| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. 18:44 - May 3 with 1111 views | bwildered |
Thoughts ? |  |
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| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 20:59 - May 3 with 1049 views | CrashBandicoot |
We've improved and made progress but didn't quite make promotion. Had we won 6 of the games we drew we'd be sitting in 3rd place That said I'm far happier with a decent 10th place than a last day survival act. I think we're in a similar position to where we were in 1995. We had Steve Whitton back then and brought Tony Adcock back and got to the play offs the next season. Now we need to bring in a similar hot shot strike partner for Lyle Taylor. |  |
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| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 21:14 - May 3 with 1042 views | burnsieespana |
Personally I always though any position above 15 would be a bonus so despite running out of steam due to I juries I day well one to everybody from the Chairman downwards.
I hope we are able to back DC & NC in the close season with average crowds averaging close to 5000 hopefully enough additional revenue has been generated to do so.
I anticipate Tovide and Edwards moving on. |  | | |
| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 21:55 - May 3 with 1017 views | MarkyMark47 |
Defensively, we look well set if we hold on to the same players and Macey. Midfield also looks good, with Payne and Bishop the fulcrum. We will need a ball winner to replace McDonnell (obvs). Up front, we have some challenges - Taylor had an amazing season for the most part, but his age started to show toward the business end of the season, and his recent injury casts further doubts. Tovide has frustrated and amazed in equal measure, but for a young player his injury record is terrible. We need to sign a proven goalscorer who still has a bit of time ahead in their career. |  | | |
| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 22:32 - May 3 with 994 views | wessex_exile |
| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 21:55 - May 3 by MarkyMark47 |
Defensively, we look well set if we hold on to the same players and Macey. Midfield also looks good, with Payne and Bishop the fulcrum. We will need a ball winner to replace McDonnell (obvs). Up front, we have some challenges - Taylor had an amazing season for the most part, but his age started to show toward the business end of the season, and his recent injury casts further doubts. Tovide has frustrated and amazed in equal measure, but for a young player his injury record is terrible. We need to sign a proven goalscorer who still has a bit of time ahead in their career. |
The problem with Tovide is:
(a) for a big lad, he still goes down too easily; and as a result
(b) referees think they've got the measure of him and don't give him the protection he should get; and most importantly
(c) defenders know they can, and do, knock lumps out of him and get away with it more often than not.
As for the season, a huge improvement on recent fare which we can all be proud of. Not least because the team on the pitch have been matched by consistently excellent support off of it. All eyes now on our summer transfer business - who can we hold on to, who do we have to let go, and who can we bring in?
Jamie McDonnell will return to Forest, that's a given, and I'm certain there'll be more than a few League 1 and possibly Championship clubs looking at Macey and Jack Payne. If we can wrap Lyle Taylor in cotton wool and keep him on ice for the summer, we have to get him on another contract for next season. Not just for what we know he can do on the pitch, he's so important just as part of the squad. Kels and Flanagan must stay next season - there's no way Matt Macey would have kept 21 clean sheets without those two at the heart of the defence (and Egbo and Iandolo).
Despite his critics, I actually think Hunt has potential, and Thorn definitely has. Bishop and Scully have both the experience and ability to bring to a promotion challenge next season. Kyreece Lisbie certainly has the potential too. Simpson, I'm afraid to say, looks the part as a solid no. 9, but he just doesn't have the mobility, and I suspect he'll be gone in the summer.
Marks out of ten for the season? Definitely an 8/10 as far as I'm concerned, and positioned well for an ever better 2025/26. |  |
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| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 08:26 - May 4 with 932 views | BLACKCAT |
| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 21:14 - May 3 by burnsieespana |
Personally I always though any position above 15 would be a bonus so despite running out of steam due to I juries I day well one to everybody from the Chairman downwards.
I hope we are able to back DC & NC in the close season with average crowds averaging close to 5000 hopefully enough additional revenue has been generated to do so.
I anticipate Tovide and Edwards moving on. |
The average home attendance appears to have been the highest for fifteen years. Apart from the obvious success the brothers led Lincoln to on the field it was how they awoke a disillusioned and uninterested support that was so impressive. Within two seasons they had more than trebled the average crowd at Sincil Bank.
I thought it would be far more difficult to do the same in Essex but the signs are good. It is over fifty-five years since Colchester United's average home attendance topped 6,000. What a glorious 2025-26 if such a number were cheering The U's to promotion. |  | | |
| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 11:25 - May 4 with 850 views | bwildered |
Great credit to the management in restoring the heart and community feel to the club and making the supporters feel valued in their contribution. Interviews were open and honest, and told how it was. Restoring a winning mentality and close knit squad was invariably the key in our undoubted progress during the season.
But the hard work needs to continue during the close season, especially at the back where all those who played the final game have contracts up.
So, returns, Aboh, Scully, Tucker, Simpson and McDonnell.
Released , Terry , Smith , Jolliffee and Hunt .
Walkers , Tovide , Edwards , Read and Iandolo .
Offers to Kelleher, Flanagan Egbo, Vincent Young and Taylor.
All others contracted .
Require two strikers, left back and ball winner. [Post edited 4 May 11:27]
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| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 07:53 - May 5 with 671 views | noah4x4 |
Frankly, I’m relieved we haven’t made the Play Offs/Promotion, but delighted with a top ten finish.
Colchester United (IMHO) is work in progress and far from ready for Division One. Had we achieved promotion I suspect it is likely we would suffer a similar fate to Ipswich, repeatedly losing, and our nicely growing fan base is still too fickle and lacking resilience after so many false dawns in two decades of miserable decline.
We are too dependent on loanees (notably McDonnell) and lack enough cutting edge in the final third. The Academy hasn’t produced the intended pipeline of talent and what success has been achieved has resulted from the shrewd acquisition of experienced players known by the Cowleys.
In a classic Wenger like manner, the programme of change started with rebuilding our defence. This inevitably coincided with too many draws, but more clean sheets are a solid base. We have become hard to score against, that is, until we attack. When nine men are defending with only a solitary striker we are potentially invincible, but won’t score. We then become more adventurous knowing that wins are critical and suddenly we leak goals in abundance. We haven’t yet mastered the transition from being a defensively good team to an all round promotion sustainable team.
Consider Walsall’s season. Until the January transfer window, they were L2 nailed on Champions. Then loanee striker , Lowe, is recalled and they suffer relegation form. Yes, they remain in the play offs, but nobody expects them to progress. Consider how Mark Hughes almost turned Carlisle around. Resilience is a vital attribute, and Col U doesn’t yet have it. We plead for “two up front”. Until we have that resilience, I’m afraid a sole striker will remain our primary tactic. But we are making sound progress. |  | | |
| End of season reports and thoughts 24/25. on 08:49 - May 6 with 478 views | thrillseeker |
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