McGreal praises belief of Colchester players after victory over Stevenage
Posted Sunday, October 06, 2019 by PA
Colchcester head coach John McGreal believes his side’s second-half recovery in their 3-1 win over bottom club Stevenage shows the belief that currently exists within the squad.
The U’s moved to within a point of the Sky Bet League Two play-off places, having trailed at half-time at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Stevenage took a 17th-minute lead when Jason Cowley’s shot from the edge of the area hit Luke Prosser and flew in.
But Colchester equalised in the 48th minute through Tom Eastman, who nodded in Theo Robinson’s cross at the far post, after Stevenage had not properly cleared Cohen Bramall’s free-kick.
Luke Norris hit a post before Colchester took an 82nd-minute lead through Frank Nouble, who converted a penalty after being fouled by keeper Paul Farman in the area.
And Kwame Poku sealed the U’s victory a minute later, converting Nouble’s pass from two yards.
McGreal said: “We came from behind to win and I hadn’t realised that we haven’t done that for a long time.
“It’s nice to see and it shows you where the belief is and where the boys are at this moment in time.
“Half-time was really measured because we knew that we had played well in the first half.
“We had nine or 10 shots at their goal and we just felt we needed to keep doing the same thing as we’d been doing.
“We’ve gone brave today – we’ve got injuries and there’s no getting around that but I thought Jacko (Ryan Jackson) was magnificent in his recovery to come back and perform.
“When you have the three lads in attack who are experienced, you know you’re going to create chances for the forwards. That’s the thing we’ve been working on all week and we got our rewards in the second half.”
Stevenage caretaker manager Mark Sampson revealed his disappointment following the defeat.
He said: “It was a massively and hugely disappointing result. We were exactly where we wanted to be in the first half.
“We came to a difficult place and quietened the crowd and controlled the game.
“We scored a good goal and came in at half-time feeling like we were the team in control of the game and if any team was going to score, it looked like it might be us.
“But we can’t start the second half in that manner – we said at half-time that Colchester were going to come out with a high tempo.
“We gave the ball away in a bad area, suddenly they’re on the counter-attack and we don’t defend the set-piece well.
“The players got some control back but then we made some bad decisions and concede a penalty and you can’t concede another goal straight away in that manner like that, because the game’s over.”
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