Our topsy-turvy Jekyll and Hyde start to the season continued last night with a performance where we rolled over and died against Colchester United at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.
Manager David Artell made two changes from Saturday’s home game with MK Dons with captain George Ray coming back into the back-line and Chris Porter starting up front with Alex Nicholls with both Callum Ainley and Jordan Bowery dropping down to the bench.
The horror started in the 4th minute as Frankie Kent prodded home from close-range after a deep Ben Dickenson free-kick wasn’t cleared by the Alex defence with a second added minutes later from Dickenson who shot from 25-yards under no pressure into the bottom corner of Dave Richards‘ net. The third came on 26 minutes as a long-throw from Ryan Dickson was allowed to bounce through for Dickenson to get his second of the game.
After a couple of half-time changes that saw Michael Raynes and Jordan Bowery come on for Ray and Nicky Hunt, little changed as right-back Jackson added the fourth of the game from just inside the area after Richards had saved from Frank Nouble’s initial effort whilst the fifth was added by Luke Norris as he was allowed to come into the area from the Alex right with his shot beating Richards and an attempt of a goal-line clearance from substitute Brad Walker. The final goal came from Dickenson beating James Jones and Perry Ng on the right before crossing for Tom Lapslie to stab home from 6-yards out.
The next game sees a trip to Brunton Park to face Carlisle United on Saturday before the Under-23 team have their second home game of the season on Bank Holiday Monday as they face Ipswich Town at the Alexandra Stadium – note that kick-off is at 11am not the normal 1pm for the U23 games.