Colchester United vs Cambridge United

United line-up: Barrett, Chenery, Wilson, Ashbee, Foster (Marc Joseph 86'), Campbell, Rees (Rodosthenous 70'), Kyd, Taylor (Benjamin 72'), Barnwell, Beall.
Booked: Barnwell (foul 8'), Ashbee (foul 88').
Ref: P Rejer (Tipton).

[Keith Webb's match report] [Terry Wilby's match report] [My summary of media reports]

Keith Webb's match report:
Another game where once again United were at their best and then at their worst. A frustrating showing from the U's saw a lively start with lots of neat attractive passing football resulting in several good scoring chaces going begging (sound familiar?) before Barnwell pounced onto a loose ball to fire United into a deserved lead.

Then a repeat of what we have seen for the best part of the season so far, for some reason we cannot compete for a whole match and tonight was no different. Shortly after going in front and then missing a glorious chance to extend the lead the U's took their foot off the gas and faded badly, hitting aimless balls into the corners and switching to 'hoof-it' mode. Even so we looked comfortable but if you give a side two thirds of the pitch to pass the ball around in then it is inevitable that you put yourself under pressure. I have seen it so many times this season, we sit back and drop off, quite happy to let the opposition string six, seven, eight passes around our box with our defence standing around watching and our midfield standing around watching the defence stand about!

I still thought we might make it to half time as Colchester for all their possession were pretty clueless going forward. Then as United twice failed to make easy clearances the ball bounced out to Wilkins inside the box who flicked a deft shot over the defence and Barrett which just crept in under the cross bar. Colchester hardly had time to celebrate before the half time whistle went.

United started the second half the way they finished the first-dilly dallying around doing nothing in particular except stand around and watch the ball as it was passed about in front of them. Then seemingly out of nothing Wilkins clipped in another shot which went in via Barrett's left hand post with the United players all blaming each other for still leaving their brains in the dressing room. From then on the match fizzled and spluttered along with both sides looking like they'd rather be somewhere else, then Barrett made a complete hash of a speculative long shot, fumbling the powerful but straight shot into the net.

There was no coming back for United as they lacked the spark and passion to lift themselves out of the doldrums and although Jamie B marked an impressive(ish) return to the side with another goal you could just sense that it was all up for us. Strange substitution (again) by RM when he took Taylor off assumedly because he was tired and replaced him with Benjamin. This left an even more tired and completely ineffective Kyd on the pitch when Taylor may just have conjured up a goal against his old side.

Bringing on Marc Joseph for Foster was also a little wierd seeing as we spent the final ten minutes pumping the ball into the Colchester penalty area but with both of our tall players on the bench and Benjamin again demonstrating how to jump ten minutes too early for crosses it was pretty pointless stuff.

All in all lacklustre performance from United and proof of why we are where we are in a crap league. When we can play for 90 mins we will be a good side, we're not far off it now but we are still a player or two short of rising above the ordinary.

Keith

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Terry Wilby's match report:
Now I may have written this before, because again if we could play for 90 minutes we would have won easily.

Rees and Barnwell came in for the suspended Wanless and Butler. For the first 30 minutes or so we really dominated, taking the lead after 5 minutes with a Barnwell tap in from a Taylor knock back. At this time Colchester were down to 10 men as their #11 got an early injury, but came back soon after. He was later substituted. We had a number of good scoring chances, a kick off the line in the 13th minute, a looping header from Kyd just wide soon after, and some lucky defending helped Colchester.

For the last 10 minutes of the half we just couldn't seem to clear the ball far enough, Wilkins getting a lucky rebound off 1 of 3 defenders and his looping shot beat Barrett just before half time. Barrett had only 1 easy save to make in the first half pushing a low shot past the post. He flapped at a couple of deflected crosses, causing more problems than if he had left the way clear for one of our defenders to clear, but he got away with a free kick and a corner.

We continued the second half like the end of the first, unable to string passes together. Wilkins shot from a knock down from outside the penalty area and beat Barrett off the post after 3 minutes, 20 minutes later a 30 yard shot from Skelton was knocked into the net by Barrett when he seemed to have time to push it past. I was right in line with the shot which didn't swerve a lot, Barrett should have stopped it. A minute later we scored, a long ball through the middle was steered in past the 'keeper by Barnwell.

Rees was replaced by Rodostenous, soon after Benjamin came on for Taylor, later Marc Joseph replaced Foster. Although we pressurised, we couldn't make good chances. We had a couple of penalty claims turned down, first when Taylor was pushed when trying to get on the end of a cross, the second when Chenery was tripped. Towards the end one of their players took out Ashbee off the pitch after the ball had gone out for a throw, all he got was a booking. It was one of 4 bookings, Ashbee and Barnwell being for us.

Rees was reasonable, Barnwell scored twice but the rest of the time was in headless chicken mode, either running to the wrong places, or not moving at all. Kyd had a couple of runs, but nothing came of them, and is not yet back to his start of the season form. Taylor was almost always beaten in the air by one of their two big defenders. Chenery had a good match, defending reasonably but also got in a number of good crosses, in the CEN he only got a 5/10, I thought he was one of the better players on the night.

With 3 up front the midfield of Beall and Rees was not enough when Colchester put someone else in the middle. Where Butler would drop back and help out none of the forwards were able to do anything useful. If I were manager, I would have replaced Barnwell and Kyd with Benjamin and Rodosthenous in the second half, thus giving another midfielder and a better target man. Benjamin at the moment seems lost without Taylor to tell him what to do, he drifted out to the wings too often when he should have stayed in the middle.

One noticable point is that none of our players wanted to try a long shot, Wilson tried towards the end but was way off target. Perhaps in their rest period they can practice shooting from outside the penalty area. MoM is difficult as no-one was outstanding for the whole of the match, but I'll go for Billy Beall again for continually trying to get things going.

Ratings: Barrett 4, Chenery 7, Wilson 6, Ashbee 7, Foster 6 (Marc Joseph 6), Campbell 6, Rees 6 (Rodostenous 6), Beall 8, Barnwell 7, Taylor 6 (Benjamin 6), Kyd 6.

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Summary of media reports:
Roy McFarland was forced into making two changes - Jason Rees and Jamie Barnwell recalled for the suspended Paul Wanless and Martin Butler - but the hosts were heavily hit by injuries and the U's really should have capitalised in the first half. Jamie Barnwell looked lively and dangerous up front and put United ahead as early as the 6th minute, pouncing on a loose ball after a defensive mix-up and tapping in with his right foot. United could and should have gone further ahead when in the 13th minute Michael Kyd had a shot cleared off the goal line, and three minutes later John Taylor fluffed a chance to set Barnwell free when his pass went straight to a defender.

There were other opportunities in an opening half an hour in which United were easily on top, but instead of building on the lead we conceded a lot of possession to Colchester and allowed them back into the game. It was perhaps inevitable that the woeful home side would punish the U's and it was former United midfielder Richard Wilkins who equalised. He collected a bouncing ball and lifted the ball over the defence and under the crossbar with the last kick of the half.

It got worse after the break as Wilkins scored again in the 48th minute to stun the previously dominant United. His shot from ten yards hit the inside of the left-hand post and flew across the goal into the right-hand corner, leaving the Cambridge defence to hold an inquest.

Roy McFarland sent on fresh legs half-way through the second period, Trevor Benjamin replacing John Taylor, and ex-West Brom midfielder Michael Rodosthenous making his third appearance when he came on for Jason Rees. There were strong appeals for a penalty in the 61st minute when Taylor was pushed in the box and the 800 travelling supporters behind that goal howled for the decision, but the appeals were waved away.

Colchester extended their lead on 67 minutes when Alan Skelton tried his luck from fully 30 yards. Scott Barrett looked to have the shot covered but only succeeded in palming it into the net for one of his former clubs. United struck back within two minutes when Ben Chenery's right wing cross went in off Barnwell's knee, but failed to break down the weak home side and needlessly gave away the three points which had been there for the taking.

United remain 15th in the table but wasted the opportunity to climb to 13th on 34 points, which is where Colchester now sit.

Before tonight's East Anglian derby at Colchester Roy McFarland was mulling over his choices of replacements for the suspended Paul Wanless and Martin Butler. Jason Rees was the favourite to replace Wanless in midfield, but the manager has options up front to replace top scorer Martin Butler

He told today's Cambridge Evening News: "I could do a straight swap by bringing in Trevor Benjamin, or I could use either David Williamson or Michael Rodothesnous behind the front two. I also have to consider whether John Taylor has the legs to be in the starting line up again, after some hard games lately.

"This isn't going to be any easier. Colchester are having a patchy time, but it's a bit of a derby match and they have a pretty good home record. We started the second half of the season well by beating Orient, and we have to start picking up more points away."

Many thanks to Keith and Terry for their reports and ratings.

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