This game was a big test for Notts & it would demonstrate how the squad stand in the League 2 scheme of things, & whether they can compete at a high level against the top sides.

With some very tough games to come against the leading sides in December, I believe it was important for Notts to put in a good performance against Colchester, but unfortunately it didn't happen, & Colchester were simply the better side on the day.

Why? Because they won the tactical battle. Colchester were another side to come to ML with a plan. A plan that we see time & time again by opponents at ML. Notts couldn't better it once again.

I think that Notts have to look at their present style of play, because the way Notts are playing is not good enough to counter the way opponents set up against them especially at ML.

It doesn't help when Notts give away goals that could have been easily avoided. Unfortunately, I don't think that our number 1 goalkeeper is good enough & until a change is made, Notts will continue to concede soft goals like they have been doing from the beginning of the season.

Another big point, 8 out of the 10 outfield players who lined up against Colchester played under Maynard, & Maynard's team had a poor record against the top 10 teams last season. This side struggled just as the side struggled last season to break teams down. It is also conceding soft goals just like last season.

The January transfer window cannot come quick enough.

I couldn't agree more Robbie. The more you think about the last transfer window the worse it gets. I was impressed with Colchester yesterday. They were very fit and very organised, but we should have created more and we should be able to beat teams like this. It could be a long 38 days waiting until January. Let's hope not.

3 hours ago, Robbie said:

This game was a big test for Notts & it would demonstrate how the squad stand in the League 2 scheme of things, & whether they can compete at a high level against the top sides.

With some very tough games to come against the leading sides in December, I believe it was important for Notts to put in a good performance against Colchester, but unfortunately it didn't happen, & Colchester were simply the better side on the day.

Why? Because they won the tactical battle. Colchester were another side to come to ML with a plan. A plan that we see time & time again by opponents at ML. Notts couldn't better it once again.

I think that Notts have to look at their present style of play, because the way Notts are playing is not good enough to counter the way opponents set up against them especially at ML.

It doesn't help when Notts give away goals that could have been easily avoided. Unfortunately, I don't think that our number 1 goalkeeper is good enough & until a change is made, Notts will continue to concede soft goals like they have been doing from the beginning of the season.

Another big point, 8 out of the 10 outfield players who lined up against Colchester played under Maynard, & Maynard's team had a poor record against the top 10 teams last season. This side struggled just as the side struggled last season to break teams down. It is also conceding soft goals just like last season.

The January transfer window cannot come quick enough.

There's a couple of things here for me.

I thought Colchester was everything I'd expect from a Notts side this season. Remember when we were sold the idea of "dark arts" and being physical and more direct? I didn't see that against Colchester. I thought they were probs the best side I've seen at Meadow Lane and that's including us against Shrewsbury. They were disciplined, drove some good passes behind our high press and the front three bullied us all day long. Also helps when you've got a good keeper who catches and doesn't have a 60% rate of giving the ball to the opposite side.

I think that a large majority of people within the club and watching now think that Roos is the biggest hinderence since Alan Smith's days of being a statue. They have to act or watch us lose more money by not achieving promotion and Paterson sacked as he can't navigate a boat with a gaping hole in it.

Two tactical issues stand out for me which I think is on Paterson. We are easy to counter and break the lines of. We do have good defenders but some times I think we'd be better with three in midfield with someone screning the back line and Palmer and Robbo abit pushed up. Secondly, we fall off a cliff when it gets to the 25 yard area. The amount of players which get to just outside of the area, all of a sudden are hit with a moment of indecision. Grant is the worst for it but Hall is a very close second. Jarvis has shown that he might be capable but I dunno.

This Jan is huge, but I do find comfort in the fact Montague is at the club. I hope/reckon that we'll see signficant changes to our team in Feb to now.

Edited Sunday at 18:591 day by piedestrian

I think everytime Maz comes on he is very positive, always driving at players and getting crosses in. I think he shows more determination than many of the players, a bit like Austin used to.

Colchester have a habit of playing well against us. Whether they'll challenge further up the table remains to be seen, but they looked useful yesterday. They got a bit of luck with their first goal, but they made the most of it and it was a well-earned win for them.

We started brightly but I felt we eased off after going ahead and handed the initiative to Colchester. After that it was a question of scoring against a very deep and compact opponent, which is tricky at the best of times. In the last couple of seasons we've become reliant on Jones and McGoldrick to unlock the door for us, and without them the end product is a bit lacking. Add to that the constant mistakes in goal and we're dropping points in winnable games.

My takeaway from the Colchester game is just how important it is to have pace in the team. Counter attacking is an important part of the game. We don't do it very well. I agree big January coming up. I think Martin Paterson has got just about as much as he can out of the current group. It's amazing that the last two opponents had massive injury problems ad we still couldn't beat them. Maybe time for a re-think about our formation. It was interesting to hear Danny Cowley's interview after the match. He said the injuries forced him to play 4 4 2. It worked well for them, at times it seemed like they had an extra man on the pitch! Food for thought maybe?

@McPie I agree with what you have said.

Another thing we lacked yesterday was physicality & aggression. We were told that the new players were more aggressive, but the starting eleven was basically the same team as last season apart from Bass & McGoldrick & that team yesterday can't be described as being aggressive. Hall isn't an aggressive player, nor is Bennetts.

i left the game feeling very frustrated in roos, to the point i felt like i had little hope in his ability. i watched the extended highlights yesterday, because i dont want to be harsh or rely on my thoughts after the game because i realise my perspective could be more based on what i felt i had seen. i do wish he would stop being so eccentric, focusing more on playing it safe.

notts looked very good until his decision to come rushing out, when i saw it live i wondered why the hell he did not just kick it out for a throw in. i thought he slid in trying to leave something onto the colchester player.

for me it was the biggest turning point of the game, and rewatching it. i think the idea was probably right, but the execution being poor and unfortunate.

until watching the extended highlights, i thought we had some good chances that just did not fall but there are efforts that we should have done much better with and one came from a cross from lewis macari where conor grant back flicked the ball, it catches a deflection and tyrese hall is stretching to get on to it. its unfortunate, as grant may have scored but i do wonder if being more aware and passing it would have been different. to their credit everything happens in a heart beat, but there are chances where we really should be more clinical.

i think we need to be more mindful when going for it, because it ultimately left us short at the back. poor defending, and i do think roos could have done better but i would acknowledge one on ones are hard.

our problem is the defending and decision making when it comes to the opposition having chances.

i thought we played very well attacking wise, but it counts for nothing when you cant manage a team of thugs and dark arts specialists.

Colchester seem to very good at playing the better teams away from home, they haven't lost to anyone inside the top 10. However Shrewsbury aside, they haven't beaten anyone outside the top 10 away and they've only won 2 matches at home this season... So they've got problems too, they certainly aren't the blueprint to an amazing League 2 team in my eyes.

I'm not overly worried because we weren't outplayed, it was more individual errors that cost us but I agree we do have issue when it comes to playing the well organised teams in this division, Martin alluded to it in his post match interview, when he spoke about us being hesitant in the final third and slowing it down to much, which is something I agree on. I think in the final third we still need to be braver, try quicker one touch passing at times and look to get the ball in behind defences more. We play too safe at times, it's like giving the ball away is worse than trying something that goes out for a goal kick... But we tend to almost overly keep the ball in the hope that a space is going to open up and against well organised sides it never does.

I think if we notched up the tempo and the quickness of our passing and not press so high up the pitch, we might be able to get some balls behind their defense. Otherwise it's quite tedious build up play that gets to the 25 yard area, no one shoots, we play it out wide, we either cross it or call foul and if we do cross it, Jatta's not getting their first. Rinse and repeat.