Was the penalty the turning point?

[Salopian 1]

I follow the match progress on the BBC text commentary, as I live too far away.I was puzzled yesterday because the text showed more activity by Colchester in the later first half, and this was confirmed by the "share of play" meter. The meter started with us dominating early exchnages, and possession was 55-45% to us early on. The imbalance gradually reduced to near equality in the second half. At that point Colchester had also had more shots at goal.We were 2-1 up, and I began to fear.Then suddenly from a penalty we were 3-1 in front, and it seems that we relaxed and began to "turn it on" a little.Even GR seemed to think that if not lucky, we could have suffered against a team with better finishing than Colchester''s.We meet such a team next Saturday in Bristol. We have to play better.I am quietly confident we may get a point at Bristol, if we show the same spirit and fighting quality, even if we do not play our best football, but it is a big hurdle for us.

[why do we do it! 0]

Totally agree with this post, the performance was average, I thought we played better against stoke (first half) and but for 2 mistakes we could have beaten one of the so called "better teams" in the league. Today we beat a team who are almost dead and buried and very low in confidence (8 without a win). The finishing was the difference today.

 We were also able to play the luxury in Hux who did well going forward but left Otsemebor exposed in the first half. (no surprise he had his best game today - he needed to)

 It always amazes me the over-reaction from the fans depending on the result alone.

 Well done yesterday and a much needed great result but the performance - well lets be glad we were playing Colchester!

[First Wizard 0]

Can''t anyone just simply enjoy the wonderful fact, that for once, we gave someone else a 5-1 tonking.  It matters not a jot that they were bottom of the league, many teams slip up on banana skins.

Today I''m very happy...................and you can take that to the bank!.[:D]

[Hardhouse44 261]

No is the answer to your question.

When the visitors pulled the goal back I too was concerned as to whether the we going to mount a real revival. For the last five minutes of the second half it was back to the walls.

However the second half was a much easier ride than I expected. Instead of coming out fired up and buoyed by their late first half goal Colchester look more nervous than ever. We took full control from the off in the second half and another goal was only a matter of time. The penalty help relax the fan and player I''ll admit but I always thought we were in full control second half.

Big factor was the wind in my view. It was blowing hard in to the river end all match and was a distinct advantage to the team attacking that end. We struggled for the first half to defend high ball as Shackells balls up would indicate. But that was the only advantage that the visitor could take from the wind. Second half we made good use of if and although we didn''t score any goals directly from that advantage I felt that it was an advantage and 1 that the visitors failed to use well enough in the first half.

[O.T.B.C 0]

It certainly was a good win, just as good that Wiz is happy too. If I look at the game in a bigger picture, we were in some parts poor, some good and some very good. Thought Semmy, Hucks and Curo were very good and it was good to see Rusty back, showed how much we missed him whilee he was out. Although slightly hyperthetical, against another team we may not have won this as Colu were very poor. But we won and my god was it nice to see a big smashing. Done our goal difference a worldd of good.

[Mister Chops 7]

[quote user="Salopian"]I follow the match progress on the BBC text commentary, as I live too far away.

I was puzzled yesterday because the text showed more activity by Colchester in the later first half, and this was confirmed by the "share of play" meter. The meter started with us dominating early exchnages, and possession was 55-45% to us early on. The imbalance gradually reduced to near equality in the second half. At that point Colchester had also had more shots at goal.

We were 2-1 up, and I began to fear.

Then suddenly from a penalty we were 3-1 in front, and it seems that we relaxed and began to "turn it on" a little.

Even GR seemed to think that if not lucky, we could have suffered against a team with better finishing than Colchester''s.

We meet such a team next Saturday in Bristol. We have to play better.

I am quietly confident we may get a point at Bristol, if we show the same spirit and fighting quality, even if we do not play our best football, but it is a big hurdle for us.
[/quote]

Well, I think you are absolutely right in your analysis.  Watching from the upper Barclay, with only the occasional moronic shouts of "OUT!" or "AWAY!" from Captain Birdseye behind me to disturb my thought processes, Colchester were not out of it at 2-0 down, never mind 2-1. They had a lot of the ball around our area and a more clinical team would have fashioned an equaliser. 

The penalty did change the game, but it was good to see Pattison surge into the area - we need a player to run box to box and he did well yesterday.

I think 5-1 flattered us, 3-1 was a more reasonable reflection of the game but I''m not complaining for one moment, even though none of my bets came in.

 

[kdncfc 0]

I wouldn''t say it was the turning point, as a previous poster said we dominated the second half and it was only a matter of time before we scored again. We played much better in the 0-0 draw against Lestaw a few weeks ago but didn''t take our chances. Yesterday we played some good stuff in patches and took a higher proportion of our chances, but there were long periods of the game that were like watching paint dry. Against a better team we would have conceded more than 1 with the chances that we gave them, the result was all that matters at the end of the day and to win so comfortably in a must win game was very refreshing, we certainly haven''t done that very often in the past.

[Trent Canary 0]

Depends, Colly did look dangerous at times, and at 2-1 the game wasnt safe. But we could have had more than 5 easily. Jamie missed a 1 on 1, bertrand had a good shot saved, dublin tried to head across goal when he should have gone for goal, huckerby squared when he could have shot. So although Colly looked like scoring, so did we. But id agree the third goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Colly.

[Graham Humphrey 13]

Shouldn''t the Colchester player have been sent off? If that wasn''t a clear goalscoring opportunity then I don''t know what is.

But a goal was coming at that point anyway, we had loads of chances in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Good job we did get that third goal as we were shambolic at the back. Though not as shambolic as Colchester.

[Houston Canary 0]

Look like kick-off was the turning point, to me.

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

In answer to the initial post, no it was not the turning point - imo if anything was it was the half time whistle....we were quite a bit under the cosh and looking a little shaky on the approach to half time, as their 4/5 corners on the trot during injury time will testify (though wtf was the ref thinking adding 3 mins? 1 would have been too much!).  I was certainly a little concerned, but come the second half we didn''t look back and could/should have stretched our lead well before the penalty came along....the one real thing that I was bamboozled by, though, was how their guy escaped even a booking for stopping a certain goalscoring chance - he was clearly the last man and denied a near-certain goal - though God alone knows what the score would have ended up had he been!

[Mello Yello 2,287]

Johnny Ostemobor''s goal - was the turning point........I thought it was ACE!

It settled us a bit and made Colchester push on us to get something from the game.......The longer we went without scoring, would have put pressure on the squad......and the home crowd were rather muted.....(Which is rich coming from me, as I doze in the City Stand).

Colchester were quite poor in defence, and I understand they were injury ravaged - so I can understand why they''re where they are......I would also prefer them to stay up as it''s good for East Anglia......and I don''t mind them.....

I would also prefer us to stay up........and I feel a minimum of 6 points is required. Tense times, but that''s football.