2 this week and beat FGR

It depends on how many players have already been registered as part of the post-January window squad. Barrow, for example, have two spaces available if Kelly wants to bring back in any of the players Jolley had furloughed. If Colchester have all twenty-two places for over age players filled then Brown will have to operate with what is already there.

I suppose one thing we can be grateful to Ollie for is that he went when he did. Timing wise it allowed Hurst to delve into the transfer market. With the current game of Manager bingo in our league, any new incumbents only have the players they inherited to work with. Small mercies I suppose.
Q WBJstrap :P

Exactly can you imagine if that idiot had been in charge after the transfer period

Quoted from Eastendmariner

I suppose one thing we can be grateful to Ollie for is that he went when he did. Timing wise it allowed Hurst to delve into the transfer market. With the current game of Manager bingo in our league, any new incumbents only have the players they inherited to work with. Small mercies I suppose.
Q WBJstrap :P

Exactly can you imagine if that idiot had been in charge after the transfer period

I'll say something controversial. I don't think we'd be in the relegation places right now if Holloway was still here. However I think our team would be worse and we'd probaby go down eventually.

Controversial and absolute bo.llocks. We’d be even more adrift

Quoted from pontoonlew

The best thing about Colchesters slide into the abyss is that they now have no choice but to play with what they have.

At least we knew we were shite early enough to at least do something about it in January

But their slide might be due to something recent which a new manager could change quickly.

The damage had been well and truly done, arguably before a ball was even kicked.

We were playing catch up from the start.

The league is poor, we know that but we were atrocious under Holloway, truly awful. Hurst has improved the quality but still has a mammoth task.

Colchester made some big decisions in the summer and I guess they’re reaping what they sewed. Can definitely see them being dragged in to it, similarly, I wouldn’t say Stevenage are out of it yet.

We’ve just got to win games...

All we need to do is match Southend's results and get 4 points from our games in hand to gaurentee we finish above them! And all we need to do is match Barrow's results and beat them when we play them and that's us safe!

Basically said we need to win as many games as we can including the Barrow game as that will be a must must must win game or at the very least a must not lose.

2-0 down.

Know it doesnt matter when we dont win but

FGR down to 10 men but you'd hope they'll see it out. They're very inconsistent though as Wednesday night proved.

Keeping an eye on the veggies vs Colchester scores, and hoping for the veggies to win. 😬
I feel dirty.

Doesn't matter what Colchester or Stevenage do if we don't win. They have too a sizable points cushion.

Port Vale are another team that is slipping down the table at an alarming rate. Once a team gets into the spiral it is difficult to get out of it,  as we well know.

Quoted from RonMariner

Doesn't matter what Colchester or Stevenage do if we don't win. They have too a sizable points cushion.

No way