Game 21 – Leeds

What a disappointment.  In reality Colchester never turned up for this one, even though a near capacity crowd turned out.  True, a third of them were from Leeds and they outsang the home support throughout.  Mind you they had more to sing about.

The video screen attempted to add some interest by showing segments of the match live.  I’m not sure what was happening with that but it was annoying when the clock disappeared and a bit of live ‘action’ was screened.  It looked like some of the home players were watching the screen rather than their own game at times.

In the first half a couple of strange things happened with the crowd.  First of all the Barside ‘patch’ in the top corner of E8 was empty.  It was almost like that area was haunted by the ghost of the former Barsiders and the Leeds fans were afraid of going near it.  Then at the other end of the stadium those ‘formerly known as E8’ seemed to be herded into a corner of the Not-so-Noisy-North.  I wonder what makes the hard core of the home support want to gather in a corner of a stand rather than in the middle like all the travelling support we’ve seen.  Is it something to do with the way they have been leaning against the Layer Road structures for years ?  Have their bodies adapted in some way to create a lean-to-the-left?

At least we have experienced something of a matchday event a couple of times in recent months with the visits of Southend and Leeds.  Sadly we seem to be getting on the end of a 0-1 scoreline all too often.  Seven times we’ve been turned over by this score at Cuckoo Farm and six more times we’ve conceded the first goal.  I’m sure that when I look at the video screen now it already has 0-1 etched onto it.  We need a screen saver!

In the second half I felt the urge to concentrate on the sky for quite a while.  There were some interesting cloud formations which helped to pass the time.  There were some fluffy movements and a little dark stuff to be seen, but I can’t remember now if that was the game or the sky – everything went into soft focus for most of the second half.

For a moment I was sure I saw a pig flying past and then it jumped over the moon, but of course I may have been mistaken.  It was difficult to concentrate when the video screen effectively gave me a second helping of not-very-much-at-all.  At least it gave me some time to think about the state of the nation, the financial climate, world peace, anything but football really.

I did glance back in time to see a bit of a cat-fight at one stage but it didn’t really justify the purchase of a ticket. By the time I got my camera out the handbags had been put away and the players had resorted to a spot of name-calling and nasty glances at each other.  I don’t even think the ref felt it was worth making any notes.  In fact if we were still there while I’m writing this blog later in the evening, and the away team are on their way home I don’t think Colchester would have got anywhere near an equaliser.  Oh well, it’s George’s boys next week.

Pre-match build up – Leeds

It’s a sell out. A full ground. Yes, really, this time we are assured it will be full.  Not ‘full’ like the under-19 international when just 9,692 turned up, but maybe something close to the 10,000 capacity.  The main difference this time will also be that the majority of the crowd will be cheering for club rather than country.  It’s Colchester v Leeds for the third time in 38 years. So far the results are both in our favour.  Crawford (2) and Simmons hit the net for the 3-2 cup win in February 1971.  In April 2007 Iwelumo and and Cureton got the goals that gave us a 2-1 result. Which pair of strikers want the glory today?  It should also be the biggest travelling support.  It might be argued that the result will potentially do more for Leeds than for us since it looks like our play-off hopes have been burned.  We have the chance to dent Leeds’ chances as well, in the hope that we can play them again next season.  We also have the chance of yet another double, having won the fixture at Elland Road in December last year when we attracted one of their lowest home league crowds, just under 20,000.

Elland Back

Away to Leeds and another new name in the starting line-up – Alan Maybury a former Leeds player, although his first team appearances amounted to a meagre 14 times in 6 years. The history between the two clubs won’t be lost on many people but it seems it was too much for a lot of the Leeds supporters who stayed away in sufficient numbers to drop the attendance below 20,000 for only the second home league match this season. Christmas shopping while Colchester are in town must be the order of the day. Judging by the radio commentary the referee decided to play the role of Santa for us today. He held a Leeds player off the pitch just before half-time while we scored our equaliser, and then showed a second yellow card for an innocuous tackle which then gave us a free kick in Yeates’ territory which he converted in typical fashion.

It was great to hear the Leeds fans in the background on the radio broadcast reacting just as we do at Cuckoo Farm when things aren’t going well. We’ve had plenty of opportunity to practice the ‘aahs’ and ‘ohhh’s and groans and ‘no’s and it’s good to know that we don’t have the monopoly on those reactions. Perhaps we’re luckier than Leeds since we only get around 4,000 moaning and groaning while Leeds can get around 20,000.  One of the biggest differences I sensed in this game was that Colchester were always trying to go forward and create more chances. Teams visiting Cuckoo Farm expect to experience the intimidation of Layer Road and generally play for a draw at every opportunity. The amount of time wasting I’ve seen this season is appalling. You’d think we would have learned a lot from our opponents in this respect but no, we go for broke and lay ourselves bare when perhaps we don’t need to.

I couldn’t hear the singing myself but the commentator on BBC Essex could clearly hear ‘Ring of Fire’ being belted out by the travelling Col U faithful. At the final whistle the celebrations were drowned comprehensively by 10,000+ Yorkshire boo-boys. Who says Leeds are in the wrong League? Actually it’s Colchester that should be back up in the Championship. Come on lads, give us the same at home.

Has anyone else noticed that a very strange thing is happening. Last week we lost and remained 16th in the table. Today, despite winning we remain 16th in the table. Work that one out!