McGreal hails Colchester’s character

John McGreal was delighted with the character his Colchester side showed after they recovered from the shock of conceding early to beat high-flying Newport 3-1.

After Tristan Abrahams had given the Exiles a fifth-minute lead, the Us roared back to win.

Colchester equalised in the 33rd minute when Ryan Jackson’s deflected shot from the edge of the area sailed in.

Ben Stevenson curled a superb shot past Tom King from Cohen Bramall’s pass and Colchester wrapped up an impressive victory with 15 minutes remaining when Bramall found Courtney Senior, who slammed past King at his near post.

Us boss McGreal said: “I thought that we showed a lot of endeavour and character, after going behind after a few minutes – after what happened last week (losing 1-0 to Morecambe) we could have easily folded.

“We didn’t though – we got a goal back and we kept going, getting into the final third and getting our shots away so credit to the boys.

“We’ve got to get back to what we’re trying to do. We were really disappointed last week and like every team, we pride ourselves on our home record.

“Generally over the years that I’ve been here, we’ve had a really good home record. We let ourselves and the fans down (against Morecambe) and we had to bounce back.

“When you’re coming away from the top-of-the-league side (Crewe) and the fifth-in-the-league side and picking four points up, it gives you that foundation to keep moving forward.”

Newport made a dream start when Abrahams ran onto Padraig Amond’s pass and slotted in.

But the Exiles were largely second best after that, as they lost for the first time in seven league games.

Newport manager Michael Flynn said: “It’s tough to take because we didn’t deserve anything.

“Colchester deserved to win and there’s not much more that you can say about it.

“I don’t get carried away when we win and I’m definitely not getting carried away when we lose. We lost to the better team.

“We gave it a go – everything started well for us but they deserved to win. It’s a tough place for us to come but it is what it is.

“We were too deep and we gave them too much space.

“In the first half they had so many free shots on the edge of our area, which is very unlike us, so that goes to show how deep we were.

“Their first goal was fortunate and took a big deflection but their second and third goals, there’s a chance they could be saved but I’ll have to have a look at them.”