Tuesday evening sees the return of football, following the weekend-long annulment as a mark of respect for the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II, as Colchester United are the visitors to The Poundland Bescot Stadium for a clash under the floodlights.
The U’s are managed by ex-player Wayne Brown who has had a few separate stints as caretaker manager in the past, along with a spell as manager of Maldon & Tiptree before assuming this job officially in January 2022. Since being appointed he has managed 32 games in charge, winning 12 of those, drawing 8, and losing 12.
The visitors head into the clash sitting 20th In League Two with just 1 win from their 7 league games, and a total of 5 points. They are on a winless run in the league that currently extends to 3 games, and head into the game looking to drag themselves a bit further up the table with victory here. They may have a slight confidence that they can get a result given our own woes at the moment.
Looking through their squad, there aren’t many household names or players that stand out, but of those that do, they are both strikers. Freddie Sears is in his second spell at the club following a 6-year spell at Ipswich Town in between, and Kwesi Appiah has just signed for the club on a season-long loan from Crawley Town. Appiah was on some Saddlers’ wishlists this summer.
Colchester United’s last six fixtures have been:
16th Aug - Bradford City (H) - Won 1-0
20th Aug - Leyton Orient (A) - Lost 3-1
23rd Aug - Brentford (CC2) (H) - Lost 2-0
27th Aug - Tranmere Rovers (A) - Lost 2-0
3rd Sept - Hartlepool United (H) - Drew 1-1
6th Sept - Brighton & Hove Albion (H) (PJT) - Won 2-1
Now looking at The Saddlers and we head into this fixture in a poor run of form. No wins in the last 5 league games, and no wins in the last 7 games across all competitions. Our last win was in the Carabao Cup against Swindon Town. We need a positive result to kick this slump to the kerb.
Since our last fixture, the club have made two more signings from the free transfer market, 17-year old Jonas Mukuna , who surely will be for the youth / reserve team, and ex-Chelsea player Jacob Maddox who is looking to get his career kick-started before it’s too late. Reports suggest that if he can get performing he could be a stand out player in the league, but based on the last few years he has a lot to do to get up to that level. Fingers crossed it works out for him and for us too.
Team news ahead of this game is the same as it has been for most of the season. There are no new injuries to report on, but there has been some positive movement on Liam Gordon who is now back training on grass, potentially just a few weeks away from being considered for selection.
Michael Flynn has had an extra few days with the players following the postponement on Saturday, which has given us a bit more of a rest too. With that in mind, who would you start in this game? Thoughts, as always, are welcome.
No disrespect to our visitors, but this is a fixture we should, and must, be winning, especially if we harbour ambitions of a top-half / play-off spot finish this season. Anything less than 3 points here would be extremely disappointing for anyone of a Walsall persuasion.
How many of you are going? Assuming the crowd will be relatively poor in comparison to others this season with it being a Tuesday evening and Colchester United not usually bringing that many anyway.
- Walsall Win
- Draw
- Colchester United Win
0 voters
.I just thought I’d try and be a bit more positive and with the way we played without reward last time out added with the fact the manager has had time to get stuck into them on the training ground we would win this one.There’s a strong possibility that you’ll be right though 
