HUMES DELIGHT AT SUPER U’S
IT WAS an outcome few neutrals would have predicted beforehand but Colchester produced their performance of the season to-date.
After guiding his relegation-threatened Colchester United side to a shock success over the league leaders, Tony Humes is hoping this result will be the catalyst for them to climb away from trouble.
The U’s had won only three home league games all season, prior to the visit of a table-topping Bristol City side who had lost only three times on the road.
But first-half goals from Tom Lapslie, Macauley Bonne and Chris Porter gave Colchester the perfect platform.
And although James Tavernier and Aden Flint netted in the second half for the Robins, the U’s held on for a precious win which has lifted them out of the bottom four.
Humes said: “Beating the best team in the league has got to give us confidence and belief.
“We just have to feed off that for the rest of the season and say ‘we can do it’.
“We scored three really good goals and I was really pleased with the way we played.
“We urged the players to be brave and get on the ball and pass it more than perhaps we have done over recent games and they got their just rewards with what they did.
“Credit to the players, because they thoroughly deserved their win and the fans were great from start to finish and really got behind us.”
Bristol City boss Steve Cotterill admitted his side’s poor start to the game cost them dear.
He said: “We did not start for 30 minutes and that cost us – we didn’t turn up in the first half.
“We tried to play football too much on a poor pitch and we had the ball nicked off us a couple of times for the goals.
“We tried to pass the ball and it’s not a pitch to pass on.
“We should have been a bit brighter than that but we weren’t and we didn’t learn our lesson.
“It (playing a side near the bottom) was not more challenging; it was our own fault and we’re disappointed with our own performance.”
Colchester made a dream start when Lapslie nodded them into a third-minute lead, after Bristol City goalkeeper Frank Fielding had failed to hold onto Elliott Hewitt’s cross.
And 11 minutes later, Bonne doubled the U’s advantage when he brilliantly headed home Matt Briggs’ fine delivered cross.
Wade Elliott struck a post for Bristol City soon after but Porter made it 3-0 in the 26th minute with a precise shot from Hewitt’s pass.
The visitors reduced the deficit when Tavernier’s fluke effort from just inside the Colchester half flew in, five minutes after the break.
And after Flint nodded in Korey Smith’s cross just after the hour, the Robins went all out for an equaliser. But a determined Colchester side stood firm to register a surprise win and boost their survival hopes.
COLCHESTER: Walker 7, Clohessy 8, Eastman 8, Wynter 8, Briggs 8, Hewitt 8 (Moncur 67 6), Gilbey 8, Lapslie 9 (Marriott 90 N/A), Massey 8, Porter 8, Bonne 8. Subs not used: Gordon, Harney, Sembie-Ferris, Healey, Lewington.
BRISTOL: Fielding 5, Ayling 4 (Little 31 6), Flint 6, Williams 5, Tavernier 6, Bryan 6, K Smith 6, Elliott 6, Freeman 6, Emmanuel-Thomas 4 (Agard 46 5), M Smith 5 (Wilberham 62 6) Subs not used: Richards, Wagstaff, Cunningham, Pack.