Dunne "furious" after U's surrender lead to lose

Red-card woe - Clinton Morrison was sent off in stoppage-time during the U's 2-1 defeat at Northampton Town in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy tonight. Red-card woe - Clinton Morrison was sent off in stoppage-time during the U's 2-1 defeat at Northampton Town in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy tonight.

Colchester United manager Joe Dunne could not hide his anger after seeing his side bow out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tonight.

The U’s were beaten 2-1 at League Two side Northampton Town, after two goals in less than two minutes early in the second half cancelled out Freddie Sears’ first-half goal and sealed their fate at Sixfields.

Clinton Morrison was sent off in stoppage-time for Colchester for appearing to throw an elbow in the direction of David Artell, as the U’s were defeated at the second-round stage.

Dunne said: “We could have been three or four up in the first half easily and we dominated the game.

“We said to them at half-time that they’ll come out and do what they do in the first ten minutes but we didn’t stand up to it.

“That’s what I’m furious about, the fact that we couldn’t stand up to it.

“That mentality and (lack of) toughness was evident and it needs to be better.

“It has to change and I’ve told them that in the changing room.

“If we had seen out the first ten minutes, we probably win the game comfortably.”

See Wednesday’s Gazette for a full match report and pictures from Colchester United’s defeat at Northampton Town.

Comments(7)

Ozzie says...
1:14am Wed 10 Oct 12

Glad that you are having a moan at the players ; it is about time someone did! They must take some of the blame for this lacklustre, uninspiring result. We can only hope for a better performance at home to Stevenage at the weekend. Up the U's!!

BlueandWhiteBaz says...
9:37am Wed 10 Oct 12

Joe Dunne is also partly to blame himself by changing a winning team at half time without real cause. If it's not broke don't fix it! He made two changes at half time, one at centre half and the other in midfield. If he wanted to give the youngsters Gilbey and Wright a run out, he should either put them in from the start or, after 60 - 65 minutes. Joe needs to improve his decision making as well as the players!

United we stand says...
12:29pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Sounds from the radio commentary that we only have ourselves to blame for this defeat - should have maximised our advantage whilst on top and shouldn't have made substitutions at the very start of the 2nd half.

I long for that extra buzz we get from decent cup runs, even the JPT. Our record in all cup competitions over the past few seasons has been woeful.

Long gone are the days when we were the team that others didn't want to get paired against.

I wouldn't have been confident had we gone onto a penalty shoot-out either.

Hoping for much better on Saturday, but nervous!!

Simon1986 says...
1:07pm Wed 10 Oct 12

It's only the JPT guys, we have the league to focus on, and trying to get up the table.

Good result I say.

wellnow says...
2:48pm Wed 10 Oct 12

i'll be in my seat saturday expecting a 2-1 win to us.come on you u's.

super waluigi says...
3:07pm Wed 10 Oct 12

I agree with Simon. I too listened to this on the radio and hoped that we could once again visit wembley.
But realistically, j d has realised that Eastman and Magnus will be 100% fit for playing 45 minutes rather that 70, 90 or nothing. Hence Heath staying on. The same goes for Bean.

So while I would have loved a wembley visit, I do see that in hindsight, the next game and the one after would be played out the same as this one. A run out for the first 11, 90 minutes for the back ups, and a bit of time for the kids.

Noah4x4 says...
3:32pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Let's give Joe Dunne some credit. He deliberately made seven changes to rest key players - no Rose, no Wilson, no Eastman (but he came on as sub), no Eastmond, nor Watt, Massey or Ibrehe - and, just as he clearly stated prior to the game, Joe offered others a chance to prove that they too could succesfully play the newly favoured slick passing game. In the first half the U's were excellent and should have perhaps scored a hatful. Only deperate lunges and fingertip saves kept the Cobblers in the game (n.b. I was there and at the interval the faithful that had made thr trip were buzzing with praise for the seven stand ins). Then sadly, the wheels came off when Magnus and the hard working Marcus Bean were (rightfully) subbed at half time to also spare their legs for Saturday. We were then watching (almost) a reserve team, with perhaps only two or three remaining on the pitch ever likely to make Saturday's First XI.

Frankly, I am afraid some of the remaining old guard and to a lesser extent the youngsters did lose the plot, and the concentration and cohesion of the first half went right out of the window. No lack of effort, just a reduction in talent/skill on show compared to the line up in previous matches (and that of the first half). All this perhaps tells us is that we don't have quite as much strength in depth than we thought. But I would sooner Joe Dunn, like Cinderella, be trying on different new boots to find what best fits when in the Paint Pot trophy than to risk experimenting in Division One. Hence his visit to the Cobblers was useful, even if mine and 163 others was a little disappointing.

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