As just under a week remains until Colchester begin their League One campaign at home to recently-relegated Blackpool at the Weston Holmes Community Stadium I decided to preview their upcoming season.
Last season the U’s finished in a disappointing 19th they earned their safety by miraculously winning 1-0 at the WHCS against promotion chasing Preston North End. The goal came from George Moncur which sparked jubilant celebrations from the U’s fans as they secured their League One status for another year.
U’s boss Tony Humes has made his thoughts clear by making six signings so far before the transfer window ends in September. Humes’ most prolific signing would most likely be Matthew Briggs who moves to Colchester for a free transfer from, recently-relegated from the Championship, Milwall.
In the U’s final pre-season friendly, they faced a young Fulham side at the WHCS. The match ended as a 1-0 win for the cottagers. However a sign of prospect for U’s fans must be the ages from the players that finished the match – those who finished had the ages of: 23, 19, 23, 17, 21, 19, 16, 19, 19, 25, and 22. This tallied to an average age of 20 which gives plenty of positives for future seasons should these players be given enough first team experience.
One Col U fan personally thought that they played the best throughout the season in central defence despite conceding 77 goals in the league last season. He spoke to me saying that “with Tom Eastman [they] looked solid and Frankie Kent looked a prospect when he started the season.” So can U’s fans look forward to an improved season as Humes made four defensive signings? Richard Brindley and Joe Edwards provide depth in the left-back position whilst George Elokobi and Matthew Briggs give cover for the right back position.
Both fans that I asked agreed that one place they would definitely need to improve on ahead of Saturday is creativity up-front. “We lack creative midfield and a striker who can score goals.” Kieran Bailey signed from the West Ham under-19 team for a free transfer and at the age of 19 he is a young prospect for the future but by also having Chris Porter they seem to have found a proven striker at League One level. Porter, who was recently announced as club captain for this season, appeared 21 times and scored seven goals since joining in January. On Saturday morning the Club received a tweet from a fan asking if there would be any more transfer news and the club replied by saying “Whilst nothing is guaranteed, Tony is still hoping to add before next weekend.” This could be great news for some fans as they hope for another striker to assist Porter up-front. One fan said that seeing as he is a “one in three striker, we need a one in two so that for me is key” so hopefully the news that they want to hear will be announced some time before next Saturday.
Now, the dreaded predicted finish in the league question came up for my Col U fans, neither of them said that they would expect a play-off/promotion push but would rather stabilise themselves in the league for one more season. One of the fans exclaimed he expected them to finish in “12th, with more squad depth and tactics that worked towards the end of last season I recon we can pick up more points here and there” which would certainly be an improvement of the 19th placed finish last season. However the other fan admitted he would like to see the younger players have a season or two to gain first-team experience and he hopes “we have a less stressful time than in previous seasons.”
Overall I agree with what my volunteers said: despite a promotion push being out of the equation if they can keep hold of the younger players and give them experience then they can expect to be out of League One in the next few seasons and have some very talented players. Personally, I think the U’s will end in a bottom-half position, if they can improve from last season then they will have done well but need to improve and stop making silly individual errors that let other teams take points against them.
