Action needed now after City crash to another humiliating defeat

Report by Trina Lake (Echo Sport)

Exeter City 1
Morgan
Colchester 5  
Bowen (2), Irving (2), Parkinson

Exeter City supporters have the right to expect manager Jim Iley to move into the transfer market before Thursday's deadline to strengthen a squad whose shameful inadequacies were laid bare in Saturday's thrashing by promotion outsiders Colchester.

City's lowest lowest home league crowd of the season 1,825 witnessed a criminally inept performance that lacked pride and commitment.

And nobody could blame those faithful fans for throwing in the towel and staying away from next Saturday's home game against Hartlepool if they are expected to pay good money to see the exact same players on show again.

Iley desperately needs to do something to maintain interest in the team's fortunes for the last five remaining home games. Some degree of success at Halifax tomorrow night would help but an injection of new blood is called for to satisfy home supporters that City really are aiming to build a better club.

City have no money to spend on transfer fees but many clubs are prepared to release players now to save two months' wages. There must be at least one good, experienced midfielder available to fill the void that City have had all season.

Iley was shell-shocked after Saturday's thrashing at the hands of Colchester and warned that several of the players who had let the club down so badly would be on the dole at the end of the season.

"Every one of them should be ashamed of themselves. It is deplorable when you see a home performance like that. It was an insult to our supporters. Pathetic there is no other word for it," he said.

It was surely City's worst home performance of the season and was totally unacceptable after the 7-1 pounding at Scunthorpe on Tuesday.

The expected determination to erase the memory of that humiliation just never materialised against a lively Colchester side who could hardly believe their luck at being given so much time and space to operate in.

Instead of knuckling down to what was an admittedly difficult task against a free-scoring side like Colchester, City stood off and let the opposition run riot. There was hardly a tackle or a challenge for the ball that merits a mention. Too many of the youngsters went to pieces on a treacherous muddy surface and even the seasoned professionals slouched their way through the match.

"Not one of our players can go away from here feeling an ounce of pride in his performance," said Iley. He might well have excluded the unfortunate Lee Smelt from that verbal lashing. Smelt was brought in on loan from Cardiff City to replace Jeff Wood, axed after the Scunthorpe debacle, and he must have wondered what hit him. He was without support time after time and could not be blamed for any of the five goals he let in.

City were thrown into total disarray when top scorer Ray Pratt was stretchered off after just 15 minutes with an ankle injury. He was whisked off to hospital for X-rays, and examinations revealed ligament damage.

City were running around like headless chickens as they tried miserably to reorganise. Eventually Nick Marker was pushed up front to partner Trevor Morgan for the second half, but the decision to take him out of the back four and replace him with the snail-paced Forbes Phillipson-Masters against one of the liveliest attacks in the Fourth Divi- sion was highly question- able. For all their deficiencies, though, City had managed to hold Colchester to a one-goal lead at half time. Keith Bowen had put the Essex side in front in the 32nd minute when Smelt could only palm a dangerous Tony English cross straight on to the unmarked striker's head.

Goalkeeper Alec Chamberlain was virtually redundant at the other end but failed to respond well when he was eventually called into action. City equalised when Martin Ling sent Morgan through on his own in the 50th minute and as the 'keeper came out the big centre forward slotted the ball past him from the edge of the penalty area for his seventh goal since joining the club.

Ling should have put City in front a couple of minutes later when he burst clear down the right, cut inside full-back Ian Phillips on the edge of the penalty area, but shot wide of the far post.

That miss was made all the more significant in the 54th minute as Colchester went back in front. English again crossed from the left for Bowen to tap home from close range.

The goal that really killed the game was the best of the match. It came in the 61st minute when City only half cleared a Bowen cross and the ball dropped to Noel Parkinson who sent a spectacular volley screaming into the top corner of the net from 20 yards with Smelt unsighted.

From then on it was one way traffic with City dissolving into a quivering mass before their bewildered fans.

In the 83rd minute Phillipson Masters made a feeble attempt at a back pass which Russell Irving gratefully accepted to score Colchester's fourth and within two minutes he had grabbed a fifth, although this time there was a heavy suspicion of offside.

Irving could have completed his hat-trick in the dying seconds seconds but slipped as - unmarked yet again he tried to turn in another cross from impressive winger Perry Groves. City were mighty relieved to hear the final whistle but it was a case of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. The roasting they 5 had from Colchester hardly compared with the one Iley had waiting for them!

Exeter City: Smelt, Kirkup, King, McNichol, Marker, Viney, Ling, O'Shea, Morgan, Pratt, Burgher. Sub: Phillipson-Masters (on for Pratt 16).

Colchester: Chamberlain, Hedman, Phillips, Parkinson, Day, Houston, Groves, Osborne, r Bowen, Irving, English. Sub: Farrell (on for Phillips 63).

Attendance: 1,825.