COLCHESTER United boss Phil Parkinson praised his players for another performance of “great character” to sink former giants Nottingham Forest at Layer Road.

By Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United boss Phil Parkinson praised his players for another performance of “great character” to sink former giants Nottingham Forest at Layer Road.

The U's shrugged off the heartache of conceding a 90th minute equaliser, having dominated this League One encounter, to seal a deserved 3-1 victory via injury-time strikes from Mark Yeates and Richard Garcia.

“We nearly threw it away at the end, but once again I cannot speak highly enough of the character in this squad,” enthused Parkinson.

“Everyone in the ground thought that their goal (from Nathan Tyson) was offside. But our heads didn't go down and we stayed positive.

“There were some very tired legs out there, because Saturday's excellent win at Brentford had taken a lot out of us. But Mark (Yeates) then came up with a quality goal, and Richard (Garcia) made sure with his terrific goal.

“I must give a special mention to Richard. He worked tirelessly for the team. It's very difficult when you are in-and-out of the side. He was very keen to impress, and although it didn't really work for him in the first-half, he came good in the second.

“Karl (Duguid) was another one who came in and did a good job, after spending a lot of time on the bench this season. I was looking to players like Richard and Karl to come into the side and inject some fresh legs into our play.

“Sam (Stockley) was unlucky to be dropped at Brentford, but he was back to his best in the second-half today.

“We've ended up scoring three quality goals. The first from Neil (Danns) was a very special goal. It was an unbelievable strike. What a goal!

“I think we deserved the win, and it would have been an injustice if we had not taken all three points,” added Parkinson.

His opposite number Gary Megson accused his players of “chucking away” a precious point, in what was only the third-ever meeting between these two clubs - the first two fixtures were both during the Christmas period of 1950, in the old Division Three South.

Forest boss Megson blasted: “I'm very angry. When you score an equaliser so late in the game, like we did, you should be looking to come off with a 1-1 draw and then wait to see how other teams fared.

“Yet a lack of concentration cost us this result. We chucked away a point with some nonsense defending, especially for their second goal. It was just a big hoof forward which we didn't clear, and our keeper was then on his heels.

“Colchester are doing, well, so this was always going to be a hard game. But it was unbelievable what happened at the end. It was bad defending.”