Colchester United midfielder Harry Pell's weekly column

Injury blues

THE weather this week has been fantastic – but when you’re coming back from an injury like me and in the physio room and you see the sun shining brightly outside, it makes your situation even worse.

I’m away from the boys and the physio room can be a lonely place to be.

But I’ve been out running and it’s just a process now.

The gaffer and Bally were great this week in that they asked myself and the other injured boys Tom Lapslie and Brandon Comley to get involved in helping out with a shooting drill the boys were doing.

We didn’t do any shooting ourselves, though – they put us in charge of counting the goals and it was just nice to be in and around the lads.

I’m hoping to be at our game at Swindon Town, this weekend.

It’s another big game for us and there are no mugs at all in this league.

Everyone’s fighting for their lives and we know we have to go there and give a good account of ourselves.

It’s nice to have gone on an unbeaten run over the whole of February and now we’re looking forward to trying to do the same in March but we’ll take it one game at a time.

We battled back to get a draw against Carlisle United last weekend and I think it was a fair result in the end.

Carlisle will be up there but strange things happen at this time at this stage of the season and you always get a team who go on a great run and I pray that it will be us.

They showed us a lot of respect and it was a case of two very good footballing sides cancelling each other out.

But we weren’t as clinical as we have previously been this season, in the final third.

Frankie’s goal was a very important one for us, especially from a losing position.

There were a few frustrated boys at the final whistle, as we badly wanted to win the game.

Jeepers keepers

I REALLY didn’t understand what happened with Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa refusing to be substituted, in the Carabao Cup Final.

It was quite embarrassing for the club and I’ve never seen anything like that.

As a professional, as soon as you see your number come up you have to go off.

With the substitute goalkeeper Willy Caballero being a proven penalty saver, it made sense and those little percentages can make a big difference at the top level.

Had Chelsea had got the win then it might have been all brushed under the carpet when things like that happen, it goes the other way.

I’ve seen some situations on the pitch where a player gets into an argument for whatever reason and I’ve seen players lose their heads in matches.

I had a bit of that in our game at Cheltenham earlier this season when I went to take a penalty and didn’t realise that Nosser was our penalty taker.

But as soon as the match is done and you step off the field, you need to nip it all in the bud.

Wise move by the Foxes

I THINK it’s a great move by Leicester City to appoint Brendan Rodgers as their new manager.

I was a little bit surprised that he has left Celtic at this stage of the season but I can understand why he would want to go there, especially given the lure of the Premier League which is hard to ignore.

They’ve some very ambitious people there and I’m sure the chairman will be willing to back him.

I’d like to see them have some success, after the tragic events surrounding the death of their former owner.

Some refs are chattier than others

I WAS surprised as anyone to see Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino lose his rag with referee Mike Dean after their defeat at Burnley.

He’s since apologised but he was obviously very angry, at the time.

Some referees are more talkative than others – you get some nice ones and some wallies but I won’t mention any names!

When decisions go against you and your team it’s frustrating and it’s fine margins in football.

It’s not great to see people having a go at referees but it shows how much it means to people.

I’ve been playing in a game before where a decision has gone against me and I’ve had a go at the ref and he’s said he would say sorry if he had got it wrong.

It turned out that he had…but there was no sign of him!

Old pals act

I POPPED over to East Thurrock United on Tuesday night to see their game against Torquay United, in National League South.

You know me, I always like to get out and about and watch games of football.

But I had a particular interest in this game, with my old Cheltenham boss Gary Johnson in charge at Torquay and John Coventry, who I know from my old school days, the boss of East Thurrock.

Pete Johnson, who’s Gary’s brother and Torquay’s chief scout, was also there and it was great to catch up with them.

I bumped into the likes of Gary Alexander and Sammy Moore too, who was there in his capacity as Concord Rangers player-manager and the football world is so small.