A late night and an early start have given me plenty of time to reflect on last night's crunch match against Colchester United. Not a classic match by any stretch of the imagaination but one that was thoroughly watchable and engrossing for all that.
No great surprises about the side that was put out although Lloyd Sam can consider himself lucky not to have started on the bench. He had another less-than-satisfactory display in my books in spite of providing the cross of the match for Nicky Forster to show us just how predatory he can be given the opportunities. Nicky Bailey was wasted out wide on the left once again and if Parky feels he needs to start with Racon and Semedo in the middle, I would expect to see Bailey switched quicker than he was yesterday if we want to up the ante in games.
Our third clean sheet in four and credit must go to the back four who all played very well and as a unit. Dailly and Richardson were superb. We shouldn't ignore Darren Randolph in all of this - he has conceded only one goal in four and half games and that was following a defensive error.
Upfront remains our biggest weakness and it becomes more visible with every showing. Akpo Sodje looks far better as an impact substitute than than a starter although we created very little for him and Forster to attack. Akpo did at least come close with our second-best effort of the match when he cut in and unleased a ferocious drive which veered away from the far post rather than towards it.
We knew what to expect from Colchester in terms of big and strong and that's exactly what we got. Hard-working is Aidy Boothroyd's mantra and they did that although it was often atv the expense of any genuine guile or class. They created very little either as a consequence and the nearest they came was from Kevin Lisbie's early shot which was parried into the path of an offside colleague who saw his tap-in rightly ruled out. Other than that, they managed to panic us in the last five minutes of added time but the result is what they deserved and I think they will miss out on the play-offs. Perhaps some footballing justice if that's the outcome.
I missed the Lisbie incident that resulted in him being dismissed so obviously was a bit non-plussed at his departure. I also missed the reported spat between the respective managers but it can't have been all that?
The crowd was dispapointing in terms of being sub-18,000 but it looked closer to 10,000 at kick-off although the latecomers made it like nearer the reported 17, by the end. I am expecting us to break the 20,000 barrier aagin on Saturday as we host the largest attendance of the season so far. If the O's can see of Norwich then we should be confident of doing the same. The results of others might be of more interest if we can do the business on Saturday. Otherwise, last night's win should at least have made our play-off place secure.
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