Colchester United U21s were taking on Charlton Athletic U21 on a rainy Friday evening at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Dave Huzzey and Liam Bailey named a starting eleven, which consisted of two trialists, but there were also many familiar faces including Gene Kennedy, Matt Yates, Frankie Terry, Archie Oliver and Oscar Thorn.
Despite the visitors registering the first shot on target of the match after three minutes, it was the U’s who took the lead just four minutes later through one of the trialists. Hakeem Sandah picked the ball up twenty yards away from goal before unleashing a powerful low effort that smashed against the post with the trialist alert and tapping the ball in.
Minutes later, Colchester should have extended their lead through the same trialist but this time he put the ball over the crossbar following some neat build-up play from Oliver and Yates.
Thorn then showed off with some good dribbling when he drove in from the right flank with twenty-five minutes gone, but his low effort was cleared off the line by a defender.
This trend continued throughout the first half, with Huzzey’s men eventually extending their lead. Yates delivered a brilliant cross from the left flank, which was turned in by Seydil Toure for an own goal.
The U’s were in a goal-scoring mood and Oliver added a third four minutes before half-time. Sandah sent in a powerful cross, which was converted by Oliver from twelve yards with the midfielder hitting the ball first time.
Luckily for the visitors, there wasn’t much time left afterwards with the referee bringing a brilliant half of Colchester football to an end.
The second half began with much more scrappiness, which saw the visitors receive two yellow cards in the first ten minutes - both challenges prevented the U’s from quickly moving up the pitch.
With intensity also dropping, Huzzey opted for his first change after an hour with Kaleel Green replacing Thorn.
Unfortunately, despite some fresh legs, it was the visitors who managed to find the back of the net after sixty-seven minutes. A good low strike from Kai Enslin beat Collins who managed to get his fingertips to it, but it wasn’t enough.
The visitors then began to pile on pressure and had two good chances to reduce the deficit further, but Collins showed off with a couple of decent saves.
However, with ten minutes to go, Charlton ensured a nervy ending thanks to Pat Casey’s effort from the edge of the box.
The U’s didn’t seem stressed and took matters into their own hands, all but settling the nerves with two minutes to go when the trialist scored his second after turning in the box and unleashing a low effort.
Huzzey then opted for his final changes with Harry Beadle and Kenny Mupomba replacing the goal-scoring trialist and Sandah.
There wasn’t much time for anything else with the U’s securing a 4-2 victory following a battling second half performance.
Colchester United Starting XI: 1. Collins, 3. Yates, 4. Lowe, 5. Nelson, 6. Terry (C), 7. Oliver (Aman, 76’), 8. Sandah (Beadle, 88’), 9. Trialist (Mupomba, 88’), 10. Thorn (Green, 60’), 11. Trialist, 14. Kennedy
Unused subs: Sexton
