City 0 – 0 Colchester United
City’s poor home form continued with a 0-0 draw at the Walkers Stadium on Saturday. Make no mistake this was not a good game and the boos at the final whistle were well deserved. Colchester set out to make it difficult for City on the back of a good run but both sides were lacking in the quality required to score.
Free tickets swelled the attendance to over 22,000 but the biggest home crowd of the season were sadly subjected to a performance as bad as anything we have seen since the summer break and certainly were not entertained.
Conrad Logan played well for a clean sheet on his home debut and with some excellent kicking reminded everyone what City lack with Henderson or Douglas play in goal. McAuley also had a decent debut at the back but it is further forward that City looked desperately weak.
Fryatt could have scored a couple on another day and O’Grady tried to put himself about but it was a lack of chances created, and City’s complete and at times embarrassing inability to keep the ball which was cause for concern and reduced the game to mediocrity. With brief spells of respite there was no rhythm to the play, no movement off the ball, no support for the strikers, no incisive passing, no creativity and certainly no goals….
Highlights of the game were few and far between, although City did have the better of the opening few minutes with O’Grady shooting just wide and Fryatt having a shot blocked after a good take from a Logan goal kick.
Logan's First League start after impressing in the Cup with his kicking adding an extra dimension (picture courtesy of Raymonds/lcfc.com)
Levi Porter kept the ball fitfully on the left on the rare occasions he was given it, but a lack of options and a reluctance to really run at the defence rendered him ineffective overall.
On 31 minutes O’Grady went down in the box but the referee was not impressed and gave nothing. He then ended the first half with a string of bizarre decisions that had both sides looking confused, notably after 39 minutes when a blatant foul on O’Grady was rewarded with a free kick to Colchester.
By half time City had had a single shot on target and had rarely threatened the Colchester goal. The fans who hadn’t braved the concourses at half time were treated to Muzzy Izzet treading the turf at the Walkers stadium once more, the majority of them I bet sharing similar thoughts – if only he was playing for us this afternoon. His brother Kemal had a decent game for Colchester and gave the City defence something to think about throughout the game.
Colchester began the second half well and won two corners in succession as the City defence backed off, one being cleared off the line by Logan. Rob Kelly sent on Josh Low for the anonymous Hughes only 12 minutes after the break, however the change failed to significantly strengthen the midfield and didn’t prevent Andy Johnson’s play going from poor to frankly embarrassing with some appalling, lazy distribution of the ball.
The fans were treated to some display of effort when Hume came on for O’Grady, and Low had possibly the only clear chance of the game after 68 minutes but somehow looped his header over the bar from 5 yards.
United continued to press City when they could but rarely threatened Logan’s goal. Then on 80 minutes Hume ran through onto a long ball from Johansson but with only the keeper to beat couldn’t get there before Davison cleared.
With the pre match atmosphere ruined by high volume outdated music, the horrendously “revamped” post horn gallop and with the game itself rarely threatening to provide the supporters with any level of entertainment, going to watch City at home is rapidly becoming a severely uncomfortable experience.
Although in our current plight three games without defeat is not to be sniffed at, on this kind of form City will again be in the bottom three at Christmas and again we will be staring relegation in the face. Over to you, Rob.
City: Logan, Kenton (Stearman 62), McAuley, McCarthy (c), Johansson, Hughes (Low 57), Wesolowski, Johnson, Porter, O'Grady (Hume 67), Fryatt. Subs not used: Henderson, Tiatto.
United: Davison, Halford, Baldwin, Brown, Barker (White 79), Garcia, Watson, Izzet, Duguid (c), Cureton, Iwelumo. Subs not used: Jackson, Gerken, Guy, McLeod.
Referee: Clive Oliver (Northumberland), Attendance: 22,449
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation