Colchester United boss John McGreal admitted that he thoroughly “enjoyed” his side’s terrific 3-0 home win over Cheltenham Town this afternoon, although he refused to pick his favourite goal of the match.
Kane Vincent-Young, Frank Nouble and Abo Eisa were all on the scoresheet as the U’s returned to the top seven. And they were all goals of the highest quality.
“I really enjoyed it, and I hope that the fans did too,” enthused McGreal.
“It’s been a long time in coming, getting back to winning ways at home, since early December, although there were a lot of good things in our last home match against Mansfield (3-2 defeat).
“I thought all three of our goals were excellent.
“Kane (Vincent-Young) took the ball from his own half and hit it so well, while Frank (Nouble) did a step-over and fired into the top corner.
“Courtney Senior skipped past three or four defenders before showing his maturity to lay off the ball for (Abo) Eisa to score, so they were all great goals.
“It’s not for me to choose the best goal of the lot,” added McGreal.
The opening goal was a stunner, arriving midway through the first half.
- Colchester United 3 Cheltenham Town 0. Match report and pictures
Vincent-Young advanced from the half-way line on a surging run through the middle and, after advancing about 15 yards, he let fly with a thunderous long-range shot which flew like a bullet past a dazed Scott Flinders.
After going 31 games without a goal this season, left-back Vincent-Young therefore celebrated his second goal in as many matches, following his clinical strike at Northampton (4-0 away win) the previous weekend.
Nouble also made it two goals in two matches, when he doubled the U’s lead with another superb goal in the 42nd minute.
Sammie Szmodics laid the ball into Nouble’s path, on the left-edge of the penalty area, and the big striker cut inside a defender before crashing home an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net, from 15 yards out.
Eisa followed suit with his second goal in successive weekends, in the 55th minute, to make it 3-0.
Senior did all the groundwork, beating several defenders on a mazy run inside the box before unselfishly sliding the ball across for Eisa to divert home from close-in.
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