After coming to terms with there no longer being Sky Sports News on Freeview, I drove to the match. Yes, drove, as this year’s thingy cup generated so little interest in our neck of the woods that a bus was not viable. Along with the 150 or so brave souls who’d journeyed up from Essex, we cheekily sat on different seats, stood up, and generally lounged about as we watched the game get underway.

With the expected changes due to returns from suspension and run-outs for others, we lined up
Mignolet
Ferdinand Bramble Turner Bardsley
Campbell Catts Zenden Rico
Bent Wellbeck

Bolo and Rico spent a fair amount of the opening stages swapping places as we showed patience in our play, but it was Colchester who struck first, a shot from distance being comfortably collected by Mignolet after only 90 seconds. Bardsley worked down the left and crossed for Wellbeck’s header to produce the night’s first corner, then Campbell’s speed won another soon after, which Bent headed onto the top of the net. On 19 minutes, Mignolet did well to keep the ball in, and when Zenden collected the clearance, his ball to the edge of the box was met by the head of Bent, and the ball looped over the advancing keeper and into the net. I don’t think he’s ever scored from so far out. Why do I always forget to back the lad to score first? It must be the easiest money in the betting world.

Far from knocking the visitors back, the next two efforts, a header and shot from distance, came from them, but Bards came closest with a fierce daisy-cutter from the left which the keeper held well. It was then Zenden’s turn fire in from the left, this time a raking cross which evaded everyone. Despite all of this attempted clever play by us, by the 35 minute mark the visitors had produced more efforts than us, although Mignolet was in commanding form. Well, much more commanding than in previous games, anyway. On 37, Bolo was there again, curling in a free from wide on the right, which somehow went through the keeper’s hand and dropped nicely on Bent’s toe a yard or so out. 2-0.

Down at the other end, Mignolet produced a good punch then an outstanding tip onto the bar when a corner was headed back in, and we defended a couple more corners as the added one minute ran down. Worth the lead at the break? Yes, because we scored two of our chances while they didn’t score any of theirs. Simple as that.

No changes for the second half, and it was more of the same, with the visitors having lots of the ball but not being able to create anything good enough to break our defence down, while we did lots of things that almost came off. Zenden was pulling the string and Catts managed to keep his aggression the right side of the law. Having said that, we wasted a lot of simple balls with wayward passing, particularly out to the right. Mignolet produced another fine save after their Sean Thornton lookalike cut inside and fired in a low shot. Bent was caught offside a couple of times as he chased balls from Wellbeck in pursuit of his hat-trick, and Bardsley set Zenden away down the left, but the low cross was cleared from a couple of years out.

With 30 minutes to go, it was substitute time, and off went Zenden and Wellbeck for Reid and Waghorn. Andy, who’d been the reason for most of the applause at the changes, began spraying it about as we know he can. It might have been nice to see him and Bolo operating together, but that will have to be on another day. He took a return from Bent and saw his shot saved, then Waghorn cut in from the right and unleashed a thunderbolt with his left foot that thumped off the bar and over, Some goal that would have been. Rico did really well to keep the ball the right side of the left-hand touchline, but his cross to Bent was a foot too close to the keeper. That was it for Darren, as he was replaced by Colback, and we went one up front. That one got on the end of Richardson’s layoff but blazed over the top, three were added, and we ended up fairly comfortable winners. Comfortable but not spectacular, we did enough.

A spirited attempt by Colchester, who worked hard but lacked that little bit of quality which might have brought them a goal, and a tale of two keepers – ours having a sound game and producing a few good saves, while theirs made two errors with Bent at hand – fatal. It would have been nice had we produced some more incisive play, and scored a hatful of goals, but two was enough, we’re in the draw for the next round, and some of our “fringe” players got a run out. Waghorn showed that the goals he scored last season fro Leicester could well be repeated for us this year if and when he gets the chance, as he’s not afraid to shoot and has a spectacular shot on him. Reid showed that he’s probably our best option if we’re looking for someone to feed Bent from the centre of midfield, and Zenden can back this up from a more left sided position. Whether they can play together, or alongside Catts, remains to be seen, and whether they can do it in league games is another question.

Man of the Match will have to go to Zenden, as he produced the two “assists” for Benty to put away, and looks like the wise head our midfield could benefit from

Keep the Faith

Sobs' Book click here...