Those people who were saying before we sold him that Matt Fryatt was over rated must be eating their words this morning, as we could have still been playing now and not have scored, despite the chances made. However, that wasn’t the whole story.

Merson, unsurprisingly, decided to give home debuts to all of his January signings, but it probably turned out to be at least one change too many, in the interests of consistancy. The Saddlers lined up Murphy, Pead, Gerrard, Roper, Fox, Wright, Leary, Smith, James, Timm and Constable, with Oakes, Westwood, Osborn, Atieno and Standing on the bench.

Walsall started off reasonably brightly, but the half soon became somewhat disjointed, as the two midfields battled for domination. James was looking particularly lively, but kept having to come inside onto his right foot, which negated some of his threat. Constable, having proved he could take chances against Blackpool, now was proving he cannot lead the line, though, as any early balls were just coming straight back at the midfield. Leary got a warning from the ref early on and was not “getting his foot in”, so, to me, he and Smith looked too similar and there was little creativity coming from the central midfield pair. Timm? Always tried too much and was almost completely ineffective, although he had one very good first half shot deflected wide..

Clear cut chances were difficult to come by in the first 45, but Constable managed to miss a header completely from a Wright cross, when he should have done far, far better and James had a header well saved. The best chance of the half, however, came when Pead lost his man on the far post at a set piece, Murphy made a tremendous parry and Colchester’s “star” man, Danns, contrived to miss an open goal.

All in all, however, Walsall could have counted themselves a little unlucky to go in only level.

Colchester strated the second half brightly and Iwelumo had the ball in the net, only for it to be ruled out for a push. The Saddlers started then to get a measure of control, however, as Timm, obviously frustrated at his lack of possession, started to drop much deeper and was getting better quality ball. As he did so, however, the supply to James, especially, dried up and he was a spectator for much of the next period of the game. Timm’s greater effectiveness, however, was about to result in Merson making the first of two decisions that were to change the game.

In an attempt to change things around, Merson decided to take off Constable, who had been looking out of his depth, trying to lead the line, and replaced him with Atieno. This wasn’t a bad move in itself, but backed him into a corner, as would be seen later.

Anthnoy Gerrard then decided to show his midfielders how it was done, as he went on a tremendous run worthy of his cousin, got a superb return ball from Timm, but, unfortunately, finshed like his centre back partner, as he put the chance wide.

Merson then made his second substitution, one which was really to have an influence on the game. He decided to take Timm off, despite his growing influence, and, as he had no other strikers on the bench, brought on Standing, when, of course, what we really needed was to be able to play two “up top”.

Almost before we had time to assimilate the formation and who was going to play where, Colchester got another corner, played the near post header yet again, everyone missed it and Danns was there to side foot the ball home.

Walsall’s response was immediate, as they threw players forward. Smith got burst into the box and put a ferocious shot narrowly wide, getting a deflection in the process. The one advantage of Timm going off was also that the wingers were getting more possession again and twice in a minute, James got free to put the ball across the six yard area, without a single Walsall player being in it!

Eventually, our profilgacy was punished when another near post corner was headed on by Halford and Iwelumo was on hand to nod the ball home from close range.

All in all, this was a deeply frustrating game, in that chances were made and not taken. However, that isn’t the whole story. Colchester has far too much possession in the final third and were kept at bay only by the magnificent performance of the two centre backs, yet again. Whether it was because of Leary being warned by the ref early on or not, the centre backs were not getting enough cover from midfield and, certainly, the full backs were not getting anything like enough protection from their wingers. That meant that Roper and Gerrard were always under immense pressure and the slightest lapse of concentration would be punished.

A new striker (and preferably two) is the over-riding priority, however, and cover for left wing would be a help, as I’d love to see James playing down his stronger side. The other results below us in the table were particularly unfortunate yesterday and we are now 16th and just 6 points above the bottom four and nine behind the last play off place. Unless we start looking like taking our chances, this season could yet go pear shaped again.

As Albert says on Rivals, let’s also give some credit to the Us for a “Graydonesque” performance. After all, neither of their goals were anything special, they are just the “kind organised teams score” and, I hasten to add, we don’t.