Bizzare Colchester manager comment

[Norman Potting]

Cut and pasted from interview on BBC Sport

"We decided to come here and press them and stay high and we got so close to them not being applauded off at half time by their home fans".

Is that what visiting teams are aspiring to now, if so I think we may be home and dry!

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Heard that too - very strange and very reassuring.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Well I would have clapped them off

 

[Brighton till i die]

i dont geddit

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

I'd be pissed off if I were a Colchester fan and the manager admits that his first half aim was to stop the Albion fans applauding the team off...

... but I'm an Albion fan! So I think it's hilarious!

 

[Mellotron]

I'm confident there would've still been applause if we had gone in 0-0, as towards the end of the 1st half we were really pushing for a goal.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

I'm confident there would've still been applause if we had gone in 0-0, as towards the end of the 1st half we were really pushing for a goal.

Exactly. Wood hitting the post, Murray had a chance, Bennett's free kick that just went wide and then Wood going on a MAZY run and then deciding to smah his shot into the sky

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Is he trying to say that by going in goalless at half time meant they matched us for the first 45 minutes and not being rolled over ?

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Or perhaps it was the start of a new footie cliche?

Me feels a footie cliche thread coming on!!

 

[Icy Gull]

Refreshing change from the last few seasons, when it's been " No disrespect but we should be beating teams like Brighton"

 

[bhaexpress]

Refreshing change from the last few seasons, when it's been " No disrespect but we should be beating teams like Brighton"

Right, so we can expect 'no disrespect but we should be drawing with teams like Brighton' now is it ?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Is he trying to say that by going in goalless at half time meant they matched us for the first 45 minutes and not being rolled over ?

That is how I see it.

I don't think he was genuinely suggesting we wouldn't clap them off if we went in level at the break. More a case of our team not necessarily being worthy of an ovation by Colchester frustrating us. Not a great bit of analysis from Ward nonetheless.

 

[Spun Cuppa]

It was that obvious they were pressing high up the pitch that it surprised me we were playing with one winger and two central midfielders. If we had had two wingers on sharpish, their midfield would of had to track back, playing into our hands. We conceded a bit too much ground for a lot of the game. They were crap tbf, but we sort of helped their cause a bit

 

[Napper]

I understand what he is saying. They pushed up on us and we couldnt really knock it round the back to build. We had to resort to quite a lot of long balls which to be fair were working OK. He also added if they sat back they would of lost so makes sense.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Interesting point about them pressing high up the pitch, as that tactic was particularly successful in rendering the El-Abd, Ankergren, Greer backpassing sessions early on in the game. Col U will not be the only team to do this and we need to figure out a way to combat it. Caspar was forced into more long range clearances last night than I'm sure he wanted to make.

 

[Silent Bob]

Is he trying to say that by going in goalless at half time meant they matched us for the first 45 minutes and not being rolled over ?

Which they didn't, although they were decent, I've seen worse teams, we had three or four real openings before we eventually scored and were more and more on top as the half went on.

I think he just means the complexion of the game would have been different if we hadn't scored when we did. We know teams will come here and hope to hold us, Bournemouth did that and that when we hadn't even been top for long.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

He also said " Brighton are a good side but we didn't take our chances "
What garbage is that !......For Christs sake if we'd taken all of ours as well,then it should have been about 9-2.
Face up to it Mr. Ward, you were well beaten by a Brighton side, not even on its ' A ' game.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

He also said " Brighton are a good side but we didn't take our chances "
What garbage is that !......For Christs sake if we'd taken all of ours as well,then it should have been about 9-2.
Face up to it Mr. Ward, you were well beaten by a Brighton side, not even on its ' A ' game.

I can't remember too many clear cut Colchester chances ... perhaps 1 in the 2nd half whivh require a sort of clearance off the line. They had a few shots that Ankergran watched past the post though.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Interesting point about them pressing high up the pitch, as that tactic was particularly successful in rendering the El-Abd, Ankergren, Greer backpassing sessions early on in the game. Col U will not be the only team to do this and we need to figure out a way to combat it. Caspar was forced into more long range clearances last night than I'm sure he wanted to make.

Oldham did this, better than Colchester, MONTHS ago, so its nothing new to us. I'd say that in the 15 weeks since we've done a pretty good job of combating it.

 

[Postman Pat]

It's like Gus said after the Yeovil game:

The Albion boss said, "The first half is the way that it's going to be. Teams are going to come here and change their game completely, trying to press us by working hard and hope that they will be able to stop us.

"We are now in a situation that we know that's going to happen - but we are not in a hurry, and will be patient because it is hard to press for 90 minutes, and we know that sooner or later they are going to slow down.

Very similar to what happened last night, Colchester pressed for 30 mins and then ran out of steam, and we scored. They had a little spell in the 2nd half, but the Noone substitution turned the game again. Not many teams in this division will have the fitness to chase the ball for 90 mins, and now we have a decent bench to exploit it when they tire.