Colchester United supporter Si Collinson's views on the U's

FOOTBALL is a game of two halves, 45 minutes each divided by 15 minutes.

It's simple in principle and should be free of such variables that make the two halves so different.

But that was not the case for Colchester United against Cambridge United.

The first half was a strong rounded performance from the U's, going in a goal up.

That was followed by 15 minutes of grabbing refreshments, having a cigarette and finding out yet again you have failed to win anything on the half-time draw.

As the players came back out you could be forgiven for expecting to see more of the same after all, what can change in the small matter of 15 minutes?

Well, sadly, in all honesty for some reason the answer to that was everything for the U's.

It looked and felt like we had all somehow been dropped into another game.

The second-half performance was a world away from the first half and painful to witness the change.

Individual and team errors where evident all over the place, that said Luke Gambin's introduction did settle things slightly.

So now we are three games into the current season, do we suddenly start ringing all the alarm bells and call it a crisis?

In my humble opinion, not yet. It takes time for the season to pan out and really it's not until Christmas that things really take shape.

But I do however think that certain players need to be dropped/rested (depending on how harsh you are in putting it) in order to freshen the stating XI up and cause players to fight for their places.

I am not going to name the players as it's a matter of opinion and I know from social media everyone has their own views, so is more just stating what I think needs to be done.

Also on the matter of opinion, I know the issue of clapping the players after a game massively divides the supporters as a group.

I personally do as I show the support and it is not like (no matter how bad the performance) they set out to lose.

It hurts the players just as much, plus the fans turning on them does not help the situation or aid improvement.

If you do not want to clap or show your disappointment in other ways, then that's completely your choice.

But on social media after the Cambridge defeat, there were fans labelling and ostracising those who clapped.

Remember it is each to their own and personal choices; any debate about the issues is healthy, if done correctly.

One thing I know we will all be in agreement with is that improvement is needed.

We have another home game on Saturday and a chance to get behind the lads and hopefully start to put this league season right, before the trip to Crystal Palace in the cup.