{"id":584807,"date":"2021-02-23T19:56:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=584807"},"modified":"2021-02-23T20:00:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T01:00:24","slug":"head-coach-steve-ball-leaves-colchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/23\/head-coach-steve-ball-leaves-colchester-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Head Coach Steve Ball Leaves Colchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/01\/colchester-united-sign-full-back-josh-doherty-on-loan-from-crawley-town\/\" target=\"_self\">Colchester United<\/a> head coach Steve Ball has left the club following a 2-1 loss to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/01\/exeter-city-sign-winger-robbie-willmott-on-loan-from-newport-county\/\" target=\"_self\">Exeter City<\/a> on Tuesday (February 23) night.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/09\/efl-salary-caps-withdrawn\/\" target=\"_self\">League Two<\/a> side are without a win in 13 games.<\/p>\n<h2>Steve Ball Leaves Colchester United After 13 Game Winless Run<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Club Statement. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ColU?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ColU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colchester United FC (@ColU_Official) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColU_Official\/status\/1364339734621933569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 23, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Unacceptable Run<\/h3>\n<p>Having gone 13 games without winning, Colchester find themselves in 21st place. The U&#8217;s are nine points clear of the relegation zone, currently occupied by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/01\/grimsby-town-sign-joe-adams-joe-bunney-and-jake-eastwood\/\" target=\"_self\">Grimsby Town<\/a> &#8211; who have a game in hand on Colchester &#8211; and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/30\/ranger-set-for-southend-chance\/\" target=\"_self\">Southend United<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 51-year-old coach, who played for the club twice and took charge of a game as caretaker manager in 2016, was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/28\/colchester-united-appoint-steve-ball-as-their-new-head-coach\/\" target=\"_self\">promoted from his role as assistant coach<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/14\/john-mcgreal-colchester-united-part-company-head-coach\/\" target=\"_self\">John McGreal<\/a> in July 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, they fell short of promotion, making the play-offs, where they lost to Exeter City. Under Ball&#8217;s guidance, Colchester have stumbled a long way down the table and it has been decided that a change is needed.<\/p>\n<h3>Club Statement<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cu-fc.com\/news\/2021\/february\/club-statement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement on the club website<\/a> featured quotes from owner and chairman Robbie Cowling. He said: &#8220;Following the game tonight and a discussion I had with Steve, it was decided that the best way forward was for him to leave his position as head coach.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Steve has been with the club in different capacities for a long time and I would like it placed on record our thanks to him for his hard work and dedication.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The club will make no further comment at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Looking Ahead to What Comes Next<\/h3>\n<p>Colchester did not indicate when an appointment will be made and nor who would take charge for the immediate future, should an appointment not be made promptly.<\/p>\n<p>The U&#8217;s face a trip to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/19\/forest-green-rovers-sign-josh-davison-on-loan\/\" target=\"_self\">Forest Green Rovers<\/a>&#8216; The New Lawn stadium, where they will look to find the winning formula, on Saturday, February 27.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"-A1nYrogT5JdzH53af5hMw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1230866140\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-A1nYrogT5JdzH53af5hMw',sig:'q-ExkEVgJstsqgiZNUbFbVq_DymkOdXCBwC7FW8hPCw=',w:'594px',h:'402px',items:'1230866140',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colchester United head coach Steve Ball has left the club following a 2-1 loss to Exeter City on Tuesday (February 23) night. The League Two side are without a win in 13 games. Steve Ball Leaves Colchester United After 13 Game Winless Run Club Statement. #ColU \u2014 Colchester United FC (@ColU_Official) February 23, 2021 Unacceptable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3469,"featured_media":584808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,32,30],"tags":[2677,520,6192],"class_list":["post-584807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league12","category-league-football","category-news","tag-colchester-united","tag-league-two","tag-steve-ball"],"modified_by":"Jordan Hackett, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}