THE luck of the Irish was shining on Mark Yeates last night, as his deflected cross-cum-shot earned Colchester United a welcome 1-1 draw at Southampton.

By Carl Marston

THE luck of the Irish was shining on Mark Yeates last night, as his deflected cross-cum-shot earned Colchester United a welcome 1-1 draw at Southampton.

However, this was no lucky result for the U's, who were well worth their point. In fact, Yeates insisted that they should have taken all three.

The Dubliner rammed home his third goal of the campaign in the 58th minute, to cancel out an opening goal from Saints striker Bradley Wright-Phillips just six minutes earlier.

“It may have taken a deflection, but I'm claiming the goal. It was my goal, and you're not going to take that away from me,” said Yeates.

“I just hit it with power and it went in. It was important that we struck back early, after Southampton scored, and we did just that. We hit them early.

“We deserved the point. It was not a poached point, and after a quick chat with the gaffer (Geraint Williams), we agreed that we're frustrated that we didn't nick all three.

“We have a strong squad and we are coming to places like Southampton and giving these teams a really good game.

“Now we just need to turn all these draws (four in six games) into wins. We're playing well, but I feel we should be even further up the league,” added Yeates.

Manager Williams said: “Southampton didn't hurt us much in the first half, but I felt we could have expressed ourselves better in possession, which we managed in the second half.

“I thought the response after going a goal down was magnificent, and we looked the most likely winners after the equaliser. We were on top, so we're slightly disappointed not to take all three points.”