Or we could go rogue and get the points ourselves – Colchester United, can we do ’em? Yes is the answer, but it isn’t as simple as that. The Us are flying high in 15th, five points out of touch and with two wins in four games. On the flip side, we have two points in four and are still a point from what is surely too early to call safety. Things might have to change a bit if we’re going to pull this one off and make it a merry Christmas.
Here’s some reasons why: we haven’t scored against Colchester since we mauled them and you don’t need an abacus in your stocking to work out that we need to break the duck. Our tally for scoring in the second half is pretty low too; the worst in the division. Now you can say it isn’t vital to sort this out, but we might as well bump off two birds with the one stone if we can get away with it. Not swans, obviously…
Elsewhere this Boxing Day: Crewe are off to Wolves, Brizzle Cizzle host Walsall and Notts County have the displeasure of visiting Port Vale. If we lose, Crewe will definitely keep us off the bottom. If we win, we could gain two places – we know which scenario we’d rather, and we know which one we’ve asked Father Christmas to bring us. Now, excuse us and let us go figure out whether we’ve been a good BoroGuide this year…
[expand title=”REFEREE WATCH”]
Gavin Ward – the name ring a bell? Maybe it should, because we’ve had the pleasure of his company a number of times over the last few years. The last time he took charge in a Boro’ game was our Capital One Cup success over Ipswich Town this season. And he’s also been in charge when we’ve beaten Stourbridge (first time) and MK Dons in the FA Cup. But it’ll be wise to be wary of his habit for showing the red card this season…
This season for Gavin Ward:
Games: 17 — Yellow: 54 (3.2pg), Red: 5
Our record under Gavin Ward:
P8 W4 D3 L1 F15 A5 — Yellow: 6, Red: 0[/expand]
[expand title=”FIFA14 VERDICT”]
Boro’ Line-Up:
Day; Smith, Chorley, Jones, Hartley; Morais, Doughty, Heslop, Freeman; Burrow, Zoko
If our FIFA exploits are anything to go by, then a very good Boxing Day could be in store at Colchester! Boro’ went at the hosts from the start and took the lead early on; Filipe Morais floated a free kick in from wide right and Jimmy Smith scored with the diving header. That lead was doubled not long after, when good Luke Freeman work on the left brought a cross that was converted by Morais himself.
In the second half, the Us bought a pelanty off Ben Chorley to make it 2-1 after 49′, but the Boro’ express couldn’t be stopped and the two-goal advantage was restored on 55′ – Jimmy Smith robbing the left back and pulling back for Francois Zoko to poke home. Not enough? Well, it was 4-1 on 76′ as Smith netted from a drilled Simon Heslop corner at the back post after his initial effort smacked against the bar.
FT: Colchester United 1-4 Stevenage (Smith 9′, Morais 22′, Zoko 55′, Smith 76′). Goals:
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[expand title=”BOOKIE BASHING”]
The good folk at Titan Bet are still offering a risk-free £10 wager for those who sign up. It seems that they can’t call this one, however – can you? We’re priced at 33/20, which isn’t too dissimilar in returns to a home win at 8/5. We stand at 200s to repeat the 6-1 from a couple of years ago, but we’re backing the defence to stand firm this Boxing Day – 11/10 is the going rate for both teams not to score. Other bookmakers are available…
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[expand title=”TEAM TAROT”]
