Colchester United fan Si Collinson's views on the U's

We started the season well as an attack-minded team and this form is a fire that needs to be rekindled.

Let's hope over the next two games the spark is there, to reignite and start climbing up the table.

With games this week against Stevenage and Scunthorpe, both teams that are below us, we need to get back to winning ways.

Now there are numerous ideas and posts on social media on how the improvements can come.

As always football is and will always be a game of opinions, everyone is welcome to theirs and who is to say who is right or who is wrong.

But personally, I think we need to get back to basics, round pegs in round holes and all that.

Forget trying to be clever or flash, players concentrate on doing the billy basics right, play with passion and effort and produce what we know they can.

One thing I would like to see is Tom Eastman return to his natural centre-back role, with young Miles Welch-Hayes returning to the right-back role.

Now I’m not in a position to observe training or know any information on what is happening behind the scenes but Tom has been our best centre-back over the last few seasons by far and should be playing to his strengths.

Football is a game of very fine margins.

Small differences can really make a difference to how a team's fortunes pan out on any given day.

That was the case for Colchester against Morecambe.

In what was a much-improved first half we came so close to taking the lead on two occasions, only to be denied by the frame of the goal both times.

With Morecambe riding their luck amid these wasted chances they were able to see it out to pounce on the stroke of half-time with the U’s players' minds seemingly already on their way down the tunnel for the interval.

The second half was the complete opposite of the first with the home side on top, with there seemingly nothing we could do to match them and get back into the game.

The afternoon was summed up with the straight red card that was shown to captain Harry Pell after a set to, following a strong tackle.

Now I feel the sending off was harsh and the officials seemed to be sold a great bit of acting by the Morecambe player, who acted as if he had been shot following a tense heads-together moment.

At best it should have been both players booked but alas that did not happen and the U’s were down to ten.

With it being a straight red, the club will I hope appeal and get it overturned, but sometimes players have to try to keep a level head and not get into a situation where they give the ref a decision to make.

With Harry’s passion he will always be on the referee's radar and rightly or wrongly, this can influence the situation.

Even without the sending off, there was a marked difference in how the team played in the second half.

I will support the lads through thick and thin, and I really hope that soon we will be able to talk more positively about performances. Up the U’s.