EFL League 2: Colchester United 3-0 Doncaster Rovers

19th November 2022

Colchester United vs Doncaster Rovers @ Colchester Community Stadium - Colchester

EFL League Two

15:00 KO

£20.50 entry (pre-booked - includes a free programme)

Attendance - 3,607 (389 away fans)

Half-time score: Colchester United 1-0 Doncaster Rovers

Goals:

Colchester United: Newby - 45+1'

Colchester United: Tovide - 59'

Colchester United: Hannant - 89'

Brief match highlights are on YouTube, see link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5XCgHK9Hk

Final Score: Colchester United 3-0 Doncaster Rovers

Colchester United, where to start, rooted to the bottom of the football league, a team and club seemingly devoid of ideas, poor predictable tactics and mistakes galore, I was not expecting a vintage afternoon of football. But, Col U are my team, and as such I needed to go back to get behind the team, dreaming of an unlikely win against a decent Doncaster Rovers side, in what will probably be my last time at the Community Stadium in 2022 due to a lack of home fixtures in December, and having plans for Christmas. To spice things up a bit, and feeling up for chanting with the lads, I got a ticket in S1, home of the more hardcore Col U fans. If anything was to kick-off, I was in the right place, and I was expecting a lot of negativity if things were not to pick up in this game, nothing like a bit of drama to keep things lively!

I got to the ground early and picked up my complementary programme, this time with Marley Marshall-Miranda on the cover, and the centrefold poster of my favourite U's player, Noah Chilvers.

I then grabbed a bottle of Greene King IPA, caught the post-match interviews from the Exeter City vs Ipswich Town game, then headed into the ground about 20mins before kick-off to watch the end of the warm-ups, and there was certainly a subdued vibe in the ground.

It was a typical grey, chilly autumn day, but crucially not raining, Colchester United came out in their home strip of blue and white stripes, and Doncaster Rover were in a jazzy green and black number, somewhat reminiscent of the Forest Green Rovers home shirts.

KEY MOMENTS

CU = Colchester United

DR = Doncaster Rovers

21' - DR - Molyneux evades a challenge down the right wing, continues his run, skips into the box and powers in a shot which is deflected over for a corner.

29' - DR - Miller makes enough room for a strike from the edge of the area, it flies narrowly over the bar, taking a feint touch from keeper Hornby on the way out for a corner.

39' - DR - During a Doncaster attack, the ball is recycled finding Maxwell coming in off the left wing, he continues his run and has space to shoot, but his effort flashes wide of the far post.

45' + 1' - CU - GOAL (1-0) - A free-kick is awarded to Colchester, 25-yards out. Judge and Newby discuss who take it between them, and eventually it is Newby who steps up and hits a sublime ball that goes over the wall and dips into the inside of the right-hand upright and in, leaving keeper Mitchell no chance, and crucially the effort put Colchester into the lead going into the break.

59' - CU - GOAL (2-0) - Ossama Ashley breaks down a Doncaster attack the ball rolls to Judge, looking up he sees the run of 18 year old strike Samson Tovide, he pings a ball over the top to him, Tovide collects the ball, takesthe ball forwards and creates an angle for a strike beyond the covering defender and hits one of the most sweetly struck left-footed strikes I've ever seen, sending the ball flying into the top left corner of the goal, beating the keeper at his near post and emphatically putting Col U 2-0 up.

84' - CU - Longstaff battles well on the edge of the box and breaks through, he hits a shot forcing a good save from Mitchell to palm it out for a corner.

89' - CU - GOAL (3-0) - A cleared free-kick falls to Hannant at the edge of the area, he takes takes a touch to his side to set up the strike and unleashes a curling stunner of a shot to squeeze the ball just inside the post, again leaving Mitchell no chance, cue jubilant scenes amongst the Col U fans!

96' - CU - Colchester nearly put the cherry on top, Ossama Ashley has a go from the edge of the area, it is well struck but a Doncaster defender gets a leg on the ball to deflect it out for a corner.

Until the goal just before the break, the first half was looking like another abject Col U performance, with not a lot to show for the U's for all their effort. The second half performance was much better, and by the end they were playing confident and exciting football, taking shots from outside the area and dominating possession, all signs that there is still life in the U's yet, and all three goals were incredible, especially young Tovide's effort! I wasn't dreaming of a win today, let alone a 3-0 thumping of a team on the edge of the play-offs, it was a superb performance and it was great to see and hear the the Col U fans all smiling and having something to be happy about after so much turgid football. And to top it all off, the result drags them out of the relegation zone, and into 22nd place, for now! Clearly there is still a lot to do, and Doncaster Rovers did look poor today, but there were encouraging signs, and I hope that Matt Bloomfield is given more freedom to be able to stamp more of his identity and philosophy into the team, to see us climb up the table and put some space between ourselves and the drop zone. I still think we need to strengthen in January to ensure survival, it is going to be gruelling campaign, but I hope that we have enough to survive. I may go to the Mansfield Town away game in December, but there is a chance it will clash with an England game depending on how well they do so I'm keeping close watch. Until then, I hope the U's push on and give the Col U faithful plenty more to smile and cheer about in the coming fixtures, UP THE U'S!!!

Line-Ups:

COLCHESTER UNITED: Sam Hornby, Junior Tchamadeu, Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith (C), Al-Amin Kazeem, Alan Judge, Ossama Ashley, Alex Newby, Luke Hannant, Frank Nouble, Samson Tovide. SUBS: Freddie Sears, Kieran O'Hara, Noah Chilvers, Tom Eastman, Dan Chesters, Matty Longstaff, Emyr Huws.

DONCASTER ROVERS: Jonathan Mitchell, Adam Long, Tom Anderson (C), Ro-Shaun Williams, James Maxwell, Ben Close, Harrison Biggins, Kyle Knoyle, Kyle Hurst, George Miller, Luke Molyneux. SUBS: Joseph Olowu, Adam Clayton, Jon Taylor, Louis Jones, Aidan Barlow, Charlie Seaman, Kieran Agard.