John McGreal urges Colchester to remain grounded after Newport win
Posted Sunday, March 10, 2019 by PA
John McGreal has urged his play-off chasing Colchester United team to stay grounded despite their convincing 3-0 triumph over Newport County.
The U’s moved up to sixth in League Two after they ran out comfortable winners at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Colchester took a 20th-minute lead through Sammie Szmodics, who prodded home after Ryan Jackson had helped on Frank Nouble’s lofted pass in the area.
Courtney Senior doubled the hosts’ lead in first-half stoppage-time with a superb 25-yard shot.
Former Newport attacker Nouble wrapped up the U’s win in the 63rd minute with a magnificent solo effort which saw him bamboozle Newport left-back Dan Butler before curling a great shot into the far corner.
Colchester head coach McGreal said: “It was a good performance against a good, strong team in this division.
“We’ve scored some really good goals but it’s three points – that’s all it is.
“We can’t get carried away – it’s three points against a very strong team in this division.
“That’s the most pleasing thing, that we’ve been able to combat them and also implement our own game.
“We’ve been in and around it after good wins before and we have to back it up.
“It was a tough defeat for us at Swindon last week but you can’t get too high with wins and too low with defeats.
“We’re a young team and we’re still learning.”
McGreal had special praise for Senior, who was outstanding and caused Newport problems throughout.
“Courtney was one of the players who played at a high, high level,” added McGreal.
“He was a constant thorn in their side.
“We put him out on the left – (Dan) Butler’s a big player for them and we thought we’d switch Noubs over.”
Newport manager Michael Flynn admits his side were second best.
He said: “We started quite brightly and it was pretty even but then we got outplayed.
“We made the wrong choice with Jamille (Matt) in the second minute when he shot into the side netting when he should have squared it.
“It was handball for their first goal but that didn’t cost us the game. It didn’t cost us the match because I thought they were very good and we looked way off it.
“The players are capable of so much more – they looked very flat again and we got outplayed.
“I won’t make any excuses. I thought Colchester were well worthy of the three points.
“It was my second-year anniversary as Newport manager but you win some, you lose some – you might even draw some.
“I’m just trying to win as many games as we can between now and the end of the season and see where it takes us.”
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