Blogs - Green Un

So much rests on what happens to four key U's players

Posted 13 days ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

COLCHESTER United fans will be sweating over the future of four of their key players this summer. While the bulk of the U’s out of-contract players look like signing new deals, including the likes of Brian Wilson, Matt Heath and Lloyd James, there...

No fall-outs, but a few differences of opinion

Posted 1 month ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

THE recent stand-off between AFC Bournemouth and the local paper - 'The Bournemouth Daily Echo' - had me thinking about any near fall-outs that I may have experienced over the last 20 years or so. The Daily Echo has won a lot of admirers for the...

Don't tell the wife!

Posted 2 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

I've been playing away from home for two months, but don't tell the wife! In fact, I've forgotten what home comforts are like, since the turn of the year, although this has little to do with me being led astray by some "lady of the night...

Be careful what you wish for

Posted 3 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

“WARD out, Ward out!” You must be joking. John Ward has done a satisfactory job, as Colchester United boss, and he certainly does NOT deserve to lose his job. The odd chant of “Ward out,” after the recent home games against Scunthorpe...

Good or bad? The U's are an enigma

Posted 4 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

SO how good are Colchester United this season? That might seem a strange question to ask, on the back of a humiliating 6-1 home defeat to Stevenage on Boxing Day, and just five weeks after an equally demoralising 5-1 home reverse at the hands of MK Dons...

Under-whelmed by news of Underhill's impending demise

Posted 5 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

CALL me a sad old hack, but I always sigh when I hear the news of another Football League ground about to bite the dust. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Shrewsbury’s Gay Meadow, Oxford’s Manor Ground, Chesterfield’s Saltergate...

The worst U's squad for a generation?

Posted 5 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

I AM not one of those crying out for a change of manager at Colchester United. John Ward has a difficult job on his hands, working within a tight budget and a small squad, while trying to manage such high expectations - of mounting a challenge for the...

This was no Wind in the Willows ... and other terrible tales of terrible weather

Posted 5 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

YOU should never blame the weather, however bad the weather, for your team's failings. Colchester United didn't fall into that trap, following the recent 1-0 defeat at Carlisle - John Ward and his players mentioned the strong, gusting winds, but...

When 'home' doesn't sound like 'home' anymore

Posted 6 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

FOOTBALL fans, for all their bravado and desire for success, are traditionalists at heart. And I am no different. I would love to play Devil's Advocate, and congratulate Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley on his recent decision to rename St James'...

Hits and misses

Posted 6 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

WHENEVER a club dips into the loan market, it is always fraught with danger. Colchester United can vouch for that. Over the years, there have been many success stories, and yet just as many torrid tales of loan players who have failed to live up to expectations...

Please give Gillespie a start!

Posted 6 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

NOW is the time to start with Steven Gillespie. I find it incredible that we have already had 17 league games this season, and yet Gillespie, the most natural finisher and most proven goalscorer at the club, has still not started a league match. I thought...

Diamonds are forever?

Posted 7 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

YOUR team might not win every week, but at last they exist! That must be the sentiment of supporters from the now defunct Rushden & Diamonds, a club that has seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. I was at the Diamonds' old home last week...

Just print the truth!

Posted 7 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

Be ware the dangers of getting carried away by sensationalist headlines and, in the words of Colchester United boss John Ward, ‘scurrilous’ reporting. Poor Tom Bender has been in the news, and trending on Twitter, following his unfortunate...

It was just like playing at home, only there was atmosphere!

Posted 7 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

BLINK, and you could have been forgiven for thinking that Colchester United were playing a home match last Saturday, except for a few notable differences. Chesterfield's B2net Stadium bears an uncanny resemblance to the U's Weston Homes Community...

More miles than a long-distance lorry driver

Posted 7 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

I RECKON I've clocked up as many miles as a long-distance lorry driver this month! Well, not quite, but by the end of September I will have totalled 2,545 miles on the road, following the trails blazed by Colchester United, Ipswich Town and Braintree...

Late goals, love them and loathe them

Posted 8 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

LATE goals - the bane of any football writer trying to work to a tight deadline. I have had my share of dramatic, last-ditch re-writes over the years, and there was another one to add to the list at Brentford on Tuesday night. The report was already written...

The U's will be hit hard by new turnover rule

Posted 8 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

I fear for Colchester United's long-term status as a League One club. It's not that I am a born pessimist - I still look up the table towards the scramble for promotion to the Championship, rather than over my shoulder towards the dreaded relegation...

The U's show Usain Bolt how to start properly!

Posted 8 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

IF Saturday's 4-1 demolition taught anyone a lesson - in addition to Oldham's defence - it is to make sure you are in your seats early, and to resist the temptation to leave prematurely for a half-time cuppa. If you ignored both those ground-rules...

When the U's were priceless material for Coco the Clown

Posted 8 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

IN the wake of Ipswich Town's 7-1 drubbing at Peterborough United, a story I followed via the miracle of Twitter on my way back from West Yorkshire on Saturday evening, I will turn the clock back 18 years to when the U's also leaked seven goals...

Press experiences up and down the A12

Posted 9 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

HAVING spent more years than I care to mention, attending hundreds of press conferences at both Colchester United and Ipswich Town, you might like to know a little more about my experinces at each club. The U's, as you would expect, is a more intimate...

Pat Baldwin is the U's answer to Postman Pat

Posted 9 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

THEY don't come much more loyal than Pat Baldwin and his namesake, Postman Pat, Defender Baldwin today celebrates his ninth anniversary since signing for Colchester United, as a gangly teenager from Chelsea on August 16, 2002. Over those last nine...

Play to the whistle, and then keep playing!

Posted 9 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

I THOUGHT I was hearing things when referee Pat Miller let rip with a shrill from his whistle, just a couple of seconds before Wycombe midfielder Scott Donnelly scored a second minute opener in that 3-3 thriller at Adams Park on Tuesday night. I might...

Catching a cold

Posted 9 months ago by Carl Marston with 0 comments

I WAS speaking to Steven Gillespie the other day, about catching a cold - no, not the prospects of our injury-prone but prolific striker falling ill just before the big opening day clash. Instead, it was concerning the prospects of catching hosts Preston...