12th February 2022
Colchester United vs Carlisle United @ JobServe Community Stadium - Colchester
EFL League Two
15:00 KO
£20 entry (pre-booked - includes programme)
Attendance - 2,664 (242 away fans)
Half-time score: Colchester United 0-0 Carlisle United
Goals:
Carlisle United: Patrick - 51'
Colchester United: Smith - 69'
Colchester United: Wright - 74'
Carlisle United: Sho-Silva - 86'
Brief match highlights are on YouTube, see link below:
Final Score: Colchester United 2-2 Carlisle United
The big fixtures are coming thick and fast for Colchester United as they battle to maintain their status as a football league club, and today was no exception, a crunch tie with fellow strugglers Carlisle United, three points behind Col U at the start of the day. Col U were in a good vein of form since sacking Hayden Mullins and bringing in a familiar face in interim manager Wayne Brown, although I must admit I raised an eyebrow as his last stint did not go very well. But since then, they have picked up a lot of points, including a famous 3-0 victory away at Salford City in front of Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes etc. In contrast, Carlisle were on a bad run, therefore, Col U had to be targeting 3 points to help move them away from the relegation zone.
Since I last saw Col U against Barrow, they had signed some new players, including Miles Kenlock, Owura Edwards, Sam Hornby, Tyreik Wright and big John Akinde, a player I was looking forward to seeing as I think he could link up well with Sears, but I was disappointed to hear that he was injured and not making an appearance today.
At the ground, as per usual I paid the £3 at the park-and-ride and walked over the A12 to the stadium. I picked up the complementary programme, this time a great picture of Judge and Tchamadeu celebrating a goal on the cover, and with a nice poster of Judge in the centrefold, probably my favourite Col U player this season after Freddie Sears.
I ordered the obligatory 'footy scran', this time going for a Chicken Balti pie. It was a Pukka Pie, so decent but forgettable and a little dry. On the whole, the food at Colchester is just that, passable. I need to try the burger van down Stadium Way next game.
The home crowd seemed larger than the last few games, and there was a sense of anticipation in the crowd I had not felt this season. The away stand was light, but Cumbria is one hell of a journey so I can see why, so fair play to the fans who had travelled. My seat was on the top row behind the goal, a great vantage point, with a nice ledge to stick my programme and drink.
After the game had started, the feeling of anticipation seemed to ebb away as the minutes ticked by, it was abundantly clear why both teams were near the bottom of the football league, the play was very poor from both sides, although Col U did have a great chance in the 8th minute to open the scoring. Following a Col U corner, the ball fell at the edge of the area, and Owura Edwards flashed a really well struck volley just over the bar. There was nothing else of note until the final ten minutes of the half when Col U stepped it up a gear to try and go into the break in the lead. In the 37th minute, a Col U free-kick bobbled around the box and Eastman hooked the ball over the goal. In the 39th minute, my two favourite players linked up, Judge threaded a ball through to Sears, but his strike went over. In the 41st minute, Col U had a free-kick in a dangerous position, and Judge curled the ball towards the top right corner, but keeper Mark Howard had anticipated this and got across well to catch the ball. The best effort in this period fell to an unlikely player, Cole Skuse, not usually one to have a strike on goal, but Tchamedeu laid the ball to him outside the area, and he unleashed a venomous side-footed strike heading for the top right corner of the goal, and was denied by the fingertips of Howard, and Sears was unable to make anything of the follow-up. Despite the general poor quality of the half, Col U finished strongly and were clearly the better side.
In typical fashion, in similar scenes to the Barrow game, Carlisle came out from the break looking a lot more alert, whilst Col U were half asleep. In the 49th minute, a simple ball scythed open the Col U defence, and the strike from Windsor forced a good save from Hornby, but they broke the deadlock in the 51st minute. Winger Omari Patrick attacked down the left flank, completely skinned Chambers, ran into the box and curled the ball into the far side of the goal, beyond the outstretched arm of Hornby, to put Carlisle 1-0 up. This was indicative of Col U's season, unable to convert when in front and lax at the back, and although it was a great strike, he had no right to run in from where he was, some poor defending from the experienced Chambers.
Carlisle had Col U pinned in, and were searching for a second goal, when a moment of pantomime broke up the game, and thankfully Carlisle's hold on the game. In a moment of frustration, a Carlisle player kicked and snapped a corner flag, queue several players trying to fix the flag, culminating in a groundsman running slowly across the pitch with a replacement, all-in-all I would guess 4 minutes were wasted, but it worked in Col U's advantage. On the restart, they immediately began to attack Carlisle, and in the 69th minute they broke through, Sears recylced a corner with a deft touch back into the fray, and captain Tommy Smith rose unchallenged and headed home, 1-1 and game on.
Col U struck again 5 minutes later, after more sustained attacking play, Edwards attacked the box, laid the ball back to Kenlock who chipped in a delicate ball to substitute Wright, who hit three consecutive volleys, the first two were blocked and the third flew in, bursting the net, top bins, third-time lucky! Being 2-1 up, from a goal down, the Col U fans were bouncing and Carlisle were on the ropes, the atmosphere was the best for a long time, and in the 80th minute, Col U nearly put the game to bed, Wiredu picked up the ball in the box, was allowed to turn and shoot, but his shot was wildly blazed over, he should have made the keeper work as a minimum.
In typical Col U fashion, they chucked all their hard work away, and in the 86th minute, Carlisle were allowed to counter-attack, Omari Patrick ran through the midfield and shifted the ball out to the right-wing to Riley, with absolutely no cover. He strode forwards, and as Kenlock sprinted hard to make up the ground, Riley easily side-stepped him, dinked the ball in to Sho-Silva, who was completely unmarked, and he scored an impressive diving header. Again more poor defending from Col U, and it looked like Skuse may have played him on again, holding his hand up in protest to no avail, similar to the goals I saw scored at Crawley.....Bit of a rant, but how does Skuse gets into the starting 11? I have seen him a few times now this season, he is too old and slow, passes sideways and backwards, disrupting Col U's flow, I would prefer to see Huws in that role, but instead he was brought on as replacement for Wiredu.
The final minutes were frantic from Col U as they besieged the Carlisle goal throughout the 7 minutes of added time, but Carlisle had all bodies back, and broke down all attacks, to earn themselves a valuable point to maintain touching distance with the pack.
That was a game that certainly feels like 2-points dropped, and I hope that they do not rue this at the end of the season. Carlisle were a poor team, but some incredibly lax defending, and not scoring when dominating play cost Col U big time today. I would say a point earned is a consolation, but this Carlisle team were really poor. Skuse needs to be put to pasture, and Chambers and Smith cannot play together, it is a shame that Dallison is injured, but any combination will work, just not those two! I also thought Wiredu looked a bit off, I think Chilvers could have done a job today, and why was striker Andrews not brought on when we were pressing for a goal? On the positives, Owura Edwards looked lively, Kenlock is a big improvement on Coxe, Judge and Sears are class, and Wright was bright when he came on. Some huge games are coming up, and I will back in a fortnight for the home tie against Oldham Athletic, another massive game, let's hope for a win this time. UP THE U's!!!
Line-Ups:
COLCHESTER UNITED: Sam Hornby, Tom Eastman, Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith, Junior Tchamadeu, Cole Skuse, Brendan Wiredu, Miles Kenlock, Owura Edwards, Freddie Sears, Alan Judge. SUBS: Miles Welch-Hayes, Luke Hannant, Corie Andrews, Gene Kennedy, Emyr Huws, Shamal George, Tyreik Wright.
CARLISLE UNITED: Mark Howard, Mitchell Roberts, Morgan Feeney, Dynel Simeu, Jack Armer, Corey Whelan, Jon Mellish, Joe Riley, Omari Patrick, Tobi Sho-Silva, Owen Windsor. SUBS: Magnus Norman, Danny Devine, Lewis Alessandra, Jamie Devitt, Jordan Gibson, Tyrese Omotoye, Kristian Dennis.
Kommentare