17th February 2024
Colchester United vs Accrington Stanley @ Colchester Community Stadium
EFL League Two
15:00 KO
£21.50 entry (includes a complimentary programme)
Attendance - 3,436 (118 away fans)
Half-time score: Colchester United 1-0 Accrington Stanley
Goals:
Colchester United: Chilvers - 40'
Accrington Stanley: Harbottle (OG) - 80'
Brief match highlights are on YouTube, see link below:
Final Score: Colchester United 1-1 Accrington Stanley
Another big game down at Col U, as they desperately search for an elusive first home win of 2024. Despite the lack of wins, the performance of the U's has certainly improved since the Cowley's took charge, converting losses into draws, but now is the time to convert these draws into wins to get some distance from the dreaded drop zone. Todays opponents are the famous Accrington Stanley, sitting slap bang in the middle of the table, but remarkably only 2 points from the play-offs, they certainly had a lot to play for, so another big test for the re-building U's, but a game they would surely be fired up for.
On the front cover of todays programme was the returning Owura Edwards, with Jay Mingi in the centrefold.
It was a mild, calm and dry winters afternoon, perfect for a game of football. Onto the rain damaged pitch, Colchester United lined up in their home blue and white stripes, with Accrington Stanley in their home red strip, with their away kit being sky blue and white stripes, an obvious clash.
KEY MOMENTS
CU = Colchester United
AS = Accrington Stanley
11' - CU - Another week in League 2, another s**t referee. Some great work by Fevrier down the left sees him winning a corner, but the referee gives a goal kick. Fevrier touched the ball after it went out in an attempt to take a quick corner........
13' - CU - The midfield opens up for Harbottle, he strides forward and shots from 20yards, his dipping strike tipped over the bar by Vitek.
14' - CU - Ali Smith chips a neat ball into the box, Akinde gets up and connects with the ball, his headed effort flashing wide of the far post.
15' - CU - Ali Smith has a chance to strike from 20yards, but the bungling ref gets in the way, and the chance goes begging......
37' - CU - Col U are awarded a free-kick deep along the right-flank. Chilvers sends the ball across, captain Connor Hall pings it back into the mixer but Hopper cannot keep his effort down to head over.
39' - CU - Col U pressure the right-flank, the Accrington Stanley defenders hits the ball towards keeper Vitek and the keeper collects under pressure. Despite it being a blatant backpass, the hopeless referee and his linesman don't even bat and eyelid.......
40' - CU - GOAL (1-0) - Chilvers picks up the ball on the right wing, cuts inside, Accrington captain Conneely grapples with Hopper and goes down, this opens the space for Chilvers to stride into and from 20 yards out, with his left-foot, he scoots in a low, skimming ball that tucks into the bottom left corner to beat Vitek, what a wonder strike!
46' - AS - RED CARD - A moment of madness from Accrington wing-back Brad Hills, in what is at least the third elbow of the afternoo, this one being super-blatant (and it had to be with this ref) as he swings at Hopper as the ball goes out, leaving the referee with no choice, about time one was spotted.
51' - AS - Substitute Adekoya has a speculative strike, it skips wide, bounces off the support post then into the diving Goodman. Inexplicably, Accrington are awarded a corner, just when you think you've seen it all!!
59' - AS - Substitute Adekoya pulls Harbottle to the ground, and wins a free-kick in a dangerous position, I'm lost for words at this point....
69' - CU - Chilvers goes on another jinky run and shoots just outside the box, but his effort flies over the bar.
72' - AS - Lively substitute Adekoya tries to curl the ball in from the left, it is struck well but flies wide of the post.
80' - AS - GOAL (1-1) - One of the most horrendous own goals I've seen, an innocuous ball is crossed in by Mellor, Harbottle is in acres of space to clear, but he stabs the ball towards the goal, where Goodman had inexplicably come off his line, and the ball unceremoniously drops into the net, bloody shambles from the both of them.
That has to be one of the worst 2nd half performances I have ever seen from Col U, and one of the worst refereeing performances, I swear the official down in Step 5 are better. Only Col U can be 1-0 up, one man-up and completely on-top, and still cock it up! Whilst the defensive performance was good on the most-part, they give away at least one big chance a game, todays one being absolutely calamitous, and despite Harbottle turning it in, Goodman is also culpable as he needs to be more vocal, the jury is certainly still out on him and I think Hornby deserves a chance. There is also a striker issue, we aren't converting when on top, whilst Hopper and Akinde work hard, they score 1 in 5 at best, the team is certainly missing Joe Taylor (gone) and Samson Tovide (injured). To demonstrate this, Hopper had a golden chance to strike inside the box, but instead he elected to square to Fevrier and the chance went begging, he should have had a crack. This game was crying out for some pace up front, so I don't really know why Ihionvien wasn't given a run out. One big plus was Noah Chilvers, he was back to his lively self and his goal was absolutely magic. With this draw, the Cowley's are still waiting for their first home win, the team is certainly battling harder, but quality is lacking, I think they must now realise what a big job they have on their hands, the rot runs deep! The U's are a bloody frustrating team, but I will be back, with the home game against top of the league Stockport County pencilled in, in that game, I would be delighted with a draw to say the least, UP THE U'S!!!
Line-Ups:
COLCHESTER UNITED: Owen Goodman, Jayden Richardson, Riley Harbottle, Connor Hall (C), Ellis Iandolo, Noah Chilvers, Alistair Smith, Jayden Fevrier, Cameron McGeehan, Tom Hopper, John Akinde. SUBS: Conor Wilkinson, Owura Edwards, Jay Mingi, Tom Dallison, Matt Jay, Sam Hornby, Bradley Ihionvien.
ACCRINGTON STANLEY: Radek Vitek, Connor O'Brien, Lewis Shipley, Kelvin Mellor, Brad Hills, Ben Woods, Seamus Conneely (C), Josh Woods, Tommy Leigh, Jack Nolan, Jake Bickerstaff. SUBS: Dan Martin, Leslie Adekoya, Lewis Trickett, Sebastian Quirk, Aaron Pickles, Alex Henderson, Jack McIntyre.
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