FA Cup - Peterborough

The romance of the F A Cup is with us at Layer Road for the first time in a couple of years. After being dumped out of the cup away at Barnet in last year's 3rd Round we were looking for something special to rekindle the memory of the season before that when we made it all the way to Chelsea in the 5th Round. Something special was on the cards too since we beat Charlton away in the Championship on New Year's Day to start 2008 off on a positive note.

I really expected a good turn out for this encounter with one of our East Anglian rivals, despite the fact they are in League Two, and especially because they have Ferguson Jnr in the managerial position. I took advantage of the automatic issue of tickets for cup games to keep my usual seats warm and I expected to see all the familiar faces around me.

I was in for a real shock on all fronts today. We only recognised two others in our area of seating. It seems that very few season ticket holders chose to buy their own seats for the Cup and there were huge gaps in the stands all round the ground - except in the away terraces which were full. I was shocked to hear that the total gate was just over 4000, our lowest of the season by a long way. What on earth has happened to the Layer Road 'faithful'?

What on earth has happened to the players yet again? Another abysmal performance only made worse by the fact that even the players know they are playing badly (post-match interview with BBC Essex) yet they don't know what to do about it. It seems they are happy to be dropped and replaced with new players if the transfer window should open wide enough to let through a glimmer of hope for us. I have to question who in their right mind would want to come and play for us at the moment. Most of the first team squad clearly don't.

I think it's time for Teddy Sheringham to re-evaluate what he wants to get out of this season. I really hoped that some of his experience would rub off onto the others, but I fear that it has worked the other way. Our shining star is beginning to fade and I'd much rather we let him go than drag him down with us the way we are performing at the moment. The difference in class between Sheri and the others is far too wide and there isn't a hint that anyone wants to match him. I'm glad he managed to snatch the ball quickly to grab the penalty kick and put it away with deadly accuracy.

That was the only good point in a match that again saw us give in to simple crosses and allow the opposition to run straight through us. We didn't compete, we didn't challenge for the ball, we didn't string together any meaningful passes, we didn't look like we were ever going to score. Losing 1-3 is what we deserved and I would have been tempted to say that we can now concentrate on our league position, but I fear that might be beyond a few of the players.

Perhaps it's just a passing phase. Perhaps we have hit rock bottom and the players will rise to the challenge. Perhaps there are a few players out there who fancy their chances at keeping us in the Championship for our new ground.

I read somewhere that football is the new religion. We're already on our knees. Perhaps if we keep our hands close together in front of us and we mutter some kind words of encouragement, and we promise to forget all previous transgressions, missed opportunities, bad passes, and poor defending, we just might, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, ...

Match 13 - Blackpool

... and so we descend the steps into the depths of despair and darkness. The light at the end of the tunnel appears to be indicating something along the lines of 'League One - Here We Come'.

The writing was on the wall of the tunnel at the start of this game. The guard of honour on the pitch as the players emerged was one of our junior teams wearing the colours of our opposition - tangerine! As someone told me at the time, we could have been playing any other team in the league and there wouldn't have been a clash - but for this one day only it just had to be orange. Who was it that suggested the future's bright ...?

Anyway, everyone agrees this was our worst display in the Championship, ... ever. I've been saying that things can only get better for us, but the lads have defied me and decided to dig in for the long run. They're making me sweat it out until the end of the season I reckon.

It's got me thinking that it's good for every set of football fans to be placed in this position at some time during their lives - bottom of the table. It makes you realise that everyone's fallible. No-one has a divine right to be top of the league year after year. No-one has a right to win all their games. Except that there appears to be a number of club owners, and fans, who believe that's just the case. It's a view supported by the FA, UEFA, and FIFA in the way they manage and structure the game.

The old First Division used to be a great place for football until the Premier League happened. Now there appears to be a real issue about the quality of clubs that earn their place by playing the best football over a whole season in a lower league. Let's not forget that some Coca Cola League Two teams used to be in the top flight in the not so distant past - Bradford City and Notts County. But people also try to argue that Leeds and Nottingham Forest are 'really' Premiership quality clubs. Sorry - look at their results and league positions over the last few years. Then look at Colchester United. We ARE a Championship club. At least we are this season.

Next season we will be whatever we are at that time. Oh yes I desperately want us still to be in the Championship and that's what I'll be cheering for right up to the end of this season. But I'll also cheer a few other things as we stagger along the Championship tightrope, and I'm pleased to say that there are hundreds of other U's fans who are doing the same.

Witness the scene towards the end of the Blackpool game when the opposition make a substitution. They replace the scorer of their two goals and the home crowd gives him a round of applause. OK it was Scott Vernon and he used to be one of us, albeit for just 4 games at the end of our promotion season.

Witness the scene when we've finally been beaten and the players are leaving the pitch - most of the crowd has left early, but several hundred did stay behind and applaud both sets of players off the field. I'm proud to be a U's fan.

Were you watching, Jamie Cureton? No, of course not.

Match 12 - Southampton

It's Boxing Day and another Christmas is upon us. We've needed something to take our minds off the drop to bottom place in the table after last week's defeat at QPR (now the richest club in the country with £100 billion of Formula 1 motor racing money backing them). It's lifted their game and their league position above us and out of the bottom three as well. Perhaps Christmas will see a change in our fortunes too. In one respect it has, our highest home attendance of the season so far with over 6100. That's not far off capacity and I saw three pairs of empty seats directly in front of me as well. But that also meant the cold wind could hit me directly.

It didn't feel like a big crowd today. Southampton did bring quite a few and they only had a couple of chants to entertain us with. They did try the old chestnut about us 'going down' but that's boring. We had high hopes since we beat them 2-0 here during our home run last season.

The lack of action at times today meant the whole stadium descended into silence a few times - it was quite eerie really, especially for a ground that has been hailed as one of the noisiest in the league. Quite ironically one of the biggest cheers from home fans happened when a Southampton player mis-hit the ball into the crowd. The biggest cheer from the away supporters was reserved fro the kids penalty competition at half time, which was almost better entertainment than the rest of the match.

Another 1-1 draw at home - the 4th time in two months. One point is better than none however, and it does give us some hope for the weekend coming up. It does also leave us 2 points adrift at the bottom of the table, when a win would have seen us climb two places.

Probably the most desperate thing about the whole match is the continued lack of confidence shown by our players. There are every few occasions when they try to string together more than 2 passes - and sometimes that's beyond them. I'm sure they would benefit from a course of hypnotherapy. Or should the fans be given this luxury? Maybe it happened last season.

Did we really finish in tenth place? Are we really playing in the Coca Cola Championship or is it an alternative reality drummed into our heads by some clever (or boring) chanting by opposition fans a couple of seasons ago? Maybe we'll wake up soon and find that this season has been the fantasy and we can get ourselves back on track for a grandstand finish and march proudly into Cuckoo Farm in 2008 as a Championship club.

I can wish can't I?