Colchester United

This was arguably Colchester’s biggest game of the season at home to fellow strugglers Tranmere Rovers, with the winners taking heart and an invaluable three points as they fight to avoid the drop. 

Colchester United took on Tranmere Rovers at the Weston Homes Community Stadium on Saturday in a game that saw the visitors take all three points. Ollie Baines takes a look at the performances of Jabo Ibehre and Dominic Vose.

Joe Dunne’s side set up with Dominic Vose attacking the left flank with Jabo Ibehre the lone target man. 

It was that very combination between Vose and Ibehre that created the first half chance in the opening couple of minutes. A neat one-two between the Colchester duo carved an opening for Ibehre to get the first attempt on goal which duly ended up wide of the mark.

A positive start that shook up Tranmere’s defence. 

Ibehre’s extra yard of pace over Tranmere right back, Matthew Pennington, saw him one-on-one with keeper Fon-Williams, but with the goal at his mercy Ibehre was only able to side-foot his shot into the body of the Tranmere goalkeeper. 
With the U's on the attack from the set piece, there was a gap for the Mersyside team to exploit, and a quick through ball left Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro through on goal as his electric pace burnt the United defence, he calmly poked past the onrushing Sam Walker to put the away side 1-0 up. 

Meanwhile, Vose was a constant thorn in the Tranmere defence as he wriggled his way through their ranks trying to create an opening. Putting in a swinging cross, Vose’s effort was cleared back to him and was duly pounced upon by the Tranmere midfield.

Vose endeavoured to win back the hearts of the U's fans as he tracked back the length of the field to help out left-back Ryan Dickson.

Vose was running himself into the ground to make amends for his previous error and he did just that right on half time. Picking the ball up wide on the left he cut inside again and produced a magical reverse-pass into the path of Dickson who lay the ball across for Freddie Sears who needed no second invitation to calmly place the ball in the back of the net. 1-1. 

With the score even at half-time it was imperative that Colchester started the second half the way the ended the first. 

Dominic Vose did just that, picking up the ball and wanting to drive at Tranmere to unlock the defence as he had done in the first half. His combination of simplistic play and flair made him a valuable player for Colchester however, at times Vose over-complicated things and attack swiftly turned into defence. 

With the scores level Colchester picked up a free-kick on the edge of the Tranmere box. An inviting distance for a shot on target, Vose stepped up and thundered a right footed effort which skimmed the top of Fon-Williams bar. 

With Jabo Ibehre unable to get into the game as much as the previous half, Colchester were on the back foot and on 67-minutes, found themselves 2-1 down after clever work down the left from Akpa Akpro saw him beat Gavin Massey before Ryan Lowe grabbed his 20th goal of the season with a simple finish.
The free-kick was to be Vose’ last contribution as he was substituted on the 69th minute. Joe Dunne changed things around in an attempt to find an equaliser. 

Ibehre was beginning to power his way into the game as Colchester went for route one. Jabo, was expertly holding up the ball to allow the wide players into the game.

Then, in a moment of poise and guile Ibehre skilfully surpassed Matthew Pennington to reach the edge of the area where he teed up Drey Wright who’s effort was expertly cleared off the line. 

Colchester were not throwing in the towel and Ibehre was at the heart of the attacks as he fed off the long balls.

With time running out the U’s had a corner in the dying seconds. Keeper, Sam Walker joined the attack. The corner was fizzed in and ball fell to Jabo Ibehre who attempted an audacious scissor kick but his clever effort ended up just wide of the mark. 

The final attempt to salvage a point for the U’s who were left empty handed.