Colchester United boss Danny Cowley was disappointed that illness in his camp prevented his players from reaching the required levels to take on Bradford City in a huge League Two promotion encounter, as reported by The Gazette.
At least four United players had been poorly in the build-up to the match at Valley Parade that saw the hosts record a comprehensive 4-1 victory.
‘Not An Easy Week’
Cowley spoke of the problems his players faced this week as illness impacted Lyle Taylor, Ellis Iandolo, Jack Payne and Samson Tovide.
“We were really struggling with Lyle (Taylor), Ellis (Iandolo) and Jack Payne in particular, Samson (Tovide) too.”
“It’s so debilitating for players’ energy levels. Lyle and Jack had sickness and a couple had heavy colds, so it’s not been an easy week.”
“For us to come here on this day, we have to have our best players playing at their best, we have to have all of our players available and today, we’ve had three or four key ones that have been ill and as a consequence, maybe can’t get to the levels that we know that they’re capable of getting.”
Defensive Disappointment
Despite the effect on the players, Cowley was pleased with the way his side started the match but was disappointed with their defending throughout the afternoon.
“It was tough preparations for us, I think but having said that, after a really good start to the game where I thought we got a really good control and rhythm, we were disappointed with how we have defended crosses and how we defended the box today.”
Huge Crowd Played Huge Part
A massive crowd of over 23,000 packed into Valley Parade, showing the importance of this game for the Bantams and their promotion challenge.
Cowley believes the crowd played an important role for the home side.
“What happens in these big games, when you play in front of nearly 25,000, if you give the opponent something then momentum plays a huge part in football.”
“But we just didn’t defend well enough; we didn’t stop the cross and we were quite erratic with some of our clearances and sometimes, this happens when you get over emotional.”
“It (his side’s performance) was very up and down and that can happen when you get a bit over-emotional – you end up being quite erratic in your execution.”
Writer’s View
Cowley will be hugely disappointed with this result as this could have been a real statement of intent from his side on their promotion chances.
Bradford’s home form is the best in the league so it was always going to be a big ask of Cowley’s men to get anything from this match and the sickness in camp lessened their chances even further.
