EFL League 2: Colchester United 1-0 Swindon Town

1st January 2023

Colchester United vs Swindon Town @ Colchester Community Stadium - Colchester

EFL League Two

15:00 KO

£26.50 entry (family zone - includes a free programme)

Attendance - 3,599 (approx. 500 away fans)

Half-time score: Colchester United 1-0 Swindon Town

Goal:

Colchester United: Hannant - 30'

Brief match highlights are on YouTube, see link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqMGV-HuSFA

Final Score: Colchester United 1-0 Swindon Town

New Year's Day, first day of 2023, and nothing better to kick off the year than heading off to watch the U's. On this day, they host Swindon Town, a team doing a lot better than Col U sitting firmly in the play-off's in 5th place. Despite this, and the terrible form this season, before the game I felt that there was a chance of getting a result, especially as I was at the reverse fixture and it was an even affair until a farcical goal for Swindon secured them a 1-0 victory. Behind the scenes there has been some transfer news with the loans for Lubala, Chesters and Longstaff being terminated, and Coxe going to Boreham Wood, a couple of these players looked fairly bright in the games I saw them in this season so it is puzzling to say the least. I am certainly expecting a tumultuous January transfer window, being a U's fan is never dull!

Being the New Year, I took my 4 year old daughter to the game for her first ever league game at a large ground, well, large compared to non-league grounds at least, 10,000 being a modest capacity. We parked next to the ground and headed to the club shop where she picked up a teddy bear toy with a backpack, and a multi-coloured pen, two great buys that kept her entertained throughout the game. Whilst in the shop, I also picked up the obligatory matchday programme, a classic glossy Col U one with Emyr Huws on the front cover, and Alex Newby in the centrefold.

Being with the little one, I moved from my usual South Stand location to the family, or East Stand, sitting roughly in-line with the edge of the penalty area. We were in Row S with a good view of the pitch and it made a nice change. We grabbed a cheeseburger and a bottle of water each and watched the players warming up.

Fortunately for my daughter and I, it was another dry and warm afternoon, perfect for New Year's Day football. Colchester United were in their home blue and white stripes, and Swindon Town were in their zig-zag green and white away strip which looked like a decent kit to be fair. As was seen at Carrow Road the other night, a minutes applause was held just before kick-off, in memory of the legend that is Pele.

KEY MOMENTS

CU = Colchester United

ST = Swindon Town

14' - ST - A corner taken by Reed is looped in and centre-back Blake-Tracy finds himself with a lot of space and heads a decent effort towards the goal, drawing an acrobatic save from O'Hara to tip the ball over the bar for a corner.

28' - CU - Colchester go route one through O'Hara, and they are able to break as the ball bounces, Hannant taps the ball to Chilvers to release him down the right, he cuts into the box and hits a strike across the keeper, it was heading in for the bottom left corner, but keeper Sol Brynn gets down well to get a palm on the ball, Hannant arrives to meet the ricochet but from a very narrow angle, his effort is blocked off the line by a defender.

30' - CU - GOAL (1-0) - Kazeem whips in a corner ball, and Hannant gets a big looping header on the near side to see the ball fly over everyone and dip into the top left corner of the goal, a brilliant effort to put Col U emphatically into the lead.

41' - CU - From another Chilvers corner curved in towards the near post, Chambers gets his head on the ball and his effort is narrowly wide, crashing into the tethering post behind the goal.

47' - CU - Another dangerous Chilvers is whipped in, this time at the far post, Chambers just about gets his head on the ball again, whilst being dragged down by a Swindon defender for a strong penalty shout, but nothing is given and the ball goes wide.

55' - ST - Swindon have their own penalty shout as striker Shade goes down in the area, but it looked like somewhat of a dive from where I was sat, and thankfully the referee thought the same and waved play on.

60' - ST - Winger Lavinier cuts inside and squares the ball out to striker Shade on the edge of the box, he unleashes a low powerful shot, forcing a superb diving save from O'Hara to keep the ball out of the net.

65' - CU - A swift Col U attack sees Ossama Ashley steal the ball high up the field, he feeds in Hannant at the edge of the area, he makes the space for a left-footed strike but it is straight at keeper Sol Brynn, he bats the ball out and it falls to Kazeem coming in off the left flank, but his follow up shot is also blasted at Brynn for him to make another block to concede a throw-in. From this, Tovide turns his man and charges into the box only for him to be completely wiped out, but somehow no penalty is awarded.

66' - ST - Up the other end, a strong attack down the right results in a dangerous ball pinged into the box, substitute striker Wakeling heads the ball towards the goal, but is denied by another excellent save from ex-Manchester United academy goalkeeper O'Hara, certainly showing his pedigree today.

69' - CU - An sustained attack down the right sees the ball laid back to Tchamadeu who whips a fantastic diagonal ball into the box, picking out Ossama Ashley in the middle, his header his well hit into the ground, but flies straight at Sol Brynn who yet again denies Col U the chance to build a more comfortable lead.

80' - ST - From a corner, Welsh world cup squad member Johnny Williams gets his distinctive ball bonce on the ball at the near post, and it skids off the top of the crossbar and over, very close!

What a win for the U's, a consummate defensive display with some decent counter-attacking at times, the young academy guns in Tovide, Tchamadeu, Chilvers looking particularly bright today, backed up by convincing defensive displays from the older heads in Chambers, Smith & Skuse as they closed out the game reasonably comfortably. Being near the bottom of the table, Colchester huffed and puffed at times, but overall made the better chances and were deserving of their win, with Swindon huffing and puffing a lot more than the U's. Despite their position in the table, I haven't been overly impressed with Swindon Town the two times I have seen them this season, they seem to be a team completely dependent on their talisman Johnny Williams performing. For my next U's game, I have Grimsby Town away pencilled in for February, so until then I hope Bloomfield can build on this result, strengthen the squad in the transfer window and push towards mid-table, well away from the relegation zone. There are some huge games coming up in January against relegation rivals in Harrogate Town (A), Rochdale (A), Gillingham (H) and Hartlepool United (A) so I hope the U's can come away with some big results, UP THE U'S!!!

Line-Ups:

COLCHESTER UNITED: Kieran O'Hara, Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith (C), Tom Dallison, Junior Tchamadeu, Cole Skuse, Ossama Ashley, Al-Amin Kazeem, Luke Hannant, Noah Chilvers, Samson Tovide. SUBS: Sam Hornby, Freddie Sears, Alex Newby, John Akinde, Marley Marshall-Miranda, Jayden Fevrier, Frank Nouble.

SWINDON TOWN: Sol Brynn, Marcel Lavinier, Frazer Blake-Tracy, Angus MacDonald (C), Remeao Hutton, Ellis Iandolo, Louis Reed, Ben Gladwin, Johnny Williams, Luke Jephcott, Tyrese Shade. SUBS: Ronan Darcy, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Saidou Khan, Jacob Wakeling, Morgan Roberts, Ciaran Brennan, Jack Copland.