Late Osasuna strike denies Town in Colchester friendly

Pre-match preamble

The friendly match tonight is taking place at the JobServe Community Stadium, home ground to Colchester United FC. Strangely, for me, it feels harder to get to than Portman Road, although I live in the town. Squatting on the edge of Colchester, next to the A12, it is not near the station, nowhere near the Town centre and no direct bus goes that way for me. The car park at the stadium is quite small, so the next best thing is the 'Park and Ride' which I'm told is the other side of the ghastly A12. I picture folk running across that road like lemmings – though I guess this can't be the case?

But I digress…

Tonight our opponents are Spanish professional football club CA Osasuna FC. Based in Pamplona, Navarre, they play in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football. I got there early as it was great to get back to our footballing world and I was looking forward to seeing old faces and new.

The match

There was a big cheer when they all assembled on the pitch and the game got under way.

For the first twenty minutes of the game I would say Town had the upper hand, with most of the play in their opponent's half. But Osasuna struck first in that period, and swiftly, with a four-minute rebound goal to beat Alex Palmer.

Town continued to pepper the Spanish goal with shots without success; several were lofted, and the goalkeeper was on good form. Nunez fired three powerful shots from distance but couldn't keep them down. The game gradually became more even, with the ball flowing (sometimes galloping) from end to end, and Osasuna had a few near-miss shots too, with Palmer also denying them on several occasions.

The hydration break brought a chorus of boos.

Both teams were running well up to half-time and it was not a game you could call. A bevy of changes was made for both sides on return from the break.

On 54 minutes, Chuba Akpom scored the goal he had been threatening to net since entering the pitch, converting a deep cross from Wes Burns.

Play carried on in much the same vein until the closing stages, when Osasuna's Raul Moro hit a stunning strike in off the bar to win the game for them with only eight minutes of the ninety left to play.

Ipswich Town 1–2 Osasuna

Players

Twenty-three players were used across this game: here follows my comments on some of them. Please note this doesn't mean the ones I don't mention were playing badly… nobody played badly.

I confess rather than watch the game blow by blow (and there was a couple of them from Osasuna), I was also trying to watch the individual new players carefully, which is quite difficult without missing all the rest of the action – trying to form an idea of what we might expect of their positioning, technique, ability to read the ball as well as score or save goals. I'd make a lame manager – but I'm guessing they watch many video reruns after the event for assessment purposes.

Assessing one of them was easy, Abdul Fatawu was stand-out impressive in his stint on the pitch. Sam, sitting next to me, was also singing his praises and several overheard mutterings of the crowd at half-time confirmed it. He is a really exciting player, fast and tricky, my only gripe being that he kept putting himself in a perfect, unmarked position alone out right, but the team weren't taking advantage of it – instead sending the ball back to the left-hand side of the pitch which was more of a melee.

Humphreys was noticeably playing his part too with some excellent blocking and passing – an under-rated player I think, certainly by me and perhaps by others. His loan clubs (Huddersfield and Wycombe Wanderers) have been full of praise. Getting game time and experience with them has, I'm sure, been a good career progression. One to keep an eye on this year.

Nunez had several powerful shots at goal from wide range but they went too high or too wide. Full marks for the attempts, though.

Emersonn – he showed well, fast and hard-working, but needed more feeding, I believe.

Chuba Akpom finally showed flashes of the player he was considered to be when he joined us – due, I believe, to being played in his preferred, more central position. Watch this space.

This is also true of Walle Egeli, who looked stronger, more positive and "happier" in the centre of the park, where he plays on international duty. Watch this space too.

Dara played powerfully as always, but managed to pick up another yellow card – for dissent, I think. As captain, he is very protective of his squad, especially the younger ones, but will need to be careful when doing so when the season starts. A solid player we don't want to lose to the bench; "we are his people"! (When he said that, I doubt he thought it would go "club viral".)

Other players who deserve a mention for playing with vigour, enthusiasm and intent: Mthunzi, Burns, McAteer and Greaves.

I liked that Gary O'Neil was on the touchline for almost all of the game. His indicating, gesticulating and orchestrating of the play showed he was totally engaged throughout.

Other news

GO'N explained that "newest signings Issa Diop, Daizen Maeda and Kjell Scherpen (newly arrived Dutch goalkeeper) are on a programme to build up their fitness" after joining Town, with five more friendly fixtures to come. This includes one-day double away game fixtures against Oxford United and Wycombe Wanderers coming up on Saturday afternoon (12:00 and 16:00). All three of these players were at the game, but I saw no evidence of Jaden Philogene.

I have just heard a rumour that Julio Enciso may be asked to come back to Town, which pleases me. One of my favourites. He is currently playing for Stuttgart so has links already with our new manager.

Ipswich Town trio Christian Walton, Azor Matusiwa and Jack Taylor are all out through injury.

Final thoughts

An enjoyable game, which could have gone either way. Really looking forward to getting back to Portman Road; felt a little displaced in this stadium, which was neither home nor away, so to speak.

The Osasuna fans were obviously not a huge presence, but they celebrated mightily – good to see.

There was one wry moment when the lady on my left leant across and asked me to ask Sam on my right who one of our players was…

I could only think "plus ça change"… Hah.

It is impossible to assess Town as a "team" yet with so many changes and players NOT yet included in the line-up for differing reasons. More new signings are also a distinct possibility before the transfer window closes.

I do, however, feel upbeat looking forward, when it all hopefully comes together for the beginning of the season and beyond. It already feels like a stronger team than we had at our last attempt on the Premiership battlefield – no doubt helped by the parachute payments and experience gained.

We must move forward psychologically – believing we can give a good account of ourselves. After all, in case you haven't noticed, we're 12th in the table already – ha!

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