Manager Paul Jewell felt some of the football his team played in the first half at Colchester was “scintillating” but thought the performance dropped off after the break. Two more goals from Michael Chopra saw the Blues to a 2-1 victory over the League One side.
Jewell said: "Some of the stuff we played in the first half was scintillating. Some of the stuff in the second was a little bit sloppy.
"We’ve got to make sure that when we get possession of the ball in those key areas we kill teams off because we should have been four or five-up at half-time and then the game’s easy.
"I know it’s pre-season, but at 2-0, 2-1 there’s always a chance that the opposition are going to get into it.”
One of the stand-out performers in the first half was Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Jewell wants to see the 21-year-old — as well as the rest of his side — play like that for whole matches: "We want to keep him up to those standards [in the second half as well as the first].
"You’re not going to be able to skin a full-back every time you get it, but he showed in the first half what he is capable of, just like he did on Saturday, and we’ve make sure we try and get that out of him.
"Not just him, but the whole group. I said to them in training yesterday that the thing that let us down last season wasn’t being as good as someone on our day, it’s when we’re not at our best. We’re so inconsistent. We go from half to half.”
Midfielder Jimmy Bullard was again left out of the travelling party, Jewell explaining: "I spoke with Jimmy and at the moment he’s not in the squad, simple as that. There’s nothing untoward. I don’t see the point of him sitting here and getting 10 or 15 minutes.”
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