U's to give duo further chance to impress (From Gazette)
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U's to give duo further chance to impress
9:20am Monday 16th July 2012 in Sport By Jonathan Waldron
Hoping to shine - former Southend United youngster Merrick James-Lewis will spend more time with the U's this week on trial. Picture: SEANA HUGHES (CO60186-20)
Colchester United will continue to cast their eye over trialists Merrick James-Lewis and Jackson Ramm this week.
The pair both played 45 minutes for the U’s in their 6-0 pre-season friendly win over Heybridge Swifts, on Saturday.
Midfielder James-Lewis, 20, is formerly of Southend United and has spent time on loan at Conference Premier side Braintree Town.
Ramm, 18, is a right-back who has played for Blackburn Rovers and is an England under-18 international.
The duo have not travelled to Holland with the U’s squad for their pre-season training camp this week.
However, they will continue to train with Colchester’s youngsters under the guidance of Head of Youth Tony Humes, at Florence Park.
Colchester manager John Ward said: “They’ve been with us for two weeks now.
“They’re both young lads and we have the under-21 league happening next year which will need some stability.
“They will come into training this week with Tony Humes and the other young pros who haven’t travelled to Holland with us.
“Over the next week or two, we’ll have a closer look at them and make a decision.”
See Monday's Gazette for more on this story and all of the latest U's news, including a report and pictures from the friendly win at Heybridge Swifts.
Comments(5)
Clacc
says...
11:31am Mon 16 Jul 12
super waluigi
says...
12:33pm Mon 16 Jul 12
Regard
super waluigi
says...
12:45pm Mon 16 Jul 12
Regardless of this, I have heard some good reviews both on this site and others about these two.
Sign them up
Noah4x4
says...
2:16pm Mon 16 Jul 12
Also, was impressed with the attacking force that we represented in the first half with Sears, Henderson, Bond and Duguid (plus overlapping full backs) all putting in great performances from deeper roles (e.g. rather than as traditional strikers) in a very fluent and different (e.g. ball on the ground) style of play that will bring back the crowds if maintained.
O'Toole, Bean and James-lewis looked solid playing in front of the back four - allowing our four attacking 'midfielders' (none was conspicous as "leading the line") to flourish in repeated attack. OK, was only Ryman League opposition, but we hammered in four before HT (when we made 11 changes). Heybridge proved quite challenging opposition last year, so let's be positive. Sears was outstanding.
Yes, convention says we might lack a bit of height up front, but at set pieces, we do have our tall defenders to cause corner and similar mayhem. I am now far less worried about signing a conventional "target man". Has 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 perhaps had its day? I rather enjoyed watching 4 - 6 - 0 (or was it 4 - 1 - 5 - 0?)! Confusion....ask the Heybridge defences as they were totally bemused (as attack after attack swamped them).
totallyfootball says...
10:10am Mon 16 Jul 12