In contrast to the grand setting in Sheffield, City eek out another three points in the slightly more modest surroundings of Layer Road, Colchester.

Sat in the pre-match pub yesterday, getting ready for a victory margin of one goal in the afternoons match, from the regular match reporting group "So James, do you fancy a go match reporting this afternoon".

"Alright" came the reply, fully expecting the joke to have finished there

A good hour before kick off came the concerned remark "So, you sure you're alright doing the report this afternoon then". Suddenly the bitter didn't go down as well then.

A brief practice of reciting the words: fuble, custodian of the leather and various spellings of Allsopp later, pinching various sheet of paper off other people and taking away the official tiger-chat match reporting pen and I was away

Reaching the outside of Colchester's ground we were asked to sign a petition by Colchester fans to support their move to a new ground. Once inside you could see why. I was reminded of those shoe-box stadiums, similar to Chester and Scunthorpe, however in the construction, they didn't manage to get 4 stands that matched, just a mixture of small, old stands bolted together.

In the pre-match warm up, the announcement came over the tannoy for any youngsters to come onto the pitch at half time to take penalties against Eddie the Eagle. With the thought of seeing our former utterly useless ski jumper, we could be in for a great afternoon. We were then rather disappointed to see a rather odd looking eagle mascot. I say eagle, but in my bird watching days, I've never seen an eagle with such a large beak (actually to tell the truth, my 'bird' watching always tended to involve them wearing rather short skirts - but that's enough of that)

So we carded yet another unchanged lineup of

Myhill
Joseph Cort Delaney Dawson
France Ashbee Keane Elliott
Facey Barmby

I have often though in reading previous match reports that maybe the reporter should have placed Barmby behind Facey to give a better representation of the lineup. How wrong I was, as watching yesterday Barmby played as much the forwards as Facey.

Colchester had obviously watched the highlights of our match against Walsall, as they tried to copy our kick off routine. From the kick-off the ball was played long to their right wing, which was then crossed to the back of our box. The problem was with copying us that they forgot to tell their forwards this play, as none of them had made it to the edge of our box, so Cort was able to clean.

Soon after, Colchester played the ball down the left for their number 11 to run onto. Jamie Cade's pace easily beat Dawson, but Delaney came across with a covering tackle to give away a corner. This corner saw the ball scrappily bounce about may players, before running to the edge of the box, where a relatively tame shot was easily caught by Boaz in the goal

A Colchester through ball was then received by Boaz who kicked to ball out. With Colchester winning the ball back, it was passed to our right, where their winger cut inside and had a shot again this was easily gathered by Boaz.

After 10 minutes of the match, I was starting to think that neither keeper had been severely stretched. The Colchester keeper, Aidan Davison (ex-cod head, and tiger back in the days when all Northern Ireland keepers had to play for Hull) played the ball long, but was cleared out by Delaney. Ashbee then challenged for the ball, by climbing over the Colchester forward. The resulting free kick was clearer long to Elliott. He then released France in the inside right channel to run in and score from the right hand edge of the box.

Well I say France. To be perfectly honest I'd noted down that it was Delroy who made the run and the goal. Well given their appearance and physique it's very easy to mix these two up (and I was also relieved to remember that one of our premier match reporters once confused John Eyre with Theo Whitmore, so perhaps I'm in good company).

Colchester win a free kick on the right, which is played to the powerful Richard Garcia who collects the ball, but is forced too wide and his shot hits the side netting

After 15 minutes, Keane wins the ball and plays it to the right to France, who has just 1 defender to beat. However he's unable to do this and a good challenge is cleared.

Colchester get another free-kick, this time on our left. The ball is played over to the back post, where both Elliott and Delaney go to head the ball clear. This results in them both tumbling to the ground where we get a free-kick. An odd decision, as no Colchester player was anywhere near the ball at the time.

So far our defence is being troubled by the pace of Cade and the power of Garcia, although neither are really creating any serious threats to us. I was later commented that a problem appears to exist in communication between our centre-backs and full-backs, which is the area that Cade and Garcia seem to be exploiting quite well.

A Facey shot wins City a corner, which is played to the back post by Keane, where Elliott is waiting. Elliott does head the ball goalwards, but is too soft to beat Davison.

Colchester again attack, this time down our right, where Joseph is easily beaten. The cross is headed out by Delaney for a throw. the throw in is then headed out for a corner by Damien. The corner is then headed out by Delaney for yet another throw. However his single handed attempts at stopping Colchester are stopped by a head injury. As this was quickly sorted out, he has to leave the pitch, much to the annoyance of the City faithful around me (but surely if he receives treatment on the pitch and no player is booked, he has to go off?). So without Delaney, the throw-in is headed out for a corner by Elliott, which is flick beyond the back post before Ashbee is adjudged to have fouled a Colchester winger. The resulting free-kick is played to the back post where the waiting Garcia diverts the ball into the back of the net. However as he'd used his hand to put the ball there, he's booked, and we're given a free-kick.

A matter of minutes later, Cort gets the ball on the edge of our box and kicks the ball clear. Several seconds later comes a very late challenge for Garcia. A definite booking under normal circumstances, but the referee knowing he'd just booked his lets him off with a warning.

Most of our play so far seems to involve playing the ball right to France. Yet again this pays dividends as a cross from him is chested down by Facey to swivel on the spot, and put the ball over the bar

Another Colchester ball down our right sees both Cort and Joseph floundering, with Myhill cleaning up after them.

Again a long ball down to the right edge of our box sees Garcia beating Cort to the hearer, which is flicked to the middle, but yet another tame shot is easily saved by Myhill.

Just as we're getting most of our attacks down the right, Colchester are also getting attacks built up down our right. Yet again this happens with Joseph out of position. a low cross is just behind Cort, who only manages to get a toe on the ball, but Delaney clears well. His long ball up front wins us a corner, which is played to the back post, where Elliott heads into the net, only to be rules out for a push on a Colchester defender

The first half saw City mainly controlling the match, with Colchester limited to several soft chances which didn't really trouble Myhill

Into the second half, we got a close up view of Grimsby's former custodian of the leather, who had to endure a torrid 45 minutes of banter from the City fans behind the goal. Aside from an initial burst of "City reject", the City fans contented themselves with chants of "Davison, smells of fish"

A couple of Colchester attacks are again easily dealt with by Myhill. After about 5 minutes of the half, a long Myhill clearance is played to Barmby on the left wing. A short run down the wing, he plays it just inside to Elliott who's running in. Elliott cuts into the box and shoots to the back of the box. This is fubled by Davison and goes in at the back post, much to the delight of the City fans. We then content ourselves with questioning Aidan's rather dubious goal keeping ability.

A couple of further chances down the right from France are dealt with by the Colchester defense, before France moves into the middle of midfield and plays a nice ball through to Facey who could have been through in on goal, but his first touch badly lets him down, so Colchester can clear.

We win a free kick on the left of the box, which is played in by Dawson. The ball is headed clear, only to return and again headed clear. In the meantime the banter aimed at Davison continues.

Colchester try an attack down out left. Dawson dives in but missed the ball. Delaney tried the same thing, with the same result. Fortunately the shot from about 20 yards is well over the bar.

The resulting goal kick releases Facey down the right. A cross to Barmby at the back post sees his shot blocked.

Colchester then cross from the left, where the shot is blocked and goes out for a corner. The corner is flicked on at the front post before being cleared to a Colchester player about 20 yards out but shots wide.

With 20 minutes to go, Lewis replaces Keane, in an attempt to keep us more solid.

A short period of head tennis in midfield is played left, where Colchester win a free kick, but a low ball is easily caught by Boaz.

A run down the Colchester right has the ball crossed to the back post, which is met by recent Colchester substitute Gareth Williams (and no, he's not the ex-tiger Gareth Williams, as many behind me suggested) who puts the ball in the back of our net to give the U's some hope of getting something from the game.

Taylor then replaces Facey with Allsopp, who sets up our next chance. Allsopp out on the left plays the ball to Barmby. He then plays the ball across the box towards France at the opposite side of the box, but is just too far in front for France to reach this.

France again gets the ball on the right, who crosses low to the edge of the box where Lewis is waiting who had an opening to try a shot, however he elected to pass the ball further left to Elliott, but he couldn't quite get to the ball which runs out for a throw in.

A throw in by Joseph to France is played back to Joseph, who seemed rather startled to be getting the ball back. Ashbee picks up the loose ball, and cuts in the right angle of the box. He tried a cross-come-shot, similar to his winner at Yeovil, which crashed off the top of the bar

Another ball down our right sees Joseph running up the wing to the ball. however he was easily beat by a Colchester defender who put the bal out for a throw in. We then saw Barmby replaced by Wilbraham.

A ball down the Colchester inside right channel has Delaney clear the ball for a corner. This corner is played across the goal with no city defender challenging the ball, fortunately no Colchester forward was anywhere near this to take advantage

With a couple of minutes of the match remaining, Wilbraham is fouled about 25 yards from Davison's goal. The resulting free kick is played deep to Allsopp at the back post, but heads the ball wide.

A ball from the left by Elliott goes towards Wilbraham. However Davison gets to the ball first. When collecting this ball, his feet were clearly outside the box, but it seemed that he managed to keep his hands inside the box and hence didn't handle the ball out of the area.

With a Colchester defender in possession on the half way line, Allsopp challenges and wins the ball. This has him running in one on one with Davison, but a low drive is blocked.

The match finished up with Colchester winning yet another corner which came to nothing before the final whistle signalled another 3 points for the Tigers.

I'll leave you with one thing you may wish to consider. So far this season I've attended the matches against Bournemouth (won 1-0), Barnsley (won 2-1), Peterborough (won 3-2), Chesterfield (won 1-0) and yesterday. My next two matches I'll be at are against Doncaster and Stockport. With my record being that every time I've gone we've won by 1 goal - I'd advise you to get down to the bookies for those matches.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Joseph, Cort, Delaney, Dawson; France, Ashbee, Keane, Elliott; Barmby, Facey.  Subs: Lewis (for Keane, 70), Allsopp (for Facey, 75), Wilbraham (for Barmby, 84), Duke, Green.

Goals: France 11; Elliott 50

Booked: Dawson

Sent Off: None

COLCHESTER UNITED: Davison, Stockley, Chilvers, Brown, White, Garcia, Watson, Bowry, Keith, Cade, Halford.  Subs: Williams (for Cade, 69), Bowditch (for Bowry, 86), Gerken, Hunt, Johnston.

Goals: Williams 73

Booked: Garcia

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: S Tanner

ATTENDANCE: 4,046