15th October 2022
Swindon Town vs Colchester United @ The County Ground - Swindon
EFL League Two
15:00 KO
£25 entry
Attendance - 8,632 (257 away fans)
Half-time score: Swindon Town 0-0 Colchester United
Goal:
Swindon Town: Shade - 64'
Brief match highlights are on YouTube, see link below:
Final Score: Swindon Town 1-0 Colchester United
Despite growing up in Reading, I have never been to The Country Ground as Reading and Swindon haven't been in the same league for decades, and have never met in any cup games, but following the U's has given me the chance to get down. I drove down to Reading on the Friday night and nipped across on the train on match day, was only a 25 minute ride on the Great Western train, nice and easy.
Exiting the train station you are greeted by two decent looking pubs, the Queens Tap and The Great Western Hotel. On the hunt for some Arkell's beer I went into The Great Western Hotel and got a pint of 3B, was a really pleasant best bitter, and effortlessly drinkable.
I met a group of Col U fans and joined them to go to The Merlin pub and had a few before heading up the road, and crossing the Magic Roundabout to The County Ground, an classic, old-school ex-Premier League ground. I picked up a programme from a booth, was great to see a nice thick glossy one on offer for £4, they are very much alive and well in Swindon.
Once in, they had an impressive array of huge Cornish pasties on offer, so when in the West Country....I went for a chicken, bacon and leek pasty and it was lush, the thick buttery pastry soaking up the alcohol nicely, easily a solid 9.5/10.
Getting to the stand I was struck by the openness of the ground with some panoramic views of Swindon and the surrounding Marlborough Hills bathed in the autumn sun. Before too long, both teams came out in their home colours, Col U in blue and white stripes, and Swindon in red.
KEY MOMENTS
ST = Swindon Town
CU = Colchester United
18' - ST - Williams chips a ball over the backline to Jephcott who makes a well-timed run, he is through on goal, takes a nice touch and half-volleys the ball, it looked to be a certain goal, but Hornby comes off his line quickly and makes a brilliant stop with his legs, cracking save.
61' - CU - Col U break quickly with Chilvers releasing Nouble down the left, he runs the whole length of the pitch, cuts inside to be through on goal, and with the goal begging and the keeper rooted to the floor, he aims for the far top right corner of the goal, but gets too much on the ball to blast it narrowly wide.
64' - ST - GOAL (1-0) - What looks like a tackle in midfield from Noah Chilvers rockets out to the right wing, Williams latches onto it and bursts down the right, he pings in a cross to the far post, Chambers is in front of Shade and all he had to do was tap it out, but somehow it went through his legs and this takes Slade by surprise, and his reaction side footed tap of the ball creeps in slowly across the face of goal, all-in-all a calamitous but fortuitous goal and another huge error from Chambers....The Col U fans certainly made their feelings clear.
Certainly not a vintage game, in all honesty, both teams were terrible, but Col U were a particularly poor today. Whilst the goal conceded was one of the worst goals I've ever seen, and it was frankly an embarrassment to lose in such a way, I'm not sure if they really deserved a point with only 1 real decent chance in the game. New manager, same old shit, 4-2-3-1 and no idea - something is rotten at the club. However, I won't dwell on this as it is well documented, and overall I had a great time travelling down to Swindon, and sharing some banter with the Col U lads, enjoying good beers and tucking into a gorgeous West Country pasty, with another decent ground ticked off, a characterful old school one at that. Another unexpected highlight was the view from the away stand, whilst Swindon itself isn't the nicest place, the surrounding Wiltshire countryside is. Hoping the U's get a good FA Cup draw on Monday, and that things get better, they can't get any worse! UP THE U's!!!
Line-Ups:
SWINDON TOWN: Sol Brynn, Remeao Hutton, Mathieu Baudry, Tom Clayton, Frazer Blake-Tracy, Ronan Darcy, Saidou Khan, Ben Gladwin (C), Jacob Wakeling, Luke Jephcott, Jonny Williams. SUBS: Ellis Iandolo, Louis Reed, Ricky Aguiar, Conor Brann, Tyrese Shade, Morgan Roberts, Ciaran Brennan.
COLCHESTER UNITED: Sam Hornby, Al-Amin Kazeem, Tom Dallison, Luke Chambers (C), Junior Tchamadeu, Marley Marshall-Miranda, Cole Skuse, Noah Chilvers, Luke Hannant, Freddie Sears, Frank Nouble. SUBS: Ryan Clampin, Alan Judge, Kieran O'Hara, Tom Eastman, Alex Newby, Dan Chesters, John Akinde.
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