If you were feeling optimistic about last season and now you’re not — I understand.
Colchester United finished 10th in League Two in 2024-25. A solid, respectable campaign under Danny Cowley. Play-off talk wasn’t entirely delusional. This season? Things have got a bit messier.
The Numbers
After 44 games, the U’s sit 12th in League Two with 17 wins, 12 draws and 15 losses. 58 goals for, 47 against. 63 points. On points-per-game that’s 1.43 — which would have got you 9th last year but this season’s been a proper grinder across the division.
The good news: the goals are still coming off. Jack Payne is the star of the show with 11 league goals — the club’s top scorer in all competitions. That’s a solid return from a forward.
The bad news: the results have been a seesaw. Over their last 12 league games the record is W4 D4 L4. Not terrible, but it’s a distinct lack of momentum. They bounced back from a heavy 0-3 hammering at the hands of Chesterfield on 3 March with a win — which says something about resilience.
The Danny Cowley Factor
Cowley arrived at Colchester after building Exeter City into a promotion-contending force. His time at St James’ Park was characterised by attractive football, high pressing and a genuine sense of ambition. The 2024-25 season confirmed those credentials — 10th place is no fluke.
But this campaign has seen a different pattern. The wins are there (17 is a respectable tally), but they’ve been interspersed with stretches where nothing clicks. The biggest defeat of the season — that 0-3 away loss to Chesterfield — reads like one of those days where everything went wrong at once.
The question isn’t whether Cowley can manage a League Two team. He’s proven he can. It’s whether this squad has the depth and consistency to go over the line.
What 12th Means
It’s not bad. It’s not good. It’s firmly mid-table, which is where Colchester sit between hope and resignation. There’s nothing to play for no more — no relegation battle to fight, no play-off chase on the horizon.
And yet.
There’s something about sitting in the middle of League Two that feels like wasted potential. You can see the division behind you that you should be comfortably past, and the division above that looks within reach if the right combination of results and luck aligns.
The Bottom Line
I’m not losing the plot over one campaign mid-table finish. But if you believe the club can push higher — and I think most of the faithful do after that 10th-place season — this is a season that should be doing better.
The structure feels right. The manager looks capable. But the consistency isn’t there yet. Either this squad needs a tweak to the personnel or it simply needs more time.
Either way, it’s a season worth remembering. Not a disaster, not a triumph. Just the ongoing story of a club trying to climb out of the third tier’s invisible gravity well.