Matt Bloomfield proud of battling Colchester after Swindon victory

Posted Monday, January 02, 2023 by PA

Matt Bloomfield was proud of his Colchester players after they beat promotion-chasing Swindon 1-0 to boost their Sky Bet League Two survival hopes.

Luke Hannant grabbed the only goal after 30 minutes, rising to head home Al-Amin Kazeem’s corner at the near post to leave Bloomfield’s side five points above the relegation zone.

Boss Bloomfield said: “I’m really proud of the boys and the way they went about their business, of our endeavour and the togetherness we showed.

“We know that Swindon are a possession-based team and I really respect the way they go about their business.

“I really like their coaching staff, they’re good people but we obviously set ourselves up to nullify that as much as we could but to also offer a threat on the counter-attack.

“On another day, I think we could have had three or four goals.

“We made a slow start and that’s certainly not how we wanted to go about it.

“But as the half wore on, we got more comfortable with our shape.

“We were too flat as a five in the first 15 minutes but then we got our wing-backs high and we got pressure on and when we nicked it, we hit them on the counter.”

Both goalkeepers were in fine form, with Swindon’s Sol Brynn brilliantly denying Noah Chilvers in the first half and then making saves from Hannant, Kazeem and Samson Tovide, while Colchester shot-stopper Kieran O’Hara foiled Fraser Blake-Tracy, Tyrese Shade and substitute Jacob Wakeling’s header from point-blank range.

Jonny Williams’ near-post header clipped the crossbar for Swindon in the closing stages, but it was a frustrating defeat for the visitors.

Swindon boss Scott Lindsey said: “It was really disappointing. I felt we were slow and ponderous with the ball.

“They got their goal and we found it hard all afternoon. We huffed and puffed and couldn’t break them down but equally, they had a lot of chances as well.

“We’ve got to start the game brighter.

“This is a game we should have won and a game we could have attacked more aggressively, certainly in the opening encounters, and we didn’t.

“When you go a goal down against anybody, no matter where they are in the table, it becomes hard and that gave them the leg up and it became a difficult afternoon for us.

“We didn’t deal with the straight ball down the middle and then they slung two corners in after that.

“If we deal with the straight ball down the middle, I don’t think that happens.

“I haven’t seen the penalty incidents back so I’d like to see them back before I comment on them.”