Steven Old's former club having a great season for them up in 6th spot.
Colchester (15th) did have a player shown a straight red at 60 mins, when down 2-0. They are only 7 points off the promotion playoff spots, but are going to need a good winning run at some point to have any hope of getting there.
Full game in a 1-2 home loss to Exeter City (6th).
CU down to 21st, 9 points above the drop zone (only bottom two are relegated to the National League), but are now on a long 13 match winless streak, stretching back to mid December.
They will be concerned with relegation than any dream of making the promotion playoffs.
Colchester 3rd last (bottom 2 only relegated), and still 7 points above bottom two, but will be nervous. Their recent record is woeful, and haven't scored now in 5 games or 450 odd mins of football.
Full game in a 1-2 home loss to Bradford City (12th). Colchester 4th last, and only 4 points from safety. They have only 1 win in their last 22 league games!
Full game as Colchester (22nd) get towelled up 5-2 at Oldham Athletic (15th) Was 3-2 until 91st min. CU (5 games left) still 5 points above drop zone, but their form is woeful, and teams below have games in hand.
Full game in a 2-0 win over Southend (23rd). Relegation 6 pointer. Colchester 21st (GD -17), and now 9 points clear of the drop zone (Southend GD -31) with 3 games left.
So this win basically ensures they stay in League Two.
Smith must be some danger of dropping out of a full strength AWs contention, if he stays at this lowly level. Reid (if stays fit), and M Boxall definitely ahead of him. Tuiloma & potentially Pijnaker. Even Payne if he stays a CB long term.
Smith one over age guy who would likely definitely put his hand up for Tokyo, if Hay had limited availability options. Boxall & Tuiloma will be mid season MLS, and Reid who knows.
Another Kiwi in the UK, whose team survive the threat of relegation. Smith full game in a 1-0 win over Salford City (9th). Colchester 6 points clear of the drop zone with 1 game left. Southend & Grimsby confirmed for the drop.
Probably a bit hollow though for Smith, who at the start of the season had been talking about helping CU get promoted to League One. He'll be aware that his spot in a full strength AWs squad is under threat these days, and playing down in League Two won't help.
Another Kiwi in the UK, whose team survive the threat of relegation. Smith full game in a 1-0 win over Salford City (9th). Colchester 6 points clear of the drop zone with 1 game left. Southend & Grimsby confirmed for the drop.
Probably a bit hollow though for Smith, who at the start of the season had been talking about helping CU get promoted to League One. He'll be aware that his spot in a full strength AWs squad is under threat these days, and playing down in League Two won't help.
I reckon he might even be in trouble of missing a coming All Whites squad, he’s almost definitely not a starter (Reid/Boxall first choice) then guys like Tuiloma, Pijnaker are much younger (26 and 22), and even Tim Payne has done well at centre back this season. English fourth tier is quite low and Smith is 31, but his experience might just keep him in the mix.
Tommy Smith: “There’s relief that we got ourselves out of the mess we put ourselves in but obviously you look at the playoff teams and you want to be there. The improvement we’ve made over the last few weeks has shown that we have got the potential to be there next season so we’ll use the last few weeks as our benchmark and the platform to build from.”
— Colchester United FC (@ColU_Official) July 5, 2021
He could even be a slim change of a very late call up to Tokyo. No word yet on Boxall's injury. Always a chance Reid pulls out. Timbers won't release Tuiloma at such late notice in season. Suddenly Payne is the only CB. Unlikely but could happen.
— Colchester United FC (@ColU_Official) July 5, 2021
He could even be a slim change of a very late call up to Tokyo. No word yet on Boxall's injury. Always a chance Reid pulls out. Timbers won't release Tuiloma at such late notice in season. Suddenly Payne is the only CB. Unlikely but could happen.
Reid is with the squad and has been training - would be a strange time to withdraw given he had to actively advocate for the Hammers to release him for the Olympics. Injury the only risk in my mind and even then there's a spare CB in the squad. The ship has probably sailed on Smith getting to Tokyo.
Yipe made mention of Smith as a slim chance of a late Olympics callup, before saw yesterday's photo of Winston Wiremu actually training in Japan. And isn't it great to see him and the Woodsman there, with all those young talented Kiwi players.
If likes of Stanger & Pjinaker impress Hay in Japan - even if they don't get much game time (Payne or Boxall starting with Reid) - real risk for Smith that he will slip well down to about 7th or so in the AWs CB pecking order. So well out of the running for a future full strength 23 man AWs squad. He may have already resigned himself, to his national team days now being over.
Reid a bizarre outside chance for the Nix? .1% chance? Just trying to think of CBS who are better than TPayne. As, well a TPayne CB fan.
If we got him on loan he'd have to be the most expensive marquee in A-League history on paper, regardless of what we pay the hammers for the loan deal. I wonder how much Kansas paid for him, surely no where near his complete wage bill.
Edit: google says they paid $700k USD which is about 15% of Reids wage bill.
Reid a bizarre outside chance for the Nix? .1% chance? Just trying to think of CBS who are better than TPayne. As, well a TPayne CB fan.
If we got him on loan he'd have to be the most expensive marquee in A-League history on paper, regardless of what we pay the hammers for the loan deal. I wonder how much Kansas paid for him, surely no where near his complete wage bill.
Edit: google says they paid $700k USD which is about 15% of Reids wage bill.
Hence the low probability- it’d probably require him to really really wanna do it enough to sacrifice some of his entitlements. But low probability isn’t zero, right?
Reid a bizarre outside chance for the Nix? .1% chance? Just trying to think of CBS who are better than TPayne. As, well a TPayne CB fan.
If we got him on loan he'd have to be the most expensive marquee in A-League history on paper, regardless of what we pay the hammers for the loan deal. I wonder how much Kansas paid for him, surely no where near his complete wage bill.
Edit: google says they paid $700k USD which is about 15% of Reids wage bill.
Hence the low probability- it’d probably require him to really really wanna do it enough to sacrifice some of his entitlements. But low probability isn’t zero, right?
Yeah, it would be whatever westham would accept for the loan. As I said above Kansas paid 15% of his wages, would westham accept 10? What's the difference to their bottom line really.
Unlikely to happen of course, I remember when Nelsen said he planned to finish his career at the Nix...
Listening to Nelsen on that recent Between Two Beers Podcast, he just basically woke up one day and had completely lost the love of playing football. Think his bad knee was giving him a lot of grief by then. Struck him most when sitting in the Loftus Road dressing room after a big QPR upset over neighbours Chelsea, and he just sat there numb with no real emotion of the occasion.
Pretty much retired on the spot, even though QPR offered him another one (or was it two?) year deal. So was never going to come to the Nix for comparative peanuts after that, if the competitive juices weren't flowing anymore. I guess he was always likely to head into some sort of successful & stimulating post football career in the US, once he worked out how that was going to look.
Tommy Smith & Reid, both already part own football academies? But really Reid once his Hammers contract runs it's course, and if his body is still regularly failing him - he might as well retire. He's getting paid so much over this 5 year deal, he'll be well set for life post football. Don't know if he'd have much motivation to uproot his family down to NZ, a country he hasn't lived in for 20+ years, for a season at the Nix.
Reid might want to come down here for a working holiday with hi family. A-League season is so short it would feel cruisy to him. Maybe in a couple of years?
