Born and Bred: Colchester United

Jack- Not the ideal month at all I have to say, the FA Cup draw was nice - however the second round tie is a little bit tougher!

November was a month to forget overall as we dropped points to sides that should have been beaten comfortably. We began the month however to Braintree Town of the National League in the FA Cup 1st Round, who had the support of Crystal. An early corner gave us the lead as Tom Eastman powerfully headed home, this was quickly doubled upon after eight minutes as Thomas Lapsile's shot deflected effort sent the keeper the wrong way from outside the area. Chris Porter picked up from where he left off against Plymouth and bagged a goal to make it 3-0, a tidy placed effort from inside the box. Braintree did get a goal through Jack Midson to provide some joy for the home fans but we went in 3-1 up at the break.

Déjà vu struck as Eastman replicated previous events to make it 4-1 early into the second half, Lapsile would also get a second of the day and substitute Drey Wright surely wrapped the game up as his curling effort provided more dispear for Crystal's side to make it 6-1. The game wasn’t over as Manny Parry scored a late goal from a well worked corner routine but the National League sides hopes of a FA Cup run were over.

In other news we were dumped out of the Checkatrade Trophy through a 2-1 defeat against Luton Town, good. I'm glad that's over and done with. Swiftly moving on we hosted struggling Leyton Orient. The visitors were languishing at the foot of the table, with just as many off the field issues as well as on – it wasn't a particular nice time to be a Red's fan. Chris Porter's good run of form continued as he gave us the lead after 28 minutes and the game fizzled out from there. However in a game that provided little entertainment Josh Koroma would snatch a surprise point to pull them out of the relegation zone.

Another poor affair followed against Yeovil Town at Huish Park, a side in similar situations on the field to Leyton Orient as they sat dead last. The Somerset based club have tumbled down the leagues since their surprise rise to the Championship and could be looking at going down for the third time in four years after a 1-0 defeat to ourselves. Chris Porter and co were comfortably contained by the Yeovil defence which was not overally surprising considering they could boast of three clean sheets in four. However the substitute Kurtis Guthrie, replacing a rather poor Chris Porter on the day found the good like he often has this season to take the three vital points for us.

Cheltenham were next up for us and they were enjoying a very good start to life in League Two following their immediate return from the National League. The hosts went up as champions last season after being relegated to the division the season previous. Harry Pell scored on the stroke of half time for them as they went in 1-0 up at the break following yet another poor showing from ourselves. The majority of chances were coming for Cheltenham as Dean Brill was kept busy in the goal – Brill had been a reliable option for us so far but he couldn't stop the barrage of attacks in the end as Billy Waters doubled the lead five minutes from time to allow Cheltenham to reign 2-0 winners on the day and lift themselves into the playoff places.

A reaction was needed against Crewe who were relegated alongside us last season. Alexandra finished bottom of the table, which was perhaps regarding as unsurprising off the back of the two previous finishes of 19th and 20th, surviving by the skin of their teeth. They had made a steady start under the management of David Artell, an ex Gibraltar international and once Alexandra player back in 2010-2012.

The story of November was a lack of chances and end product and it's once again what cost us three points again, as well as our automatic promotion spot early on this season. George Udoh, signed on an undisclosed fee last season from Ilkeston, gave them the lead just before half time and once again this was doubled by George Cooper, who was subject to interest from the likes of Leicester and Stoke in the Summer. Kurtis Guthrie, once again coming off the bench in place of Chris Porter hit the bar with eight minutes to go but this was all that was created and once again we settled with nothing.

Next month sees us take on Scunthorpe in the FA Cup 2nd round and top of the league Mansfield Town as well as trips to Luton Town and Stevenage and a home game to Notts County in a month of real importance heading into the winter transfer window where activity is bound to happen.

Really good update there man. Beat the Iron guys

It was a tough month for you last time out, hope you can get back into those promotion spots though!

MJK- Hopefully I can!

Jack- It'll be a tough ask considering the fixtures we have but hopefully we'll kick on.

My guilty conscience grew too much for me and it forced me to admit to my wrongdoing. I went down to the station and asked for the inspector who was conducting the case, I got a slight look as I asked for him – it was as if they knew something was wrong. "Ok, take a seat he'll be with you in a few minutes." I didn't wait long, he was with me almost immediately. He was a tall man with a waistcoat and quite an imposing man at that. "Come on through please," he said indicating for me to follow him.

"So I believe you have some information on the murder of Megan O'Brien?"

"Um... yes," I hesitated

"Tell us all you can please." He said, looking deep into my eyes. My eyes began welling up and with ran my makeup which I mistakenly put on – I should have anticipated this would have happened because now I looked a bigger mess.

"I killed her sir." There was a long silence as he looked away in disbelief before looking right at me again.

"Excuse me?"

"I killed Megan. Her ex boyfriend Kyle, Kyle Brown... well he had an affair with me. He had a problem with Megan, I wasn't sure why but he did. As strange as it sounds he ordered me to kill her, I have text messages to prove it, just I deleted them so you'll have to check the records. She was out with Crystal obviously and I think he found a way to lure her back outside again because she went back home. Next thing I was getting violent and threatening messages to end her and... I did. I stabbed her to death..."

The inspector looked at me in utter shock, he ordered me to stay here and informed his team to collect Kyle for further questioning. I knew I did the right thing in the end, he was getting dragged down with me now and I was sure he was getting longer than me in here, I did some googling before I came and I got some positive results. I was thrown in the cells and questioning began on Kyle, it was safe to say he wasn't getting out of it. The inspector kept coming to clarify things with me in which I gave him concrete evidence. The messages were located which finally meant he was guilty, the inspector weakly thanked me for being upfront and truthful, I could have got away with it he was telling me due to the lack of evidence they found.

Sitting in the courtroom was something surreal. I didn't hire a defendant because there was no way to get out of it. Kyle tried, but again... there was no chance he was going to get out of this. The only thing he could do was get a shorter sentence. I was guilty of murder and sentenced to 13 years, Kyle on the other hand was sentenced to 16 years. I was led away, the family of Megan were sat in the box at the top, looking down upon me, crying. I cried too, not for me but for them. Kyle tried fighting off the officers to get away but obviously he couldn't.

The first thing I did once I got used to my new surroundings was ask for a pen and paper. I wrote the following,


I put down the pen, read back my words and cried. With that I gave the letter and that was the last thing I ever did. My eyes closed with it the world closed too. The last page of the chapter, the ending. This is what I deserved.

Oh crap its a Scarlett Letter!!!

Hell's bells... LITERALLY. Incredible piece of writing, you really do live up to the tension of the situation with your scripting. Looking forward to see how this all pans out from here

MJK- Ooo scary stuff.

Jack- Cheers mate, I really enjoy doing this stuff it adds so much more to the story. Glad you like it!

Colchester will be looking to return to form on Saturday when they take on League One side Scunthorpe. The U's have lost their last two and will be looking to make amends and continue their run in the FA Cup after they beat Vanarama National League side Braintree to reach the second round. Scunthorpe come into the game sat in 6th in League One and in good form under the management of Graham Alexander. They faced League Two opposition in the first round having beaten Notts County 2-0.

Colchester have had a poor record at home as of late, they've failed to win in their last seven home games in all competitions. The visitors also have mixed form when it comes to travelling, having picked up five points from a possible 15 on the road.

Ahead of the game Colchester will be missing Thomas Lapsile through suspension and Luke Prosser (fractured wrist) and Rekeil Pyke (broken ankle) through injury. Scunthorpe themselves also have injury troubles, Scott Wiseman (knee tendonitis,) Neal Bishop (thigh strain) and Jamie Ness (broken leg) are all set to miss out the trip to The Weston Homes Community Stadium.

Last time out Colchester lost 2-0 against Cheltenham Town, which meant only four points were picked up in the entirity of November following poor results to the likes of Leyton Orient and Crewe Alexandra. Scunthorpe also come off the back of a bad result after a humbling 4-0 defeat to Oxford United which saw them lose ground on Peterborough in second and drop nine points off the pace.

The two sides last played in January when they met in the league. Scunthorpe ran out 3-0 convincing winners following a goal from Luke Hopper and a double from Paddy Madden. The latter is set to start for United and has enjoyed a good start to the season after scoring 5 in 11 games.


Paddy McLaughlin: “Graham (Alexander) has put together a really strong team and they've got a lot of guys who have a lot of experience. They have started the season phenomenally well but have had a little bad patch more recently, drawing however they still play at a very high standard and we will have to do the basics right to get the result and go through."

Graham Alexander: "We have to stay focused ahead of the game and ensure there's no repeat of the Oxford game because that simply wasn't good enough. We look sharp going into it so hopefully we can progress. Colchester are dangerous, they have a lot of goals in them from the likes of (Sean) Murray and (Chris) Porter, we're going to have to play our A game in order to keep them out but I'm confident.

Good luck man

MJK- Cheers

In a tie of two playoff chasing sides, albeit in different divisions it was going to be a close affair and that it just was as Scunthorpe squeezed through in the end in a 2-1 win at The Weston Community Homes Stadium.

Scunthorpe took the lead early on through Kevin Van Veen and he would double his tally for the afternoon just 25 minutes in to give the visitors a cushion. From there it seemed to spark the U's into another side as they chased for a goal to bring themselves back into contention. Efforts from Sean Murray and Tarique Fosu were well saved by the Luke Daniels in the Scunny goal, whilst at the other end Dean Brill was kept busy by Van Veen looking for his hat-trick and Paddy Madden.

Changes were made by Colchester boss Paddy McLaughlin as his team looked set for a third defeat in a row and continuing a poor slump at home. Bradley Fewster, Sammie Szmodics and Brennan Dickenson were brought on in place of Chris Porter, Sean Murray and Sam Hart respectively. With the changes came a flurry of chances, Fewster forced Daniels into a smart stop to deny him from close range whilst Fosu came close again, however was denied by the upright.

Nothing much was happening at the other end in the last twenty minutes of the game as Graham Alexander's side looked set for the third round and were content in sitting back to ensure their spot. They did so well and did enough as even a late goal from Tarique Fosu wasn't enough to equalise, despite a late chance for the defender Tom Eastman in which his header clipped the bar following a fingertip from Daniels again.

After the game Colchester boss McLaughlin commented, "Today we put up a strong fight against one of the better oppositions in League One and shown we have the quality to give them a challenge. I can't be too hard on the boys at all, of course it wasn't the result we wanted but we gave it our all and that's all I can ask."

"They say form is temporary so let's hope it comes true because right now things obviously aren't too bright and we're heading into a tough game against Mansfield next so we're going to have to prepare and train hard in order to try and end this poor run we're on and climb back up the table."

Always a tough fixture playing a team from a league above, but it is good preparation for if you do get promoted this season, shows the standard that you need to reach - and to be fair, sounds like you matched Scunthorpe in this one

Jack- Yeah it is, hopefully we can push on and ensure we could be playing them again next season