You’re absolutely right in that the JobServe Stadium is never an easy place to go, and being a midweek and St Valentines we will probably not be backed by our usual volume of support. However it is these games and winning/drawing them that can be the difference between 7th and 8th or 9th.
A draw would do here if we can beat Newport and Crewe at home.
Just out of interest. Where is an easy place to go?
Nowhere?
Vale Park!
Not Salford
Or Stockport
Or Tranmere
Or Barrow
I wouldn’t say anyone is upset with a 1-1 draw with the leaders.
For me though the result highlights the issue which has stopped us from ever getting into the play offs which is our inability to kill a team off, see a game out.
This game will finish 0-0 I think as our new forwards continue to find their feet.
I’m taking a point here all day long with their upturn in form.
Saturday would be more of a game I’d be expecting 3 points.
… and we see the game out.
I meant more in terms of it in some eyes spelling the end of promotion hopes. I’ve seen many people writing it off when in actual fact it’s nothing of the sort….
On the subject of form and promotion hopes where I do think we are still in the mix, mainly due to how many teams are still in the mix, we do need to have some sort of improvement to our general play.
I’m sure I’ll get pelters for talking stats but I just went back over our last 12 league games and it’s quite worrying from a performance point of view…
In those 12 games we’ve scored 14 goals. That in itself is on the low side for anyone hoping to get promoted but when I looked at the creativity involved it’s worrying to say the least.
Of those 14 goals only 8 had a registered assist. Meaning others came from defensive mistakes, caught on the ball, misplaced headers, goal mouth scrambles….
Of the 8 assists, 3 were from set pieces. Knowles v Crawley for Hayden White, Hutchinson v Mansfield for Kinsella, and a penalty won by Kinsella.
The other 5 assists from open play were 1 by maddox and 4 from hutchinson !!
Meaning 5 of the last 8 assists were Hutchinson, one was a foul on kinsella in the corner of the box one was a free kick by knowles and the other a cross by maddox for Hutchinson…
That’s got to be to do with the style of play more than anything. We are relying on percentages and luck rather than final third entries and skill.
I’d take a point here considering their recent form and being away from home. Not sure if Maddox is ready to start but we desperately need some ball players in the middle of the pitch as well as Hutch to get back to his best.
Hopefully Alice Kinsella will be available for those games.
I’d say Colchester, based on their home record of W4/D6/L5 this season
Colchester have picked up a lot in the last couple of months though. They are 2nd in the form table over the last 10 games with 20 points. This is not an easy game.
Yes I agree that they are on a decent run now, but would argue with Crodley’s contention that it is never an easy place to go to. Must have been a doddle earlier in the season
Enough, that’s shallot!
I may be missing something obvious, but I can’t see how that could be definite unless you have assessed the last 4 (or 6?) fixtures of each of the teams likely to be in contention at that stage of the season and established that all combinations of their results would leave us at least 7th.
Please elaborate for me as I can’t get my head around it.
One of the positives from those last twelve games is that we’ve only lost twice.
We’ve only lost three league games since September and we’ve only lost one of the last seven home games.
Flynn sets us up to be hard to beat, which when you look at the run of games we’ve had in the last 3 months, i think we’ve done extremely well to still be in contention with the play offs.
Since we played Rochdale in October, we’ve only played one team below ourselves in the table including the FA Cup in Crawley, where we’ve played Wycombe, Carlisle, Carlisle, Doncaster, Swindon, Stockport, Mansfield, Stockport, Tranmere, Leicester, Salford, Northampton and Leyton Orient all in a row and have only lost two and only conceded more than one once.
The next five games will be the real indicator to what sort of team we are and where we intend to finish.