Colchester 1 St Neots 0

Premier B

Colchester 1 St Neots 0

Colchester got back to winning ways with a hard fought victory against newly promoted St Neots.

Colchester went into the match with the bare eleven players as injuries and illnesses hit the side.

Craig Warriner and Mark Harris were both missing after picking up injuries in training on Wednesday night, but still Colchester were hopeful that the side they put out would be strong enough to take the points.

It was Colchester that had the first meaningful chance of the match as Rohan Khaira got his shot off under pressure, which lead to the first penalty corner of the match, Matt Low firing just wide.

The first half remained tight and neither side had too many chances to speak of, however Colchester almost ended the half a goal to the good.

Will Devitt did well to pick the ball up on the left wing before playing in Lloyd Dennis. Dennis drove into the D before being fouled for another penalty corner for the home side. Khaira took the shot this time and was unlucky to see it cleared off the line.

Colchester looked for more of the same in the second half as they controlled most of the play in the first half without seeing any real end product.

It was Devitt that had the first chance of the second half, with his reverse stick shot going just over the bar.

Colchester continued to control the game and were unlucky not to have had two penalty strokes.

A low penalty corner was saved and the resulting follow up by Rob Mann was blocked on the line by a St Neots body. The umpire, originally giving a stroke, downgraded it to another penalty corner.

Then Khaira made a good run into the D and was seemingly fouled at least three times before an infringement was seen by the umpire, who again only gave a penalty corner.

Colchester were then lucky not to go behind as Mark Kennedy dribbled the ball across his own D straight onto the stick of an attacker, who could only fire his shot wide.

Colchester then got the goal that their efforts deserved. Some patient build up play saw the ball travel from left to right, finally finding Kennedy just outside the 25.

Kennedy fired a pass to the top of the D where Rob Mann swept the ball into the bottom corner with around ten minutes to go.

Colchester had further chances through Mann and Devitt but couldn't quite find the goal that would kill off the game.

There was still time for Michael Pearce to give away a St Neots penalty corner, which Liam Phillips saved well down low to his right.

Mark Thorogood was the Hills Residential man of the match for his consistent hard work in the middle of the park.