The Red Devils picked up another point in their fight for survival this evening against a strong Colchester side. Neither side found the target on the night, but both teams had chances to find what would have been the winning goal. Crawley’s best chance came in the first half, with Aramide Oteh striking the post in the early stages.
Crawley survived an early scare at the Broadfield Stadium, as a long throw-in from the visitors almost found its way into the back of the net. The ball was met at the near post by a Crawley man but was sliced awkwardly and flew past Corey Addai. Fortunately, there was a body on the line to smash the ball to safety.
Aramide Oteh was once again looking promising in attack, and the striker had a shot strike the post in the 16th minute of the match. It was a very intricate piece of play from Crawley as Tilley and Telford linked up. The latter found Oteh on the edge of the box, who sent a curling effort towards goal. The post came to Colchester’s rescue on this occasion.
Telford flashed an effort just past the post a few moments later after the Reds capitalised on a defensive mistake. Tilley’s low-driven cross found Telford in space, but the strike could not find the target on this occasion.
Colchester had a couple of decent chances at the half-hour mark. The visiting side had a header bounce off of the crossbar from a corner after a man broke free at the far post. Noah Chilvers blasted a free-kick well over the bar a few moments later from a dangerous area.
The half-time whistle soon sounded to end a fairly positive half for the Red Devils. Chances were created for both sides, but the finishing touches were yet to be found by either team.
Colchester introduced Samson Tovide at the interval, and the substitute almost made an instant impact by opening the scoring, but Addai was on hand to make a brilliant save. Tovide found himself with space to shoot on the edge of the box and looked to have found the bottom corner, but Corey was on hand to tip the effort around the post.
The game was beginning to heat up at the hour mark. Both sides looked to be leaving nothing in the tank with flat-out counter-attacks. On separate occasions, Dion Conroy and Anthony Grant made crucial tackles to deny Colchester clear goalscoring opportunities.
Ben Gladwin and Tom Fellows were introduced in the next ten minutes to add some fresh legs to Crawley’s attack.
The next twenty minutes were incredibly tense, with either side looking like they could nick all three points. Some ugly football was played, but eventually, the full-time whistle ended the game. The point probably favoured Colchester more than it did the Red Devils, but with Hartlepool losing at Salford, the Reds still maintained a gap to the bottom two.
REDS XI: Addai, Johnson, Ransom, Conroy, Tsaroulla, Tilley (Fellows 70’), Powell, Grant, Oteh, Nadesan, Telford (Gladwin 63’)
Attendance: 2849 (445 away)
