Colchester v Scunthorpe United

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Football League One

Colchester :
Davison, Duguid, Baldwin, Richards, White, Halford, Danns, Watson, Yeates (Stockley 81), Iwelumo, Garcia (Williams 68)
Subs not used:
Gerken, Brown, King

Scunthorpe United :
Evans, Byrne, Hinds, Foster, Rose, Taylor, Sparrow, Goodwin, Keogh, Johnson (MacKenzie 78), Sharp
Subs not used:
Musselwhite, Stanton, Parton, Williams

SULSESC REPORT

by Neil Wright at Layer Road

"THE referee's a homer..."

Quite a bold statement, I know, but read on, all will become clear.

After recording their first win in God knows how long, it was a buoyant United that took to the field at Layer Road for this rearranged Christmas fixture.

Victory would be a tall order but, with a healthy away support, it wouldn't be through any want of trying.

One thing you can never account for at this level is a biased referee. The standard of refereeing in League One has been pretty poor this season but you can usually excuse the referee's misgivings if he's consistently bad. For him to be totally biased in the opposition's favour is something you can not only never account for but also never excuse.

Tonight, Mr. K. Wright certainly took the biscuit! It's bad enough that we're playing a team second in the league but to have to play against 12 men as well, it was too much and a very bitter pill to have to swallow.

Tackle after tackle went in Colchester's favour, blatant pushes went in Colchester's favour, and two blatant United penalty appeals went in Colchester's favour...

The Colchester goal came in stoppage time at the end of the first-half. Leading scorer Chris Iwelumo climbed all over Steve Foster's back in the box to meet a long throw in and the ball ended up in the back of the net.

As hard as United tried, we just couldn't win any decisions. We battled hard and were unlucky to come away the wrong side of a 1-0 scoreline.

We threw everything at them, bar the proverbial kitchen sink, but just couldn't make it count. Not many teams will play as well as we did and not get a victory.

For those of you who have never been to Colchester's tiny Layer Road ground, allow me to use the words of our esteemed treasurer, who led us all in many a chorus of: "My wheelie bin is bigger than this..." (sung to the tune of "My garden shed is bigger...").

I'm not sure what he'd been drinking but he was certainly on fine form. For those of us who were present, it was a tremendously valiant effort.

I know it's an old cliche but on this occasion the best team lost...