Small club with a small club mentality put in their place

I know a few Colchester fans, and I had always liked the club, the good family reputation that goes with the club and the town of Colchester too. This week, however, my attitude towards the club has changed somewhat.

Whilst I can understand them feeling aggrieved at the loss of Paul Lambert to Norwich at the start of the season, the pathetic statement emanating from the Colchester board have shown them to be very small minded. Comments that they would rather see empty seats than sell them to Norwich fans, banning people from Norfolk from buying tickets for the match, taking back tickets from those who had already bought them and a series of other puerile actions and comments do nothing for their reputation.

A Colchester fan was sat near me in the Norwich home terracing for the first day of the season 7-1 Colchester win. He suffered no hassle, was not ejected fromthe ground, and Norwich fans showed a degree of maturity sadly missing from Colchester in recent days.

I love the way that Colchester justified their actions by stating that they had sold all their tickets to Colchester fans so that was one of the reasons they would not sell them to Norwich fans. Of course they ignore the fact that several hudnred seats today in the home terracing will have had Suffolk, Essex and London based Norwich fans sat in them.

So to the game. Five nil to Norwich and Norwich missed a penalty too. Norwich's silence on the way that Colchester behaved this week was the right decision. Let the football do the talking, and it did.

A  team with a small club mentality is likely to remain a small club. That's a shame as the decent Colchester fans I know deserve better.