A stoppage-time equaliser from Elliott Nevitt saw Colchester United and Crewe Alexandra both get the point to avoid relegation and secure their play-off spot respectively at the Colchester Community Stadium yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 2 changes from last Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat against Wrexham with Chris Long and Shilow Tracey coming into the team for Josh Austerfield and Aaron Rowe, who both dropped down to the bench where they were joined by Courtney Baker-Richardson who returned after injury.
The game’s opening chance came in the 14th minute with Fevrier forcing Alex keeper Max Stryjek into a save before Read would do the same 3 minutes later. The hosts would take the lead 10 minutes before the break as Noah Chilvers would take the ball past Ryan Cooney (available for this game after his red card against Wrexham was rescinded), beat Joel Tabiner before beating Stryjek into the bottom corner with Matus Holicek having a shot saved at the other end.
After a double change at the break which saw Long and Holicek replaced by Austerfield and Rowe, Rio Adebisi would get the ball in the Colchester area but would fire his effort over. Nevitt would have an effort from 30 yards on the turn on 76 minutes before Demetriou would turn a header goalwards but Sam Hornby would save his effort. The Alex would level in the second minute of stoppage time as a move down the left saw Kirk exchange passes with Tabiner with the substitute’s low cross turned in at the near post by Nevitt at the second attempt.
The next couple of games see the Alex host Doncaster Rovers a week on Monday (6th May, 5:30 pm) before travelling to face the same opposition the following Friday (10th, 8 pm) with the winners advancing to the play-off final at Wembley on Sunday 19th May with a 1 pm kick-off.
Final Thoughts:
Both teams ended up with the result that they needed going into the game with neither team needing to get a result thanks to results going their way elsewhere.
Onto the Doncaster games, we’ll have another week of training for players like CBR, Tracey and Long who have missed recent games while we may have another body or two so that the squad isn’t stretched as much as it has been.
Colchester Community Stadium
League 2
27/04/2024 4:00 pm
Attendance: 6491
Referee: Lewis Smith
| Colchester United | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chilvers | Nevitt | ||||||
| Hornby | Stryjek | ||||||
| Mingi | Cooney | 81 | |||||
| Kelleher | Williams | ||||||
| Hall | Demetriou | ||||||
| Iandolo | Adebisi | ||||||
| McGeehan | Billington | ||||||
| Read | Holicek | 46 | |||||
| Fevrier | Tabiner | ||||||
| Hopper | Tracey | 71 | |||||
| Chilvers | Nevitt | ||||||
| Akinde | 68 | Long | 46 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Goodman | Lenarcik | ||||||
| Jay | Baker-Richardson | 71 | |||||
| Wilkinson | Rowe | 46 | |||||
| Harbottle | Finney | ||||||
| Richardson | Austerfield | 46 | |||||
| Cooper | Kirk | 81 | |||||
| Ihionvien | Agius | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 15 | Goal attempts | 9 |
| 5 | On Target | 5 |
| 2 | Corners | 3 |
| 7 | Fouls | 12 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 42 | % | 58 |