Right then, Elvis has asked you for the crowd ... but I'm more interested in the result!

Option 5 for me if he picks a dodgy line up.

That prediction could be revised if any of us knew or even had an idea who would actually be playing though!

first games of the season results can be a bit like friendly results - very misleading.

I remember a few years ago Orient beat Birmingham on the first day. Birmingham won the league and Orient finished bottom!!!

I think Colchester will do us 3-1 - they have Championship quality in their side, and they are going for promotion straight back and have made that quite clear.They're aiming high and I think they'll be in the play offs, so we're well behind them in respect that we are probably 3/4 players short of being as good as they are. They're no respecter of reputations whoever they play and I have a secret admiration for Colchester for that, they regularly beat the big clubs in this division for the best part of 10 seasons. They are a club similar to what we were under Neale Cooper, but they are like that every single season.

The last 3 seasons we have got beat on the opening day of bradford, swindon and luton last year
I think we will get beat 2-1 but we might sneak a draw

OK, let's see in what way we could improve that team.

1 Jan Budtz -> ALB, slight advantage
2 Jamie McCunnie -> still available but lidds or sweeney prolly just as good
3 Robbie Elliott -> Humphreys, improvement
4 Willie Boland -> still available but possible improvement through Power
5 Michael Nelson -> still available with the option of Collins
6 Godwin Antwi (-75') -> Clark, definite improvement
7 James Brown -> could well be Foley, and if he plays like he did last Saturday I'd say there's no disadvantage there
8 Gary Liddle -> could be him again or McCunnie, in both cases no disadvantage; I just hope he doesn't ignore both and prefer Jones
9 Richard Barker -> James Brown, improvement
10 Ian Moore (-68') -> Joel Porter, slight improvement
11 Matty Robson -> Monkhouse, definite improvement

For me that makes an altogether better team, depending of course on the manager's selection!


Parmo: "they regularly beat the big clubs in this division for the best part of 10 seasons"

Maybe they've taken one or two notable scalps, but apart from their promotion season their form in this division has been decidedly average, finishing more often than not in 15th-18th place. That promotion season was also our Scotty season, and that's the only occasion they've beaten us.
But I don't think any of that has any relevance to Saturday. Colchester have everything to prove, and though they might have spent heavily to improve, it's on a team that really does need a lot of improvement after finishing monumentally bottom.

They don't frighten me.

New Season,new start gotta fancy 3 points in any home game.

Convincing win with a James Brown hat-trick please!

I'm tempted to put some money on him finishing top scorer in the league, but if he's on fire from now until christmas, he'll be off to pastures new I reckon.

I reckon it will be a tight game that can go either way, so I flipped a coin and plumped for unlucky defeat

option 5 for me.reflects my pessimistic outlook for this season.hope I'm wrong,but colchester will do well this yearand I think we're running on quicksand.