Wayne Brown hails Colchester for ‘weathering the storm’ against Carlisle

Posted Wednesday, March 03, 2021 by PA

Colchester interim first-team coach Wayne Brown saluted his side’s character after they beat Carlisle 2-1 to claim their first win in 15 matches.

The U’s had fallen behind to Jon Mellish’s 29th-minute strike, a low shot that beat goalkeeper Shamal George after the hosts had failed to clear a Carlisle corner.

But Colchester equalised in the 67th minute through Callum Harriott, who converted from the spot after Frank Nouble had been fouled by Dean Furman in the area.

And Colchester bagged their winner seven minutes later when Harriott collected Tommy Smith’s pass and scored with a superb 25-yard strike to secure a much-needed win.

Brown said: “We had to weather the storm and we knew that they were going to come out of the blocks and they’ve blown teams away this season in the first 20 to 25 minutes of games and found themselves a couple of goals up.

“We knew that it was going to be a tough shift in the first half but I thought the lads showed a lot of character being 1-0 down.

“It’s really pleasing but what pleased me more was the second-half performance when the game opened up.

“We then had a little bit of character and confidence to pass the ball and we used the width really well and had runners without the ball.

“We had a couple of good opportunities which we should have put away but just before we scored the second goal, Sham (George) makes a fantastic save and that’s as good as a goal.”

Carlisle thought they had won a penalty early in the second half following Omar Sowunmi’s challenge on Josh Kayode but referee Trevor Kettle overturned the decision.

Kettle did the same thing in the second half, after Colchester’s Jevani Brown went down in the area.

Carlisle boss Chris Beech said: “I’m amazed we don’t get the opportunity to take a penalty at 1-0 to make it two.

“The keeper (Shamal George) pulls off a great save on Jon Riley just before that when he tips it onto the post and we had some good opportunities that we struck well and it was great to see Brennan (Dickenson) striking that ball clean.

“Their keeper answered those questions and we’re in control – we’re winning games but not winning them so we have to deal with that better.

“We have to support each other as a group of people and deal with it.

“In a 12-round boxing match, the first six rounds were very good but seven, eight and nine we’re on our back foot after taking one in the chops and the lads are struggling to wobble those cheeks and get back at the simple things because if we do that, we win.”