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Colchester United 0-4 Ipswich Town - Match One Report
Tuesday, 18th Aug 2020 19:38

Aaron Drinan scored twice, once from the spot, and Gwion Edwards and Idris El Mizouni one each as the Blues comfortably beat Colchester United 4-0 in the first of two 75-minute behind-closed-doors friendlies at the JobServe Community Stadium.

The Republic of Ireland U21 international put the Blues in front in the seventh minute, then netted a penalty on 25 before Edward made it three seven minutes later and sub El Mizouni completed the scoring in the 54th minute.

Town’s XI for the first game included Stephen Ward making his first appearance for the Blues at left-back having completed his free move yesterday after leaving Stoke at the end of last season. The Irish international was wearing the skipper's armband rather than midfielder Cole Skuse, last season's vice-captain.

At right-back Kane Vincent-Young made his first appearance since his 2019/20 was curtailed by a groin injury in October.

Town, in their new very light blue away kit, lined up in a 4-3-3 system with Drinan the centre forward and Armando Dobra on the right and Edwards on the left.

In goal, Harry Wright made his first appearance for the senior side with Tomas Holy struggling with a shoulder problem.

The Czech keeper was watching from the sidelines along with Jon Nolan, James Wilson, presumably due to minor injury, and new signings David Cornell and Oli Hawkins with the latter pair having trained little if at all before joining the Blues on Monday.

For Colchester, ex-Blues Dean Gerken and Tommy Smith, who is on trial with the U’s, both started.

Town threatened for the first time in the fifth minute when Ward crossed from the byline on the left and ex-U’s man Vincent-Young shot goalwards but Ryan Clampin blocked.

Two minutes later, the Blues went in front. Teddy Bishop threaded the ball through for Drinan, who confidently slipped the ball past Gerken to grab his first goal for the the first team.


The Blues saw most of the ball building slowly from the back and were looking threatening on the left. But on 16 they lost possession on halfway and Colchester broke, Luke Gambin eventually cutting inside from the right and hitting a shot which Wright batted away.

It should have been 2-0 in the 21st minute when the ball was cut back from the left and found Vincent-Young at the far post but the right-back scuffed his effort well wide when he should have scored.

In the 25th minute the Blues were awarded a penalty when Smith tripped his former team-mate Bishop as he made a trademark burst into the area. Drinan was handed the ball and sent Gerken the wrong way to claim his second goal of the game.

Just after the half hour, Drinan had a chance to grab a hat-trick when he was found 10 yards out inside the box. However, his low effort was saved by Gerken down to his left and Smith cleared.

Town, who won a 90-minute friendly against the U’s 5-0 last summer, made it 3-0 in the 32nd minute when Gwion Edwards brought the ball into the area on the left before hitting a low right-foot shot which beat Gerken to his left and crept just inside the post.

In the 43rd minute Toto Nsiala gifted the ball to Jevani Brown not too far outside the area but Wright did well to block his effort a goal.

Soon afterwards the first period was brought to an end with the Blues having been dominant and perhaps a little disappointed not to have scored more than twice with Vincent-Young probably feeling he should have scored against his old club.

At the other end, the Blues were only threatened on two occasions after they had been careless with the ball but Wright made amends for his team-mates on both occasions.

Town swapped Emyr Huws for Idris El Mizouni ahead of a 30-minute second half, while Colchester switched Harry Pell for Marley Marshall-Miranda.

On 50 sub Marshall-Miranda was shown the first yellow card of the game for sending Dobra flying as the Albanian U21 call-up was breaking forward midway inside the U’s half.

Four minutes later El Mizouni made it 4-0 to the Blues with the goal of the night. The Tunisian international brought the ball forward a couple of paces before lashing a powerful strike past Gerken from 25 yards off the inside of the post.

On 57 Al-Amin Kazeem came on for Ryan Clampin for Colchester then a minute later Town swapped Ward, who was a big threat going forward in the first half, and Cole Skuse for Tommy Smith, the young left-back coming through from the academy, and Brett McGavin, whose father Steve used to play for the U’s.

In the 65th minute Edwards wasn’t too far away from his second of the game when he curled a shot from just outside the area to the left just wide after Vincent-Young had broken down the right.

Two minutes later Drinan had the ball in the net for a third time but the referee had called play back for offside.

That was the final goalmouth action of a game which will have pleased Town boss Paul Lambert, a former Colchester manager, watching alongside his assistant Stuart Taylor from the technical area.

Town were well on top in the first half with their experienced midfield of Skuse, Huws and Bishop dominating their League Two opposition, while Drinan and Edwards took their goals confidently.

Youngsters Dobra and El Mizouni both made an in impression with the latter’s goal the highlight of the game. The second 75-minute match of the two starts at 8pm.

Colchester: Gerken, Welch-Hayes, Smith, Senior, Pell (Marshall-Miranda 46), Brown, Kensdale, Clampin (Kazeem 57 (Bramall 68)), Poku, Gambin, McLeod.

Town: Wright, Vincent-Young, Ward (Smith 58), Nsiala, Woolfenden, Skuse (McGavin 58), Bishop, Huws (El Mizouni 46), Dobra, Edwards, Drinan. Subs: Folami.


Photo: TWTD



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multiplescoregasms added 19:42 - Aug 18
Well that first game wasn't bad at all. Some decent stuff, so let's hope for more in the 2nd game.
3

reusersfreekicks added 19:45 - Aug 18
Have we signed Didier?
0

dirtydingusmagee added 19:48 - Aug 18
well done , nice to see 4 goals chalked up .Hopefully no injuries, which we seem to get more than our share of ..
5

grow_our_own added 19:50 - Aug 18
We looked much sharper than them. Congrats to the players for staying in good nick during the layoff. Mizouni in midfield worked well. We'd probably have been in the playoffs if Dobra & Bishop had played instead of Judge and Nolan last season
2

Mattchuuuu added 19:54 - Aug 18
Not a bad first game for town, can see why we're not appearing too interested in T.Smith..
Good to see some youngsters get in with the more experienced players, particularly excited about the prospect of mizouni and dobra - could be very useful this season! Also the midfield of huws, skuse and bishop should be very good in league one, can't imagine many teams having better options in terms of balance.
Coyb!
2

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 19:58 - Aug 18
Good stuff. Couldn't see it all as had important meeting halfway through. Looking forward to part 2!
0

have_a_word_with_him added 20:19 - Aug 18
Mattchuuuu don't you know that's heresy on here, Tommy Smith NOT the messiah?!
2

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 20:23 - Aug 18
Part 2 after 25 mins: lots of possession but no incision. Need to vary it more and be more direct.
0

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 20:25 - Aug 18
There you go: 1-0 Town! Good goal. Jackson (?) I think. Hard to see who's who.
0

PhilTWTD added 20:30 - Aug 18
reusersfreekicks

Shhhh!
0

Linkboy13 added 20:37 - Aug 18
Tommy Smith (senior) looking very slow can see why he's struggling to find a club. Hope he does well at Colchester but needs to sharpen up. Can't really take any conclusions from these sort of games just a training workout.
0

aloanagain added 21:28 - Aug 18
Should cut them to shreds in the 2nd match with Spears and Hackson in the team. Support the team.
0

runningout added 21:52 - Aug 18
Impressed with quite a few in first game Ward included. Even Nsiala did himself a favour if buyers watching
0

midastouch added 22:04 - Aug 18
Plenty of positives to take from that. Just nice to see us playing a game for the first time in what seems like ages!
1

Bluefox added 22:16 - Aug 18
One correction on the match report. Nsiala blamed for giving the ball away for Colchester's best chance in the 43rd minute. Just watched it back to double check. Nsiala was nowhere near the ball. It was clearly a howler by Skuse.
1

Bluefox added 22:19 - Aug 18
Some young guns put in impressive performances — El Mizouni and Dobra in particular. Let's hope we get to see them when the season starts for real.
2

KiwiBlue2 added 22:32 - Aug 18
Good to hear that Bishop, Dobra and El Mizouni went well. I hope that they stay fit and inject some of the creativity and enthusiam that was missing from last season......
1

RobsonWark added 22:32 - Aug 18
Bluefox added 22:16 - Aug 18
"One correction on the match report. Nsiala blamed for giving the ball away for Colchester's best chance in the 43rd minute. Just watched it back to double check. Nsiala was nowhere near the ball. It was clearly a howler by Skuse."

What??? You need to wash your mouth out with blue and white soap Bluefox! Soooo many on here won't have a word said against Skuse or Chambers. Don't you know...they have sooooooooooo much experience so they MUST be great players!!! The sooner PL gets rid of the two messiahs the better for everyone and we can move on as a club!
2

KiwiBlue2 added 22:41 - Aug 18
Am hoping to hear progressively less and less about Chambers and Skuse this coming season. In Ward we now have a serious option to take over the captaincy if someone else stakes a claim to partner Woolfie..........
Downes should be a shoe-in for the defensive mid-field role so if Huws, Bishop, Judge, Dozzel, El Mizouni, Dobra can find form and stay injury free then Skuse's influence and game time could be reduced substantially. Our approach this season needs to be more attack minded a la the Joe Royle approach, if you score 2 we will score at least 3.
2

budgieplucker added 23:09 - Aug 18
Several positives for me; with the team selected for the first match 4-3-3 or at times 4-5-1 worked exceptionally well, plenty of fluidity and movement from the team. Bishop, Skuse and Huws albeit rare appearances together in the past always looked good under Mick Mac, they are a well balanced midfield three. Really pleased for the lad Drinan who I thought before tonight was on his way out but he led the line well and at only just over 6ft has more physicality then Jackson or Norwood. Will be interested if he makes the final cut for the squad of 22 over 21 senior players. Edwards operates well as an inverted winger and Dobra gave us pace supporting Drinan.

If PL can rebuild Nsiala's confidence then at 6' 4' he may be worth keeping and perhaps playing at right centre back as I am not sure the skipper is going to get much game time this year.

Great to see El Miz come on. For me he is probably the slightly more exciting and versatile player than Dobra but both these lads are a handful. Both young goalkeepers did well and every time I have seen Pryzbeck I have been impressed, think ultimately at the end of the season only one of Harry and him will be offered a new contract.

Certainly the side for the first game looked better balanced and more threatening. In fairness Lankesters first game for along time so shouldn't expect to much from him.

Despite Judges excellent goal, to me he always wants to be the centre of everything and his quality or final contribution is often not consistently good enough. He almost at times seems to be disruptive to the fluency of the side by getting in the way. I can't fault the guys energy, attitude or enthusiasm but can't help sometimes think he is like a runaway train and he would be better from the bench when chasing the game rather than a shoe in starter. I can't help thinking though if we loaned out Nsiala and perhaps Judge (if QPR we're still interested) we would free up average salary cap, and the actual wage bill to look at a couple of young premiership loans like Woodburn and perhaps a left sided centre half like Lewis Gibson (unless Fleetwood are taking him back on loan from Everton) - these lads both under 21.
2


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