COLCHESTER United’s 2023/24 campaign was a nerve-shredding one and not for the right reasons, writes BEN MCCARTHY.

For the first time this century, they went into the final matchday of the season with an EFL status to secure, which they ultimately did. Yet remarkably, under the stewardship of Danny Cowley, progress came about.

Colchester earned just 45 points this season. This averages out at less than a point per game, which is their worst tally since they were relegated to League Two back in 2016.

It is also their worst points tally in the fourth tier of English football since 1990.

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Prior to Danny Cowley’s arrival, the U’s were averaging 0.88 points per league game, but this increased to 1.1 in the 20 league matches in which he took charge of. But where did the improvement come from?

Cowley has admitted on plenty of occasions that, since he took over, his side have become far more ‘competitive’.

Although just four wins were collected by his team, they drew a further ten. This was not down to pure luck as the ‘competitive’ edge to the U’s also perfectly explains why they lost on just two occasions by two goals or more.

Before Cowley came in, such a deficit was matched or exceeded seven times.

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Despite the draws that were amassed under Cowley, and collected less frequently by his predecessors Matty Etherington and Ben Garner beforehand, none of these were goalless.

Not since Colchester’s most recent season in the Championship (2007/08) has such a scoreline been avoided during a league season.

Interestingly, Colchester enjoyed their most free-scoring campaign since 2018/19, or on a game-to-game basis, 2019/20.

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During the first half of the season, this seemed to come at the expense of the team’s defensive record, because at the time of Cowley’s arrival, Colchester were averaging a tally of two goals conceded, per game. This eventually settled down to 1.4, in the last 20 matches, which still left a disappointing tally of 80 goals conceded.

One habit of Colchester’s that pervaded them at the start of the season and started to creep back at the end were points lost from winning positions.

In the U’s first 25 league matches, they dropped a staggering 22 points from winning positions.

Gazette: Colchester United

They then went on to drop eight points from winning positions, in April alone.

Though it is important to note that those eight points dropped in April came against teams who finished inside the top seven, as Colchester become more experienced, they will hope that such a statistic does not frequently occur next season.

There are many other ways to quantify Colchester’s season, but the ultimate statistic is that, by three points, they avoided relegation to the National League, when at times they felt destined for it.

With the progress that Danny Cowley has overseen, it will be vital to see yet more once the season starts again in August.