Marked for Jack Senior
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Malick Sylla was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Calvin Ramsay has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.38, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Colchester United had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tom Flanagan gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Crawley Town will be the happier side with the point.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kyreece Lisbie has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Tom Flanagan
Nobody at Colchester United is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Frankie Edwards out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colchester United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Matt Macey was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Shrewsbury Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Frankie Edwards out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colchester United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Matt Macey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colchester United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Colchester United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Tucker is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ben Perry and Colchester United agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Brandon Hanlan and Doncaster Rovers agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luke Molyneux was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Owen Bailey falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Brandon Hanlan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luke Molyneux asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.