Matt Bloomfield ‘really enjoyed’ Colchester’s display in draw with Crawley

Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2022 by PA

Matt Bloomfield said he was proud of his Colchester players after they played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with fellow League Two strugglers Crawley.

The U’s led in the 20th minute following Alex Newby’s excellent low 25-yard strike, from Dan Chesters’ short pass.

But Crawley hit back with two goals either side of half-time.

The visitors equalised in the 45th minute when Ashley Nadesan headed in unmarked from George Francomb’s delivery into the box.

Crawley then took the lead 24 seconds into the second half after James Tilley’s close-range strike squirmed past goalkeeper Sam Hornby, following Tom Nichols’ pass.

But the impressive Junior Tchamadeu salvaged a point for Colchester in the 62nd minute when he collected Newby’s pass and ran at the Crawley defence before drilling an excellent low strike inside the near post.

Colchester boss Bloomfield said: “I really enjoyed our performance, apart from maybe five minutes after half-time and five minutes before half-time.

“I thought we were excellent – we had a game plan and the boys executed it.

“We asked them to pass the ball and they did, we used John (Akinde) at the right time and played around him at the right time and there were some really good individual performances.

“I’m really proud of the boys. I genuinely feel like we’re building something and I’m extremely proud of the performance.

“We’ve created some really good scoring opportunities. When I came in, I said I wanted us to play on the front foot and play with energy on the attack.

“In our last two away league games, we’ve not quite done that and been slightly disappointing but we’re putting some building blocks in place. We scored two goals and we could have had a few more.”

Crawley interim boss Lewis Young was pleased with the commitment his side showed, after they extended their unbeaten league run to three matches.

Young said: “We’re fortunate to come out with a point but we’ve shown a different side to us tonight.

“We’ve stood up and battled and we’ve gone away with some real bumps and bruises and there’s definitely positives to take.

“They started the game really well and obviously went 1-0 up.

“We made a couple of tactical changes and got back into the game and finished the first half really, really well.

“We came out of the blocks for the second half on fire again and a few little things were said at half-time which I don’t want to make a habit of.

“It wasn’t just me, it was the players as well and that’s where we started to change.

“I’m just disappointed we haven’t taken the game and carried on but all credit to Colchester – they showed massive fight and we knew it was going to be a really tough game.”