Crawley Town 1 Colchester United 1

Chris Porter rescued a point for Colchester United with a superb late finish, at Crawley Town tonight.

The U’s had suffered a 1-0 defeat at Crawley, in the Checkatrade Trophy last month, and they seemed to be heading for the same result in West Sussex.

However, substitute Porter obliged with a delightful finish, lifting his shot into the roof of the net in the 88th minute to secure a deserved point for the visitors.

Adi Yussuf had nudged the Red Devils ahead in the 19th minute.

Yussuf made the U’s pay for some hesitancy in their back-line to break the deadlock in an otherwise subdued first period.

Poor communication between right-back Richard Brindley and Sam Walker enabled Yussuf to pounce onto James Collins’ lofted pass and steer the ball beyond a stranded Walker, from close-in.

On loan from League Two rivals Mansfield, Tanzanian 24-year-old Yussuf had scored his first goal for the Red Devils at Morecambe just three days earlier, as well as setting up the other two goals in a 3-2 win.

The U’s improved in the second half, and bombarded the Crawley goal at times, before Porter slammed home a late equaliser.

Squads

CRAWLEY: Morris, Young, Connolly, McNerney, Blackman, Smith, Djalo, Yussuf (sub Banton, 63), Clifford (sub Davey, 53), Boldewijn, Collins. Unused subs: Mersin, Arthur, Yorwerth, Bawling, Tajbakhsh.

COLCHESTER: Walker, Brindley (sub Vincent-Young, 63), Prosser, Eastman, Kinsella, Slater, Guthrie, Wright, Szmodics, Fosu (sub Sembie-Ferris, 71), Johnstone (sub Porter, 70). Unused subs: Bransgrove, Wynter, Kamara, James.

Referee: Andy Haines (Tyne & Wear)

Attendance: 1,851