U's narrowly beaten by Hammers in pre-season friendly

6:48pm Saturday 21st July 2012 in Colchester Utd By Jonathan Waldron

Colchester United fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of Premier League new boys West Ham United in a pre-season friendly this afternoon.

Nicky Maynard gave the Hammers the lead and Mark Noble doubled their advantage soon after, to give the visitors the upper hand in front of a crowd of nearly 8,000 at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

But Anthony Wordsworth pulled a goal back for the U's just before half-time, after finishing well following good work by fellow midfielder John-Joe O'Toole.

There was little to choose between the teams in the second half but Freddie Sears, playing against his former club, felt he should have had a penalty when he appeared to be tripped by Guy Demel in the area and Drey Wright's shot clipped the outside of the post, late on.

See Monday's Gazette for a full match report and pictures and reaction to Colchester's game with West Ham United.

 

Comments(17)

Noah4x4 says...
7:08pm Sat 21 Jul 12

Good performance from the U's.Both sides playing great (on the deck) football. Sears unlucky not to be awarded a penalty and Drey Wright went agonisingly close - clipping the post with the keeper well beaten.

One swallow doesn't make a summer, but hopefully, this style of football will bring the crowds back and silence the negative doubters.

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Eddy D says...
8:50pm Sat 21 Jul 12

i'm with you Noah. Nice positive, (as usual), post.
There was a lot to take away from that today and it was easy on the eye too. The young lads held their own aswell and didnt look phased and that was really pleasing. Matt Heath launching one from nearly 30 yards and going close bodes well too! Fingers crossed we can keep injury free and we'll be okay I think. I liked Bean.Industrious and used the ball well aswell. Happy days.

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Boris says...
9:14pm Sat 21 Jul 12

And what a crowd! Nearly 8000, just for a friendly? If the prices were similar to this for the league games, could there be 8000 for every match?
Up the U's.

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Ozzie says...
8:38am Sun 22 Jul 12

Agree with previous comments. As for the crowd, I agree. Reduce prices and see what happens. I would obviously have to take into account we had some 'glory hunters' in place but by and large, there were some 'newbies' around who were hopefully impressed with what they saw who MAY return. However, there still needs to be serious consideration given to the ticket prices in order to encourage fans to come back. Please, I urge the club to think about this. It would surely make sense to have 8,000+ per week paying reduced entry prices than having 3,000 in attendance who have paid the current prices. Think of the spin-offs, the increased programme sales revenue, refreshment revenue, club shop revenue and so on..What was encouraging was to see a queue, yes a queue! at the ticket office after the game for fans wishing to purchase tickets for forthcoming friendlies against Derby and Ipswich. Up the U's!

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romantic says...
9:17am Mon 23 Jul 12

Fully agree with the above. If the prices were reduced, a lot more people would come. There are deals available, but people don´t know about them. Halve the price and double the gate and revenue is the same - but 6,000 people means double sales of refreshments, merchandise etc. Plus it creates a better atmosphere to have a ground that feels more full than empty. It motivates the players.

You used to know it was match day from all the fans going through town, but now a game can take place without anybody knowing about it. The club needs to get ads up in town and at the station, saying next game is on xxx, price is xxx. Get around the pubs on the Friday before a game and sell tickets there and then, get into workplaces.

When Col U get to Wembley, they take 30,000 with them, so there are people out there who would come to see them more often, but it has to be cheaper week in week out, and the club need to really promote the upcoming games.

But anyway, it´s a pretty good pre-season so far, so let´s see what the new season brings.

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Steve86 says...
12:02pm Mon 23 Jul 12

I thought U's played very well with the new look midfield contributing a huge factor to it. Bean was great in keeping the ball and positioning, and the youngsters Wright and Gilbey looked promising. Welcome back O'Toole. But I'm really hoping Ward plays 442 with Henderson/Duguid on the right, Woody on the left and Sears+Morrison up front.

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Originally from ... says...
12:32pm Mon 23 Jul 12

Crikey lots of positive posts - is this a first. Had to double check I was on the right site!

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TheCaptain says...
3:00pm Mon 23 Jul 12

Enjoyed the game and think it looked positive. No point reducing ticket prices though. Half of the crowd where West Ham fans and others turned up because it was West Ham. League matches start from £18 - how how lower would it have to go to add a worth while number onto the crowd.

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TheCaptain says...
3:05pm Mon 23 Jul 12

And that's cheaper than Southend a division lower!

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Steve86 says...
3:49pm Mon 23 Jul 12

I agree Captain, sitting in the South stand watching the game, and there were quite a few people in the stand with West Ham tops on. Col Utd we find it hard to get 5k supports let alone 8K.

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romantic says...
5:31pm Mon 23 Jul 12

TheCaptain wrote:
Enjoyed the game and think it looked positive. No point reducing ticket prices though. Half of the crowd where West Ham fans and others turned up because it was West Ham. League matches start from £18 - how how lower would it have to go to add a worth while number onto the crowd.
Yes, tickets start from £18 , but the general PERCEPTION is that it costs about £25 to see a game. You might think that £18 is cheap for a ticket, but a lot of people don´t.

If it was a tenner, and the club made sure "casual" fans knew about the next games, I reckon you would get in double the crowds going now, and that would also push up all the other revenue streams (food, beer, merchandise etc).

There should be posters and billboards up around town saying: next game - xxx on date yyy. That´s how you get more people in. The point is that the "hard-core" of 3,500 or so will turn up anyway, but there are lots of football fans out there who take a bit more enticing.

Whatever the cost of tickets, if people do not know that cost, they will probably not give it a go.

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co4 says...
7:19pm Mon 23 Jul 12

Lowering ticket prices would have no effect. In the past, CUFC have given away tickets and still not many more than usual turned up. I don't buy into the perception that it costs £25 to watch a game - who perceives this? All it takes is a look on the website or a call to the ticket office and you will find out that tickets start at £18 for adults. This is cheaper than most other League 1 clubs. Also bear in mind that a percentage of the ticket revenue goes to the council to service the loan taken out to build the stadium. There isn't a bottomless pit of money to be put towards marketing so paying for billboards would probably not be cost effective. The only way to get more fans in is a promotion challenge. The apathy towards CUFC in this town is an ongoing issue and one which CUFC are unable to change. 3,500 fans paying £18 would generate more money than 5,000 fans paying £10. Also, if ticket prices were dropped, season ticket holders would have to be compensated as they have paid up front at a higher price. As the FFP rules are now in force, every penny the club earns is vital and dropping prices wouldn't be a gamble worth taking.

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co4 says...
7:21pm Mon 23 Jul 12

*Sorry, it's not a percentage of income that is paid to the council, it is a fixed amount from each ticket.

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Steve86 says...
8:45pm Mon 23 Jul 12

I agree it's all in the advertising. I go to all games, and never really go on their website. I go because I see the fixtures on other sport sites, but if they advertised each game with the evening gazette, or on buses, bus stops, billboards etc.

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jdh919 says...
8:01am Tue 24 Jul 12

Lowering ticket prices to £10 would make us the cheapest side in the Football League by a long way. In fact £10 is the average price for Ryman Premier Division (Level 7) football so we'd be totally out of kilter with other teams at our level. After a few years of freezing the ticket prices, settling on £18 means we're competitive against the rest of the teams at our level.

Saturday's attendance was very positive but West Ham brought 3,000 away fans plus a good few dual fans turned up. Without them we'd have been looking at a standard gate of around 4,000 probably. We can't expect away support like that in the league next season.

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TheCaptain says...
9:35am Tue 24 Jul 12

romantic wrote:
TheCaptain wrote:
Enjoyed the game and think it looked positive. No point reducing ticket prices though. Half of the crowd where West Ham fans and others turned up because it was West Ham. League matches start from £18 - how how lower would it have to go to add a worth while number onto the crowd.
Yes, tickets start from £18 , but the general PERCEPTION is that it costs about £25 to see a game. You might think that £18 is cheap for a ticket, but a lot of people don´t.

If it was a tenner, and the club made sure "casual" fans knew about the next games, I reckon you would get in double the crowds going now, and that would also push up all the other revenue streams (food, beer, merchandise etc).

There should be posters and billboards up around town saying: next game - xxx on date yyy. That´s how you get more people in. The point is that the "hard-core" of 3,500 or so will turn up anyway, but there are lots of football fans out there who take a bit more enticing.

Whatever the cost of tickets, if people do not know that cost, they will probably not give it a go.
I didn't actually say it was cheap at £18 but is cheaper than other local clubs and others in the same division.

In fact you can't go to many forms of live entertainment much cheaper.

As also pointed out if you decrease prices season tickets holders would need a refund. We couldn't pay as much in wages and the crowd wouldn't change much.

We are in the internet age if someone wants to go it's so easy to find out when games are and how mich tickets cost. It worked on Saturday.

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Bigh321 says...
7:11pm Wed 25 Jul 12

Congratulations Colchester united for yet another parking disaster.
Not enough parking, not enough parking marshalls, total mess as usual, I like col u but I'm glad they don't attract larger crowds as they ain't got enough parking spaces.
How did they get that through planning!!!!
Still Colchester council made a pretty penny giving tickets out to over 60 illegally parked cars!

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