Colchester Away Carabao Cup 1st Round Won 0 – 2
Here we go again! And under the same management – until and unless the F.A., who are acting with all the alacrity of a VAR review, decide otherwise. Tonda expressed himself happy with the squad and their pre-season, and he was probably looking at the Carabao Cup tie at Colchester as part of his preparations rather than the start of serious competition. Certainly we began well but the home side were doing a good job with the Scienza/Manning threat while the ball rarely found its way to Fellows on the other flank, plus Brereton-Diaz wasn’t looking like a replacement for Stewart in the middle. Inevitably the U’s got themselves into the game and Saints were rescued by a triple save by Peretz – but would the last two efforts have been necessary had he dealt better with the first? Control was re-established at the start of the second half, and this time it wasn’t to be relinquished. Maybe that’s because our substitutions all tended to strengthen the team: Bragg and Larin, then Azaz and Archer, and finally Akachukwu. Although there were no hydration breaks for this evening fixture, we were into the last ‘quarter’ before a breakthrough came: Larin seemed to have left his shooting boots in Canada (at least he was getting shots away, though) but there’s more than one way of scoring and when Manning’s cross beat everyone else, Larin managed to force the ball home off his chest. Although a second goal would have been nice, Colchester really only threatened once in the second period, and a win was as nailed on as it could be as we moved into added time. That second did come in the extra five minutes, and with the best attacking move of the game: Larin to Azaz, feeding Akachukwu who took his first senior goal with a composure that belied his age. Certainly a satisfactory result, especially without Jander, thanks to an Eastleigh tackle three weeks ago. We will be hit by the break-up of the Stewart and Larin job-share, though.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
3. Ryan Manning with an assist for the important first goal.
9. Cyle Larin. Only on the pitch from the 62nd minute but he did get that vital goal.
4. Flynn Downes, doing the work of two outside our preferred formation, before the introduction of Bragg.
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