John McGreal frustrated as Colchester held

Posted Thursday, January 02, 2020 by PA

Colchester head coach John McGreal could not hide his frustration after the 1-1 draw with Crawley.

The promotion-chasing U’s had taken the lead in the 64th minute through Frank Nouble but the Reds rescued a point eight minutes later when Luke Prosser turned into his own net under pressure from Ollie Palmer.

Colchester stayed sixth in League Two after the draw and McGreal said: “We’re frustrated we didn’t win.

“It wasn’t a great spectacle and the pitch has got no life in it at the minute.

“We got a good goal and you’re hoping that you can build on it and possibly go for two but I just felt at times that we possibly came off it a little bit.

“It was a poor goal to give away.

“We put on the board every week to stop crosses which is what division two is about and we haven’t done that. The cross came into the box and we didn’t stop it or defend it and the lad has bundled it in at the back post.

“We scored a really good goal and it got us on the front foot but there’s still so many more minutes to go.

“We wanted to get more goals but they changed it and we gave away a poor goal.”

Crawley have lost only one of their last six matches and boss John Yems was pleased with the draw.

He said: “If you come away from any game and get a point you’re happy.

“We went 1-0 down and we could have crumbled but we didn’t.

“You study good managers and successful coaches in the past and the first thing is that you don’t lose.

“On the back of that, you’d like to think that you try and play football which you try and do but on the back of that, you have to be sturdy and sometimes do the ugly stuff and mix it.

“We’re far off being a good side but the lads are responding to everything that we’ve shown in them and let’s hope we carry on.

“We want to make the teams that play us think that there’s no easy game.

“It’s all experience but you show respect to everybody because they’re professional footballers.

“We have to go and do our best to be better than they are.”