Colchester United recorded a fantastic victory on the road with a 2-1 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor in what was to be the U’s first ever-away win in the Championship.
Colchester started the match lining up in a 4-4-2 formation, with new signing Kevin McLeod beginning his U’s career on the substitutes bench.
The U’s started brightly and within a minute had had their first attempt on goal, Chris Iwelumo knocked down a pass from Chris Barker for Jamie Cureton, who fired into the keepers arms from 30-yards.
Burnley`s first shot of the game came on six minutes with James O`Connor feeding Kyle Lafferty, however his shot from just inside the box did nothing to trouble Aidan Davison.
Burnley were on top and kept possession well with the Claret’s highly rated Alan Mahon pulling the strings in midfield. However the U’s defence held firm, which was to set the precedent for the rest of the game.
Burnley had been pressurising the U’s, and the Clarets had Right Back Frank Sinclair pushing forward on a regular basis.
Colchester went ahead on 25 minutes, Kevin Watson started and finished the move collecting the ball in the middle of the pitch playing the ball to Jamie Cureton on the right. Cureton returned the ball to Watson who had continued his run, arriving at the far post to tuck the ball past Clarets keeper Brian Jensen with his left foot.
Burnley`s fans raised the volume after the re-start and Burnley proceeded to maintain possession with Karl Laffety looking particularly dangerous in and around the box.
Burnley were finding it hard to break down Colchester’s defiant defence, who reduced them to long-range efforts.
Colchester scored their second of the game just ten minutes into the second half. Greg Halford, who had moved into central midfield after an earlier injury to Kem Izzet, broke up a Burnley attack, Halford ran the ball into the box and played a 1-2 with Chris Iwelumo, however the return pass found Richard Garcia who was brought down for a penalty, the referee taking a long time before consulting his assistant and pointing to the spot.
Chris Iwelumo stepped up to put the U’s 2-0 up sending the home custodian the wrong way.
Burnley’s confidence had taken a battering; however they still looked like threatening the U’s, with keeper Aidan Davison having to react the quickest to palm away a Gifton Noel-Williams shot round the post, before defender John McGreal fired over from the resulting corner.
Colchester Manager Geriant Williams then changed to a 4-5-1 formation after new signing Kevin McLeod came on for Jamie Cureton.
With the U`s adopting a more defensive stance, Burnley managed to half the deficit, another cross into the U’s box was not dealt with and Andy Gray rose highest to head the ball home.
Burnley continued putting the U’s under pressure in what was a nervous four minutes of added time for the U’s fans however Colchester held out to record their second win of the season and their first away from home.
Manager Rating
After conceding three goals at Home against Derby, it was imperative the U’s were solid defensively and that is just what they were.
Manager Williams had asked that his team learn from the mistakes that had cost them dear in the first month of the season, it is obvious that his players have taken this onboard, and have started to hurt teams in the same manner as the likes of Birmingham, Plymouth and Barnsley had done the month previous.
