Colchester United 1 West Ham United 1

Friday, 26th July 2002
by Geoff Toates

I normally go to the pub on a Friday night but tonight I decided to deviate from the norm and drove to Layer Road.

I should have known better of course. After 5 minutes Colchester could, maybe should, have scored twice. On both occasions Ian Pearce inexplicably collapsed leaving the Colchester forward clear on goal. A combination of poor finishing and top quality goalkeeping by DJ kept the score at 0-0.

Frankly there was little to enthuse about. The announcement that our No 4 was a certain Mamma Mammouli (I have no idea if that's how you spell his name) kept everyone guessing. Not only do I not know how to spell is name I don't know where he comes from, who he has played for or anything else about him. On the evidence of tonight's 60 minutes ish of action that situation is likely to remain unchanged.

As the game developed it soon became apparent that the main objective was to build up match fitness and avoid doing anything too hazardous. There is no way I would criticize this approach, my only criticism at this time concerned my own judgment when I realised I was thirsty and I could and maybe should have been in the pub.

The only occasions we threatened in the first half was during a period of pressure when we won three quick corners. After the first of these Ian Pearce appeared to have a header cleared off the line. I say "appeared" because I was standing behind the goal at the other end of the ground. Joe Cole also had a shot beaten away by the U's keeper.

JC in fact was one of the plus points tonight. He looked lively and his trickery was one of the few highlights of the game. Oddly when we scored JC wasn't involved directly. In fact it was the much maligned Titi Camara who had come on as a substitute not long before chipped a delightful cross over from the left. It was nodded down for Defoe to finish with his usual aplomb.

His usual aplomb had unfortunately been missing some moments earlier when he picked up a through ball, neatly sidestepped the keeper, but then slid the ball yards wide of the gaping goal. Still it's better to get those misses out of your system on a Friday evening in Colchester than a cold Saturday at Upton Park in November.

The plus points as far as I'm concerned were that Seb Schemmel got a full 90 minutes of action and it seems his injury has not had any adverse effects, other than the obvious lack of match fitness. It's also worth mentioning that for the short time Camara was on the pitch (around 25 minutes) he did look up for it. He made more challenges and tackles tonight that in his whole West Ham career to date. Another plus point is that no one appeared to get injured.

The starting line up was (4-4-2):

James
Schemmel ; Repka; Pearce; Winterburn
Mammouli(?); Cole; Carrick; Labant
Kanoute; Defoe


At various stages of the second half substitutions were made allowing some action to:

Camara; Garcia; Moncur; McCann; Minto (and a bloke wearing the No 20 shirt who I didn't recognise).

A final observation is that there has still been no sighting of Youssef Sofiane. I would have thought these friendlies would have been an ideal introduction into the English game.

Still - what do I know?

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Match Facts

West Ham United: , , , , , , , , , , .

Goals: None.

Booked: None.

Sent off: None.

: .

Subs not used: .

Goals: .

Booked: .

Sent off: None.

Referee: .

Attendance: 0.

Man of the Match: .